Why People Fail at Fitness

I’ve read more than 14 years' worth of health/fitness content and coached more than 11,560+ hours.

I’ve coached everyone from CF Games athletes to the ability challenged.

This is what I've boiled success down to.

What I’m about to give you is not sets and reps, but the unsexy habits 94% of people neglect - they’re also the reason 94% of people fail a fitness routine.

What you’re about to read is the bottom of the pyramid.

Remember, a pyramid can only grow as tall as its base. 

SLEEP

Sleep is the cheapest and most underused steroid on the market (don’t worry, we will get to steroids) 

‘But I feel great on 6-hours sleep’ - compared to what?

When was the last time you hit 7-9 hours consistently? 

If you’re chasing any fitness goal, 7-9 hours of sleep is a must. 

<7 hours of nightly sleep DOUBLES your chance of injury. 

‘You can’t out-train a bad diet’ - but there is clear scientific evidence you can out-sleep injury. 

One of the most overlooked impacts of sleep on a fitness routine - the mood and discipline benefits. 

The restorative effects sleep has on dopamine, serotonin, cortisol, adrenaline etc. and ultimately mood, help you make good decisions.

Sleep aids:

• Inspiration and discipline 

• Mood consistency

• Adherence to preset plans

These are vital, yet overlooked aspects of any fitness routine. 

7-9 hours of sleep also breeds CONSISTENCY. 

CONSISTENCY

In fitness- consistency is king.

‘It’s better to be consistently good than it is occasionally great’ 

What’s the easiest way to build consistency? 

Pick a time of the day, and commit to making it your training time - 7 days a week. 

Not every session has to be ALL-OUT. That hurts your consistency. 

Vary your effort level, e.g. hit a 30-min walk - but commit to the same time daily. 

A consistent training time sends signals to your internal body clock - you will begin to EXPECT exercise at this time of the day. 

Once your body expects something, you can’t fight it - it’s in your biology. 

Consistency through biology. 

To ensure you’re fuelled correctly for these sessions, you need to eat right. 

NUTRITION - Never a Diet

Getting nutrition advice from the internet is like trying to drink water from a fire hydrant - there is simply too much information to get anything usable.

I’ve scoured the literature and coached thousands nutritionally - here's what I got for you.

EVERY ‘diet’ worth its salt boils down to these 3 things: 

• Good calorie control and protein levels

• >80% earth-grown foods

• Whatever the fuck makes you happy! 

Ultimately, you don’t want a diet - you want a way of eating that's sustainable long-term. 

Again - ‘it’s better to be consistently good than it is occasionally great’ 

Find your core way of eating (one you enjoy) and stray from it to enjoy other aspects of life periodically.

Nutrition leads us to water.

HYDRATION

As Zoolander once said - ‘wetness is the essence of moisture, and moisture is the essence of life’.

WATER IS LIFE.

Water is crucial to every single cell in your body. 

I could go on, but the above sentence should be enough. 

If ALL of you needs water - it’s a no-brainer.

An easy way to calculate your daily water need: 

• (Your BW in KG) x 0.03 = Boom. 

An easy way to drink your daily water need: 

• Over-invest in a water bottle and take it fucking everywhere! 

10k STEPS

10k steps per day - you’ve heard it, but you need to understand why. 

The reasons are 2 fold: 

• Building endurance

• Recovery

1 - Endurance

Walking is slow running - it will help build your cardio fitness base. 

Let’s compare it to a squat:

If you can squat 100kg for 1 rep (sprinting), then you train to squat more at say 60% of that (walking) for more reps.

It’s the same principle.

10k steps p/d is a low-cost, low-impact way of building your endurance. 

Why is it neglected then? 

It ain’t sexy. 

Psst - its long-term results are sexy AF. 

2 - Recovery

This is where it gets even cooler.

Walking is a 2-for-1 deal.

Ever recovered and built endurance at the same time? 

Enter 10k steps p/d.

Whilst building cardio endurance, you’re also:

• Self-massaging 

• Lightly stretching

• Promoting circulation 

• Promoting nutrient distribution 

• And increasing your O2 consumption 

Still not convinced about walking?

In May, I ran a 105km ultra-marathon.

I rarely ran more than 30km during training and only once ran 50km.

