2 Things you MUST DO before starting a fitness program

This time of year so many people are trying to kick-start health and fitness programs. The normal process is to start a diet, join a gym, enter a fun run or sign up for an ocean swim.

Before diving straight into the action phase, I want you to stop, reflect, and ask a few very important questions. Questions that dramatically increase your likelihood of success.

1. Rewrite your fitness story

What is your ‘fitness story?’ For many people, it goes a little like this… “I had a sh*t head of a PE Master at high school who made me run, do burpees, climb ropes and a whole lot of other physical stuff that I detest”.

Not hard to work out an underlying narrative like this is not conducive to a lifetime habit of fitness.

Before commencing any fitness program, I ask people to tell me their ‘fitness story’ and then work with them (in the majority of cases) to create an entirely new story that ‘physical activity has nothing to do with the way you look’.

Physical activity:

• Makes you smarter
• Enhances energy
• Inspires your children to be fit and healthy
• Improves mental health and reduces risk of anxiety and depression
• Improves relationships
• Is the cornerstone to living a healthy and fulfilling life long after retirement

Word of Caution for the Impatient

When the year kicks back into full swing (which in Australia is late January after the Australia Day long weekend) I receive multiple requests (from colleagues, corporate contacts and randoms) to help them sort out a fitness or productivity program. When I explain that before commencing, I need them to do some prep work, I can feel the frustration levels rise. “Just give me a bloody program Maysie and get on with it” I can hear the majority of my male clients mutter under their breath (my female executive clients are normally much better behaved).

Once I get people to slow down and realise the ultimate goal is developing a fitness habit for the rest of their lives, and not continuing the stop/start/stop/start rollercoaster they have been on since entering the workforce, the muttering is replaced with a shiny light bulb, and a glimmer of hope.

The Emotional Conduit (or getting to ‘why’)

This is what I call the ‘missing piece of the goal setting puzzle’. Creating an emotional link between a higher purpose or what you want to ‘be’, with what you need to ‘do’ (fitness sessions), forms the conduit to add electricity and spark, ensuring you stick to the program, and achieve your fitness goals.

Controlling the Little Voice

We all know we should exercise more and eat less junk food to stay healthy and lean. But when the alarm clock goes off on a cold, wet winter morning it is mind over matter when our little voice pipes up and argues in such a logical fashion that ‘it’s cold and wet outside and much warmer in your bed. Besides, you might catch a cold on a day like this. So, just go back to sleep and we can start again tomorrow. You are a good person”.

It really does sound convincing at the time, doesn’t it? This is an example of a shallow goal with no emotional anchoring. What you need to acknowledge is yes, of course it’s dark and cold, and your bed really is toasty and warm, but exercising does so much more than just make you look good in a pair of jeans, or a skinny black dress.

2. Remove the Roadblocks 

The next step is to navigate around potential barriers or roadblocks, and do all you can to set yourself up for success.

a) What do you like doing?

If you don’t like gyms, don’t join a gym – walk a dog, ride a bike, hit a fluffy yellow ball around a rectangle court. Over the years I have worked with bucket loads of people who join gyms, yet they hate gyms.

Find something you like doing that appeals on multiple levels (for me this is exercising outdoors, with some friendly competition, adding a bit of adrenaline or risk, social connectivity, and having the accountability of turning up to a regular squad). Cycling and ocean paddling are two activities I do that ‘tick all of the boxes’. And if you can’t find an activity you really like, you need to suck it up and choose something that you ‘hate less’.

Barrier: Signing up to something you really don’t like.

b) Build accountability

Adding a layer of accountability and training with others is one of the key determinants of fitness success. Train with your partner, family members, a friend or a colleague. Join a squad or book a PT. Enter an event. Committing to other people drags you out of bed, or out of the office, on those days when the inner voice is telling you to go back to your sedentary ways.

