Most of my clients are busy guys over 30, with families and a demanding work schedule and.
For them, time is their most important asset. When you only have a few hours a week to invest in your strength & mobility, there’s nothing worse than feeling like that time is wasted.
If you want to ensure the time you spend working out is laser-focused and results-driven overcoming slow fitness progress, this article is for you.
Learning to get maximum fitness, energy, and recovery benefits from your weekly workouts is what you should be striving for, conquering slow fitness progress. Better results in the gym mean more energy, resilience, and productivity in the rest of your life.
Unfortunately, most guys never figure this out and struggle with injuries, poor mobility, and burnout, which wreaks havoc on their personal and professional lives.
Better health is the highest leverage productivity booster.
Here are 4 reasons people don’t learn how to get results with their mobility training:
- Busy Travel Schedule: It keeps knocking you off your routine.
- No Clear Path: You have no idea how to get to your fitness goals, so it feels like you’re always failing.
- You Never Find the Time: You feel you need an hour for it to be worthwhile, so you skip your sessions.
- Chronic Stress: It’s killing you, and you don’t realize the impact it has on your decision-making, both in and out of the office.
But don’t worry, these next steps are exactly what I use with all my busiest corporate clients with erratic work schedules.
Here’s how to Overcome Slow Fitness Progress, step by step:
Step 1: Focus on Process Goals, Instead of Outcome Goals
An outcome goal is wanting to drop 10 kgs or do 10 chin-ups. There’s nothing wrong with these goals, and they can inspire you. But you don’t have control over them each day.
A process goal is something you can work on daily. To lose 10 kgs, here are some process goals to win over slow fitness progress, that will lead you there:
- No technology 1 hour before bed.
- Sleep 7+ hours.
- No tech for the first 30 minutes after waking.
- Plan, shop, and cook your meals for the week.
- Eat slower – put your fork down after each bite.
- Walk for 10 minutes after meals.
- Aim for 6k+ steps daily.
- Lift weights 3X a week.
Choosing one of these every two weeks and stacking them will result in you losing 10 kgs over the next 3-12 months, depending on various factors.
For individuals experiencing slow fitness progress, such as someone who has 10 kgs to lose, it may take longer compared to those with 50 kgs to lose, for example.
For 10 chin-ups, losing weight will help. Here are some chin-up process goals:
- Hang from a bar for 10s-60s daily.
- Do a shoulder mobility routine 3-4 times a week.
- 2-3 strength workouts a week.
- Repeat this with a harder variation as you get stronger.
Process goals are powerful because you can practice them each week, and a good coach will help you scale and adjust them to fit your lifestyle.
Step 2: Ensure You Are on the Right Road
Program hopping and a lack of confidence in what you’re currently doing is where I see many go wrong.
You waste so much time trying different things and never go deep with any of them.
For instance, it’s 2.5 hours from Limerick to Dublin on the motorway.
Imagine driving for 1 km, then turning around to try another road. Repeat that for 2.5 hours, and you’re still only 1 km from your starting point.
This is exactly what you’re doing with your fitness and why you have a slow fitness progress. To ensure you’re on the right path, you need knowledge from a map or an expert.
Here are some examples of what happens when you are given the right path.
Step 3: Play the Infinite Game with Fitness to Overcome Slow Fitness Progress
The fitness industry sells 30-day programs to drop 10 kgs, promising transformative results in 6 weeks.
You’ve been programmed to think, “I just need to suffer for 4-6 weeks, get results, and then I can go back to being me!”. Instead, consider the “infinite game,” a term coined by Simon Sinek in his 2019 book, “The Infinite Game.”
How do you win a game with no end?
Finite games, like football or chess, have known players, fixed rules, and a clear endpoint. Infinite games, like business or life itself, have players who come and go.
The rules of an infinite game can change, and there’s no defined endpoint.
In the context of “slow fitness progress,” it’s essential to remember that the journey to better health and fitness is often an infinite game. The progress may not always be as swift as we desire, but the key is to stay committed and adaptable, just as in any other infinite game. Overcoming “slow fitness progress” may require adjustments, but the ultimate goal is to maintain your commitment to your well-being, regardless of the pace of your progress.
There are no winners or losers just those ahead or behind. Apply this theory to fitness, and you realize that it’s a lifelong commitment.
Shift your mindset to focus on sustainable habits and routines.
If you want help building a program that embraces the infinite game, overcoming the slow fitness progress, DM me “COACH1” on Instagram.