Why you quit on your fitness programs (and how to fix that).
Fitness is a lot like dating. You have to like it enough to stick around and keep going. Finding a fun date can take time - you can expect to go on your share of lukewarm dates before something sparks and you find yourself actually into it. But when that happens, wow, it can sweep you off your feet.
Your workout is too hard. The biggest hidden ‘disconnect’ people have when trying to workout again, is that they sign up for a fitness program that is just simply too hard for them. It’s too intense, the exercises are too advanced - the weights are too heavy - it’s just too much. Unfortunately people tend to blame themselves for not being able to keep up with the advanced pace, and they get frustrated and quit. They chalk the whole thing up to yet another personal fitness failure, crushing their confidence even further. If you were trying to learn a new language, like Spanish, you wouldn’t start with a university level text book. You might start with basics like nouns, verbs, adjectives and basic sentence structure. You wouldn’t blame yourself for not being fluent in Spanish after your first lesson.
With fitness, everyone needs to start somewhere. Here at BodyRock, we believe that being a beginner is a badge of honour. It means that you are pioneering your health journey, and starting something new. Pioneers have to be tough. Starting anything new and getting it up off of the ground takes courage. Our mission here at BodyRock is helping people get into the best shape of their lives, at home, or anywhere they feel comfortable exercising. We do this by creating workout programs that meet you at your level - and by making the best types of workout classes, everything from fat burning, body toning workouts like HIIT, Strength Training and HIRT accessible to beginners. We make our workouts challenging, but achievable - because lean muscle is not the only thing we grow around here - we are also strength training our self-esteem and confidence with every workout we do together.
I don’t have time to go to the gym. Did you know that people spend more time on planning to go to the gym and on their gym visit logistics than they do actually exercising once they get there? Getting to the gym is great when you have time, but time is one of the most commonly cited barriers that people have when it comes to missing their workouts. People have started to discover that streaming fitness workouts on their devices and training at home is by far the most efficient way to stick to an exercise routine over the long haul. It’s now possible to get a better than gym quality workout standing in your living room - in less than a quarter of the time that it takes to travel to the gym and get back again. Recent studies have shown that just 15 minutes of HIIT per day is enough to deliver serious results - from fat loss to general athletic conditioning - you can change your body in less than 20 minutes, from start to finish. Our 30 day Beginner Bootcamp features workouts that range between just 15-20 minutes, that can be done anywhere. 15 minute daily workouts, at your level, streamed on any device that you can do anywhere, anytime that you have 15 minutes to invest into yourself. All you have to do is press play.
People expect overnight results. If they don’t get them, they quit. Here is the straight up truth about starting a new exercise routine after a long break. Here is another article on why women should start to lift weights for fat loss, and another on how long it will realistically take you to get in shape if you were to start today. Spoiler alert, you can expect to feel better in the first two weeks after you start working out, and you can expect to see changes in your body in as little as three weeks. Beginners with a lot of excess body fat to lose can often see noticeable changes in their appearance faster than people with less weight to lose. In case you missed it, this is what losing that first five pounds of body fat looks like. Losing your first five pounds of body fat is an incredible milestone, and you will need to celebrate it.
You aren’t a nutritionist that specializes in fat loss. Stop pretending that you know what you are doing. If your car broke down, would you pop the hood and get elbows deep into your engine block? No. Because you aren’t a mechanic, and fixing your car takes specialized knowledge.
If you want your results to come faster, and you want to accelerate your fat loss in particular, you need to follow a meal plan. Aligning your diet with your new fitness routine is the fastest way to ensure your overall success. As I’m sure that you’ve heard by now, you can’t out-train a bad diet. Don’t make the mistake of overriding your fitness efforts by a mindless, undisciplined approach to the foods that you eat. Following a plan that is optimized to help you lose weight will save you months (even years) of frustration. You aren’t a nutritionist or a dietitian, so stop pretending that you know what you are doing around your diet. You don’t.
Hold your ‘why’ close to your heart, and don’t judge it. We all want this for our own reasons. I can’t begin to understand what your why is, although after helping people find their fitness motivation for the last 14 years, I’ve heard a lot of people’s ‘whys’. If I can offer this bit of advice - whatever your reason is, it's yours and yours alone. In the first days, and weeks of your fitness journey, use your why as rocket fuel to power your efforts. Don’t trouble yourself if your ‘why’ feels shallow, silly or even spiteful. If you are animated entirely by the thirst for sweet, sweet revenge - cool, go with the flow. Fitness can filter even the most negative impulses and turn them into positive, life affirming fuel. Whatever gas that you have in the tank is what we are going to use to get us started. As we progress together, our motivations will begin to change. Use whatever you have to get up off the ground.
A lack of support. No one is coming to rescue you. No one in your life is going to (likely) champion your health and fitness. The closest people to you might not support your fitness and diet goals. Often, they don’t. People can get scrambled emotionally when they sense your desire to make a change. They can feel judged, threatened, betrayed. Fitness can bring up a lot of emotions in people. These projections are not your problem, but you can’t let yourself get distracted by them either. We suggest that you give yourself a few weeks to get into your new fitness routine before you go public with it - that way you will have time to establish your routine before you have to start to sort through how everyone else feels about it.
Decide that you want more. That said, once you do decide to move forward, our coaches and community will be 100% available to you. Maybe you aren’t into community groups - and that’s cool if it’s not your thing, but every study that exists shows a pretty clear connection between long term fitness success and having the support of a group or community. You can also DM our coaches anytime you need a boost of encouragement - our coaches are accessible to you anytime that you need them. At some point in your journey, you are going to need to feel supported by real people that actually care. Everyone has days where they need a hand - and that is a big part of what we offer here at BodyRock.
A shot from the BodyRock 30 Day Beginner Bootcamp workout series.
I hope this list has helped you. The biggest take away from our perspective is to start a workout program that is at your fitness level. Our 30 day Beginner Bootcamp on our fitness streaming service BodyRockPlus.com is like slipping your foot into the glass slipper. It makes such a huge difference when you are training at the right level, and your workouts are actually achievable. Imagine actually successfully completing your workouts and how different that might feel compared to some of your past experiences. For a limited time, we are offering a full year of unlimited access to our Beginner Bootcamp and all of our other workout programs for just $69 with code: NY22.