Barrier: No accountability structure means no one to keep track of you (you can drop off and no one will ever know).

c) Book your vehicle in for a service 

For anyone over 40 who has been inactive for a period of 6 to 12 months, I recommend you book an appointment with your doctor and have a check-up before getting started. You wouldn’t pack your family into the car and head off on a road trip without checking the tyres, oil, water levels and ensuring your car has had a recent service. So, why do we treat our bodies differently and literally run them into the ground? (Hello, middle-aged men reading this now)…

At the very least book in a baseline health and fitness assessment, including a posture profile (I see a plethora of injuries, especially in men over 40 years who jump straight into cross fit and tear a calf or rotator cuff muscle in the first few weeks. This is good for physios and surgeons, not good for you).

Barrier: Commencing fitness programs with medical conditions or underlying muscle imbalances is a major red flag.

d) Lock fitness sessions into your diary

Treat fitness sessions exactly the same way you treat other important meetings during the week. Put them in your diary. You need to prioritise your health and wellbeing. If in doubt, go back to step one, immediately!

Think about the time of day you are most likely to turn up to sessions. If you’re a morning person, train in the morning. If you are an evening person, train after work. Build fitness into your Better Week.

Barrier: Not locking fitness sessions in your diary.

3. GO!

“Finally”, my coaching clients say after we have gone through steps 1 and 2 in detail. “Finally, I am ready and motivated and aligned to get going”.

Great. But there is just one more little gateway to get through. f you have been inactive for considerable time and your ‘vehicle service’ shows red flags including high blood pressure, cholesterol, poor posture and poor flexibility, low levels of cardio vascular fitness (heart rate and VO2 Max), poor strength levels – the first 3 to 6 months I want you to focus on getting ready to train (or focusing on getting healthy again).

Phase 1: Getting Ready to Train

This involve moving at least 10,000 steps every day, focusing on stress management, improving sleep and recovery, eating healthy (reducing alcohol and sugar), and starting a light fitness program (yoga, pilates and low intensity cardiovascular exercise is recommended. The goal of this phase is to get you ready to train,

Phase 2: Training to be MatchFit

Woo Hoo. Finally. Ready, set, Go…

Being MatchFit is a metric (biological age of 5 years less than your actual age); it is a feeling (energetic, youthful and fresh); and it is a way of living.

I know this is a very different approach to what some so-called experts propose (you know - the types of programs where you buy the pill, the potion, the bottle or the lotion and get started immediately). However, I will put my credibility on the line and guarantee you will dramatically increase your chances of success following this process.

Case Study: Flinny

In a corporate program with a building and construction company in Melbourne, one of the participants asked me to use him as a working example in front of the rest of the group. Flinny had tried unsuccessfully for more than 10 years to achieve his main goals of losing weight and feeling healthy, and he had little to no overall goal alignment. This was not only impacting the way he looked, but also draining his energy levels, output and the little time he was spending with family, he felt so tired and fatigued. With Flinny’s permission I have included this example.

Flinny’s Why

This is when we had a real breakthrough and Flinny jumped up out of his chair and said to the entire group ‘holy crap, this is exactly why I’ve been a fat bastard for more than 10 years. I’ve never realised the connection between being healthier and losing weight to the other really important areas in my life. I’ve only ever focused on the ‘do’ and had no idea behind the ‘why’.

Flinny was bubbling with excitement a and realised he truly would achieve his major goal around weight loss because it now had an emotive spark plug to fire him through the tough times when that Little Voice started to chatter.

Flinny’s ‘why’ includes:

• Feel good within myself and proud of my new discipline
• Improve confidence and self esteem
• Increase energy and mental capacity
• Boost productivity and output so I have more quality time to spend with my family
• Accelerate my career and reach my full earning potential.

Can you see how Flinny now has a lot more at stake other than just going for a walk or run? His ‘why’ now connects with self-esteem, productivity, career development, family and relationships, and even finances.

Flinny’s Program (what he needs to 'do')

1. Exercise x3 mornings a week for 60 minutes, and include 20 to 30 minutes of interval training
2. Move as much as I can every day – walk rather than using lift, taxi, etc. and aim for 10,000 step per day
3. Eat the “Mercedes Symbol” for breakfast and ‘1/2, ?, ? ‘ for lunch and dinner x 5 days a week
4. Protein snack at little lunch x5 days a week
5. Reduce coke, chocolate and fried food to 1 serving per week