If you wondering what happens with your New Year’s Resolution – we give you 7 reasons why you’re not consistent in the gym.

1. You don’t truly count The Gym among your priorities. That’s why you are not consistent in the gym.

Think of anytime someone calls you for a coffee, shopping, gaming (yes, I know it’s not fair to compare it but all of them are time-consuming). 

And the ugly truth I know about time is that we have only 24 hours a day of it. The good news is that is always there. You just need to know your priorities. So, if you have a must-do time for sleeping, eating, working, you should get Fitness on that List too. Otherwise, your “pumping the iron“, “squeezing the gluts” or whatever you are calling it would be fruitless, your dream body and superpowers – a mirage.

To make it clear if you want to have a fit body, strength, and energy – you must ensure enough of your time for that to become a reality. There is a huge difference between wanting something and getting there. It takes pro-activity.

2. You are more focused on your Goals instead of the Process

The goal will do nothing by itself. Most probably it could even overwhelm you. But I don’t say to decrease the goal. Nope, you should not decrease the goal, you should increase the efforts. All it takes is consistent and well-planned efforts.

“If you fail to prepare, you’re prepared to fail”

These immortal words of the nine-time Olympic champion Mark Spitz couldn’t be more relevant to almost any beginning.

The Goal:

Usually, it starts like this. A man or a woman out of shape with say 25% body fat and some spinal issues come to me with: “Hi, I’m This & That, I haven’t practiced almost any physical activity before, but I heard you are good, so could we “cut off” the belly and some 15-20kg in one or two months?”

The Process:

And I begin explaining that I’m not the Personal Trainer who can promise him/her more than anyone else can actually give. It doesn’t work like that. I don’t work like that. And if after half an hour of talking I do not find the right mind; I don’t even try looking for the muscles. But most of the time people do realize if their targets are realistic or overwhelming.

What do we do after we get that straight?

• We make a plan (you see it in the next chapter) and calculate their calorie intake. Feel free to use our Fitness Calculator. It’s free and it always will be.
• We break down the target into several blocks and start pursuing them one by one
• We set a Nutrition Plan to be followed
• A Training Plan is attached to that in the course of the week as well
• We focus on the process which will bring him/her daily goal achievement.

It’s a win-win story you reach your goals faster and that motivates you further

3. No Plan – Not Consistent in the Gym

You better have a bad plan instead of no plan at all. 

You saw that I have a structure even when I’m trying to explain and convince someone about the need to have a plan. Then we are led by the plan that I have made as a Fitness Expert. With every individual, I pursue our training plan and our Nutrition Plan. It’s not enough to have the force, you also need to give it a direction, steps to follow, milestones to reach.

Can you imagine you can have a plan for your work, for a vacation, you could plan a repair or some simple weekend activities, but you have not a plan for your body transformation? How would that be possible?!

And a fat loss of 10 kg in 2 months is not a plan, and if you split it in 5kg a month it’s still not a plan.

I’ll give you few examples:

For my Marathon in November my plan is to:

1. Run twice a week 8 to 10 km
2. Run long distance 20+ km once every 2 weeks
3. Do one stationary cardio a day for 40 min non-aerobic – bicycle, ecliptic
4. Be consistent in the gym by doing 30min daily routines.

Another example – for my website, I plan to:

1. Write and research at least 3 hours a day (Sunday, Monday)
2. Work on SEO of the website for 2 hours (Tuesday)
3. Work on its functionality 3-4 hours (Wednesday)

For my learning goals I plan to:

1. Create 2 programs and evaluate them bimonthly by different types of mini-tests in a workout mode and physical fitness 
2. Study English twice a week for 2 hours (Tuesday and Thursday)
3. Read Books as much as I can, but not less than 3 hours (Sunday or Saturday)

4. You do the gym, yoga, jogging, etc. in-between

Quite often I hear “I’m going to the gym and I’m using the time to listen to podcasts too or watch the last episode of a TV series I follow”. Do you really believe you can watch an episode and do anything else effectively? Not to mention, you are missing the fulfillment of your activity. By executing the exercises with little or no attention to the movement you are losing more than 70% of the benefits out of it.

Example:

Imagine you are doing an exercise and you are just trying to reach these 10 reps instead of feeling your muscles working on every individual rep.

You will be in a hurry to reach your target but it will not accelerate your muscle’s progress, growth, and strength. Most people start with one of the following two things in their heads – either an unrealistic target or an unrealistic period to reach the target. Some – with both.

Pro Tip – Start the Process with a Personal Trainer or at least a friend or relative who is more experienced than you

5. You don’t realize the problem.

I mean not only the visual side but what stays behind the scenes. It will probably sound annoying to some of you, especially the ones under 30, but health problems related to inactivity, obesity, sedentary working do exist and are just around the corner. And if you are not consistent in the gym or any other physical activity today, you may risk your health in the future.

Short example:

A few years ago, a man came to me to ask for my help. He had the idea of burning some body fat, reducing the belly and strengthening his arms (men don’t train legs, never by their own will, but that’s another issue). After he filled up my questionnaire, I asked him to visit a doctor for a routine checkup and a complete blood count.

Upon receiving the results, he realized that the main problem wasn’t his belly – most indicators were so poor, they were at the limit of reference values. Still, it was not hopeless, because the doctor had said he is clinically healthy and we were OK to go with fitness activities. It took 2 years, lots of sweat and a strict nutrition plan to get him to “perfect” blood test results and an honest “Are you an athlete?” from a girl, training alongside. He was more than consistent in the gym, he was consistent in every aspect of the workflow we’ve made. 

6. You don’t have a daily routine to be consistent in the gym

You wake up at different times every day, go to bed the same way, you eat something in between and every time you visit this place called Gym you have that pain in your muscles as if Something has just swallowed, chewed and spit you back.

The lack of a daily regime puts any new activity in danger of missing, skipping or completely ignoring it after one or two spontaneous visits to the gym caused by guilty consciousness after another midnight over-drink or midday overindulgence.

What should I do?

It’s very hard to be consistent in unpredictable situations. That’s why if you do want to put a fresh start for your new body, first you need to put some order in your daily routine. And if the morning reveals what would be the day, then your bedtime will reveal the morning. I am not saying you shouldn’t go out with friends, just don’t be the party animal of the year.

7. Your surroundings don’t keep you accountable.

Before I write even a word here, I want to say that I’m far away from undermining the importance of your friends, mates, soul mates, etc. or advising you to avoid meeting them.

I’ll tell you my story. 

When I met my wife and our relation was new, I told her: Listen, I do like you very much but before everything gets more serious, I prefer to tell you a few things about me and my schedule. I’m working more than 11-12 hours a day, late nights and very often weekends, Christmas, Easter… and my yearly holiday is about 7-8 days. Still, I like to train because this is my way to chill out.

Are you with me?

Luckily, she was busy enough with studying, building up her website, helping her father with some visualization for his business… The rest is history, it has been nearly 5 years since that day, we have our baby boy now. I’m not less busy, neither is she, but life goes on – for all of us – and the ones who want to be a part of your life will remain.

  My Story

Don’t get me wrong

I’m just saying that if you do care about living healthier, stay consistent in the gym, having a better image, or just throwing some negativity away (because that’s what The Gym does) you’ll respect it as it means respecting yourself. And hey guess what? Maybe they’ll also make a plan to stick to.