Something is better than nothing

“Something is better than nothing.”

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In our modern “hustle”, “grind”, “sleep when you’re dead” culture, it is easy to get caught in the all or nothing mindset, thinking that you need to be operating at 100%, all day, every day. Then feeling like a failure if you’re not. Right now is that time of year with New Year resolutions that many people have great intentions and start really strong but then fall off.

The reality for most of us is that that kind of mindset is a recipe for burnout or inconsistency, where we go hard then crash and burn, rinse and repeat, and we end up accomplishing less over the long run while feeling worse about it–or in the fitness space often hurt or with less results.

Life is busy. We have a ton of challenges with jobs, family/friends, etc. With 168 hours in the week, I hope you are able to find 3-5 hours of that week for your fitness, but even if you start with 1 hour, 1 day per week, that is so much better than zero.

1 day per week = 52 opportunities to improve your health and fitness in one year

2 days per week = 104

3 days per week = 156

4 days per week = 208

5 days per week = 260

6 days per week = 312

7 days per week = 364

I also like to think about this the other way around–if I take off one day per week that I wasn’t planning on taking off then I now have 52 less opportunities to improve those particular things this year…52 is a lot!

Somewhere in that 3-6 range of training days per week is going to be ideal for most people. If you’re shooting for 7 days per week, you need to gradually workup to that, and you should probably have 1-3 of those 7 days be lower intensity or active recovery days to avoid injury or overtraining. If you are doing intense group fitness classes or personal training 4+ days per week then maybe you get outside of the gym and try new outdoor activities, games or sports with friends or family on the other 1-3 days per week for active recovery or training. We only get to live this one life so make your training fun!

If you are someone that has been consistently training 3 days per week, but you are still not seeing the results that you hope for, it may be as simple as moving to 4 days. There is some interesting research that shows that there are some people that genetically need at least that 4 day per week threshold in order to see significant ongoing results and progress.

But again, start wherever life will allow you to start right now, and then solidify that habit, and gradually increase from there–life is a marathon, not a sprint, and fitness gains are like compound interest.

If you’re struggling with accountability, lean on your class mates and coaches at Ohio Strength–what can we do to help you be more consistent? Shoot me a message, and I’m happy to chat with you about this or any of your other health, wellness, fitness and performance goals!

Yours in Health

Coach Ryan

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