But I walked 120k steps/120km per week.

The proof is in the pudding - I ran every single step of that 105km ultra. 

MINDSET - THE RULE OF 3

The rule of 3.

The rule of 3 denotes that for every 3 training sessions you will have 1 that is:

• Amazing

• Average 

• Abysmal 

Awareness of this is key to long-term progression. 

Each of the 3 session types provides different lessons - all of them are vital to character building. 

Your amazing sessions teach you presence. 

They allow you to savour moments - yet understand they’re fleeting.

Your average sessions teach you how to mine for strengths and weaknesses among conflicting feelings. 

What did you do well? 

What can you improve upon?

Your abysmal sessions teach you perspective, patience and appreciation.

The perspective that everything is temporary.

The patience to stay true to your why.

The appreciation of these sessions - because without them there would be no amazing sessions. 

ENJOYMENT

Enjoyment - the most overlooked part of a health and fitness routine.

Not many people have the discipline to stick with a routine they don’t enjoy.

Rather than fight human nature - use this to your advantage.

Ways to find enjoyment in your fitness:

• Set goals

• Train a skill

• Track your progress

• Sign up for an event

• Find a training partner  

• Join a small group gym 

• Vary your sessions (outside/inside)

Last but not least (apart from the steroid talk I promised) - SET GOALS.

S.M.A.R.T GOALS

Goals are motivation, discipline and a roadmap all in one.

Here is my refined interpretation of the SMART goals protocol… 

Specific

Use my ‘not what-who-what’ protocol.

Before you define WHAT you want to achieve - define WHO you want to be.

From here, your goals become WHAT behaviours or actions WHO you want to be displays

Measurable 

Always ensure the measurable part is something YOU have control over.

Setting goals that someone/something else has control over is misguided.

For example:

Instead of - ‘I want to make this team’ 

Use - ‘I want to be the person who is capable of making this team’ 

This way, other people's bullshit (such as politics and favourites) can’t get in your way.

This one’s simple but important. 

You have to know if you’ve achieved your goal - be specific.

If not, you may miss the chance to celebrate.

A little *side-note* on celebrating the achievement of goals: 

ALWAYS CELEBRATE. 

1) you deserve it, and 2) it allows for reflection and perspective.

More often than not, people who go from 1 goal straight to the next - lack perspective.

In the achievement of goal 1, you change who you are.

Celebrating allows your self-consciousness to catch up - take time to reset.

If you rush to set another goal, the next goal is still based upon the wants and needs of who you used to be, not who you've become. 

This results in a poorly set proceeding goal and ultimately, failure.

Celebrating is an integral part of the goal-setting process.

*end of side note* 

Achievable

If your goal is not achievable, that’s in fact okay.

Don’t discard it - break it down further.

‘Who’ do you have to become before becoming the ‘big who’?

No goal is too big - it just lacks breakdown.

Small goals = compounding gains.

Realistic

Set your goal on the edge of reality.

Setting a goal too far from reality will crush you.

It will crush your confidence.

It will crush your spirit.

And ultimately, it will crush your goal.

Remember, you can always set another goal after this one is achieved.

Timed 

Set a date and then add 5%.

Build in time for roadblocks from the get-go - smooth sailing is a myth.

If you achieve your goal early - great.

Now because you’ve made it this far, as promised - let’s talk steroids!

STEROIDS - (But Actually It's MINDSET)

When comparing yourself to others, keep steroids in the back of your head - be objective.

Compassion is the thief of joy - wrong. 

Your lack of perspective is the thief of joy.

Steroids are rampant throughout:

• Hollywood

• Social media

• Professional sport 

• Oh, and your local gym

Be a realist - don’t let your joy be determined by your perception of others.

Stay the course and focus on being better than yourself.

Then, when you do compare yourself to others (you’re human, you will) - broaden your perspective. Take into account their WHOLE situation.

This is a snippet of what 14+ years in the health and fitness industry have taught me. 

From pros athlete to the ability challenged - we’re all human. And this thread WILL make you a better human.

The 9 - steps to fitness success?

• Sleep Consistency

• Nutrition

• 10k Steps

• The Rule of 3 (Mindset)

• Enjoyment

• Goals

• Mindset (again)

Big love xoxo