As much as I want to move on to the next of our ‘3 C’s’ I can’t, without drilling home how important consistency is to your health and fitness journey.
I am a preacher of a philosophy I’ve dubbed ‘Practical Fitness’. For years I have been using myself and some of my fitness colleagues as lab rats in our various experiments to learn the tricks to reaching your fitness goals.
I am the perfect candidate for this study because like many people my day job demands long hours, unexpected deadlines, and some stressful days. A question you likely ask yourself is “where do I find time to work out and be consistent when something else always seems to get in the way?” Coupled with our social lives of friends, family and colleagues who of course enjoy the occasional drink, meal in a restaurant, unhealthy takeout, and nights out on the town.
At this point you’re probably expecting me to say you need to cut all of that out, right? Well, you’ll be relieved to know I’m not.
I believe with the right amount of consistent training and a balanced diet that doesn’t exclude all the things we love including those boozy weekends you can stay in good shape without only eating lettuce and cucumber with water on the rocks.
Now is the perfect opportunity to divulge the details of our little experiment, we call it The Streak. Initially, it was just a challenge between 3 trainers PT DJ, PT Juwon and myself to do some element of fitness every day without a break to see who could build the longest streak of consecutive days.
We all dug deep and made it past seventy five days (3 months) each, and couldn’t believe we actually made it that far. Seventy five days proves that there’s always time to fit in your exercise and that’s what we tell our clients. After enduring the challenge we certainly learned a few tips and tricks to make ‘The Streak’ easier.
Step One: Be Organised
It’s funny how we definitely have time for a business meeting or black tie event but when it comes to the chore of self-development we suddenly lose all knowledge of the word commitment. Make your workout plan flexible and feasible. If you have a busy day ahead you don’t need to spend an hour in the gym to get your workout done, a quick 15 minute cardio burst might just do the trick. Consider a day for unravelling the body with Yoga, boosting your recovery with deep stretching, rehabilitating your joints with a quick dip in the pool before kicking back and sizzling in the sauna. In short we all have time, let’s make it happen.
Step Two: Be Honest –
As much as we’d love to look like a super human, realistically most of us won’t make it to the gym every day so let’s make a realistic target to keep us motivated. Why not try two to four times a week? The key is sticking to it.
Step Three: Enjoy It
The third and final tip is to enjoy feeling better, healthier and energized. Exercise isn’t always fun, in fact it’s not fun for me either but the results we reap are worth the pain, hard graft and determination. Try and make it enjoyable by doing things like working out with mates, trying out new classes, training in the sunshine or take up a sport you really enjoy. When you love or have interest in the activity, it makes it much easier. It could be squash, tennis, football or swimming and it all counts.
We were thrilled to learn ‘The Streak’ inspired over 59 people to start their own streaks and there’s nothing stopping you from becoming number 60 or 61.
The principle lessons are not making excuses for not having the time to exercise because there is always a way and when it gets hard our tips can help you get back at it. We engineered a master workout plan with sports scientists that allowed us to train every day without damaging our body so we didn’t need to take any days off. Don’t forget rest days are massively important and give your muscles time to recover and grow, but on those days dedicate 20-40 minutes to stretches or yoga.
The final results of our Streak challenge are as follows
In third place – PT Juwon with 100 days
In second place – PT DJ with 115 days
In first place – Me with 138 days and counting
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