A client recently asked me for some help regarding his sticking point. “What do you do when you feel stuck?” he asked. I realized that being stuck really isn’t the point. When it comes to fitness, we are either making progress, or we’re not. Progress is a matter of momentum. We can either lose it along our journey, or not have enough to get started.
This is where I’m glad I paid attention in high school physics. Momentum is a problem of overcoming inertia. That is to say, you need a big enough driving force to get started, but once you do, it becomes easier to keep moving. So, when it comes to sticking points, I can think of three major areas in which momentum is key:
1) Having an objective goal.
2) Being consistent.
3) Having a big enough stimulus.
Objective Goals
“I have no idea where I’m going, but I know exactly how to get there.”
I heard this quote in reference to life philosophy/business advice, and I really liked it for that. But it needs to stay there. When it comes to fitness, we need to know where we’re going. Let’s take a brief aside to discuss the difference between subjectivity and objectivity.
Most fitness goals are entirely too subjective:
“I want to lose weight.”
“I want to feel better.”
“I want to have more energy.”
These are all feelings. While losing weight is not a feeling, most people don’t want to lose weight because of numbers, but rather because it gives them confidence and makes them feel good. In this way, just losing weight is subjective.
Instead, fitness needs to be more strategic, and math driven. Goals need to be extremely objective. They should look more like:
“I am going to run a marathon in March.”
“I am going to lose 10 lbs. in the next two months.”
“I want my bench press to go up 10 lbs.”
Once we define objective goals, we can work backwards from them to design a realistic plan to get there. But remember, be real. There is no point in formulating an unrealistic goal, only to make yourself upset when you don’t achieve it.
Being Consistent
There’s an old principle from the Italian mathematician Pareto, in which he states that 80% of outcomes are driven by 20% of inputs. Let consistency be the biggest input in your fitness journey. It should take care of 80% of the results.
I have always believed that something is better than nothing. Have only 15 minutes to workout? Do it. Didn’t work out but you want to do something? Do 50 pushups and 200 sit ups before bed. Fitness is as much a mental battle as it is a physical one. What you will realize is that the more of these choices you make, the easier they become.
Realistically, I am not suggesting you base your entire day around training. But what I will say is, if you consistently make a choice for fitness, you will find that more of your days include it than not. Consistency is like a positive snowball effect. It gets easier.
I had another friend send me a picture of a pastry that someone had brought to work. She told me that she didn’t have one, and in fact, she hadn’t had a convection in over 3 months! Moral of the story, saying no becomes easier with practice. Say yes to fitness daily, but also say no to something unhealthy as well. This too, becomes easier, and the consistency in doing so will add up to drastic changes in your journey.
If there was maybe one piece of advice I’d give anyone when it comes to fitness it is this: just keep showing up.
Having a Big Enough Stimulus
This is probably the least thought of metric when it comes to making change and getting out of your rut. But it probably makes the most sense: you need to give your body (or mind) a reason to change! You have to make a big enough difference to see results, and when you combine that stimulus with consistency and clear goals, you will be well on your way.
Without diving too deep into science, something uniquely fascinating about biology is a concept known as homeostasis. It is a survival mechanism, deeply embedded in the animal and plant kingdoms that allows small fluctuations in our daily lives to not affect our chance of survival. What is also means, is that our bodies will not change if it is not a matter of life or death.
Homeostasis is like a thermostat. Sometimes there’s fluctuations, but the goal is to keep things stable.
An easy way to view this is when you think about the certain look of people. Think about how they appear on a day-to-day basis, in contrast to how many things they eat, how they sleep, etc. Now you may be thinking, “I can definitely tell when Jackie is tired.” Sure, but their physical appearance won’t change much over the years as long as things stay relatively the same.
Now think about the person you know that really changes appearance. They gain 50 lbs., they lose a ton of weight, etc. Chances are, they’ve undergone something drastic and it is easy to tell. Maybe they experienced something traumatic, got sick, or they were a former athlete turned fat. These are all examples of homeostatsis and then a major driving force of change.
You need to have a positive, but drastic, alteration to knock yourself out of your current state.
Summary
By combining the above three points, you can accelerate your transformation and get out of your rut. You need to clearly define an objective goal. This will give you a strategy and a roadmap to get there. Secondly, you need to be extremely consistent, with both fitness choices and your ability to say “no.” In doing so, it will become easier and habitual, further enhancing your consistency. Lastly, you need to have a drastic stimulus to knock your body out of its current homeostasis. These three factors are a potent cocktail in getting out of your rut, past sticking points, and breaking your fitness plateau.