5 Key Steps To Achieving ones Fitness Goals
Many people, all around the world, already know the secrets to staying healthy and getting in shape. However, out of the vast majority of people who know what to do, only small percentages of people are able incorporate and maintain their fitness programs. Here 5 steps to help achieving ones fitness goals:
1 - Desire: The first step toward achieving your fitness goals is to cultivate a strong desire to change. This first step is probably the hardest to do because it’s all up to you.
Making the conscious effort is all well and good. But the real challenge faced by most people who embark on a fitness regime is sustainability. It’s common for many people to give up with a few weeks’ or months. This could be attributed to their desire for a change. When the former 200m and 400m Olympic champion Michael Johnson was asked what his key to success was, he said ‘as strong as my legs are, it is my mind that has made me a champion’. If we all want something bad enough we could achieve it. If one was to embark on a new fitness regime with a strong desire to meeting their goals, they would more than likely succeed.
2 - Knowledge: Lots of people either copy a person’s diet or training routine without trying to find the reason behind such regimes. Learn as much as you can about proper nutrition, supplementation, and exercise. This has to be an ongoing process. It’s important to rely on credible sources to increase ones knowledge. The more one does their research the greater the understanding. By learning about the three sources of food Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fats, and how to incorporate such knowledge into their daily eating habits would help achieved ones desired goals. The same thing applies to training. Learning about different training routines and what works best would help achieve ones goals.
3 - The third step is setting goals. Many people who decide to embark on a new healthy lifestyle expect immediate results over a short period of time. Failure to achieve these results, normally leads to abandoning their fitness regime. By setting short and long term goals, one could monitor and track their progress over a given period of time. A typical short term goal for a Gym member would be a 12 week plan to increase their cardiovascular endurance and strength training. A long term goal could be anything from 6 months to yearly progress. What is important is that incorporating your fitness regime should be a way of life.
4 - The fourth step is to develop a plan of action. This is down what you plan on doing to progress toward your goals. Be very specific about the details of what you plan on doing. Many people have used this plan of action successfully. Some people leave their weekly schedule posted visibly to remind them of what they need to do for the week. To some, this might seem rather unnecessary; however studies have shown that visual reminders help people achieve their set objectives. Sooner or later it becomes part and parcel of their lifestyle without the need to write down weekly plans of actions.
5 - The fifth step to achieving ones fitness goals is tog develop consistency. One of the main reasons why many people fail in their fitness goals is because they lack consistency. Once a regular Gym routine is developed, the key thing is to stick to it without reducing the number of days committed to going to the Gym. It’s not uncommon for many to declare they would go to the gym everyday only to burn out, get bored or regularly skip their Gym sessions hence leading to them giving up too soon. The key to long term consistency is to stick realistic and achievable targets. For example, rather start out with a 5 day a week gym session, one could start out with 3 days a week Gym session and then once a level of consistency has been achieved increase this to 4 – 5 days a week.
