It is both exciting and fulfilling to decide to take control of your fitness and health. Choosing to exercise regularly means you will be joining the small population of people in the world who enjoy the benefits of regular exercise and fitness, including:
- Better sex
- Reduced stress
- Improved self-confidence
- Weight and body-fat loss
- Better mood
But before you begin your journey, read this article and get to know the 11 fitness rules to help you avoid some common mistakes.
- Results Take Time
The more you work out, the more visible your results. Grow steadily, and don’t be in haste to see visible changes in your body. If you’re on a weight loss program, you will be doing yourself a disservice if you make it a habit to check your weight regularly. For instance, experts advice against continually getting on the weighing scale because it can lead you to:
- Psychological distress
- Binge eating because you feel your efforts in the gym are going wasted
- Fasting and not eating nutritious meals in an attempt to lose weight faster
- Anxiety and depression when you continuously don’t see the results you want
Life takes time and just like a farmer who sows a seed today in patience and constantly checks up to ensure the seed has access to water, sunlight, and all other nutrients necessary for the seed to germinate, you should also put in the work and have patience, knowing that good growth takes time.
- You Need To Put In The Work
The only substitute for hard work is hard work. Get to know the needs of your routine and fitness program and put in the necessary efforts. Know that the dream is free, but the hustle is paid for separately. Your body may sometimes want to stop and give up, but always remember nothing great grows in your comfort zone, you need to be self-disciplined and take control of your emotions. When you accept that this works and you begin to put in your best, your body will adjust, and you will be mentally ready to face the challenges ahead.
- Don’t Start Because of the Hype or Trends
The reason why you begin this journey will fuel you up when the journey gets tough. Why do you want to start this fitness program? Re-examine your reasons and have a conversation with yourself. Do you want to do this to impress people? What if these current trends die away? Will you stop pursuing your fitness goals too? The reason for starting this program will keep you up when you are tired, choose a very compelling and sustainable reason.
- Take Your Nutrition Seriously
If you don’t eat healthily, you might never get the abs you keep dreaming of. Eating a diet that will support and help you get the most out of your time in the gym should be varied, balanced, and moderate.
- Balance: Balanced meals contain the recommended number of servings from each food group.
- Variety: Ensure that you include nutrients from each food group by eating a variety of meals. Source your meals from a variety of food groups because you cannot get all the necessary food nutrients from one single food group.
- Moderation: Having your meals in excess may lead to an increase in blood sugar levels or even obesity. Moderate meals include a little of everything in the right quantity the body requires.
To know the best meal options available, read our previous article on 5 Foods To Eat Before Going To The Gym.
- Rekindle Your Motivation
How well you do at your fitness program requires motivation. A lack of it might cause you to give up. Whether it’s watching an inspirational fitness video, listening to a motivational story of someone’s weight loss journey, or merely searching google for motivational quotes on fitness, it will fuel you up to do more.
- What Works For Someone Might Not Work For You
Our metabolisms are different, and so you need to study your patterns and do what works best for you. So do not copy blindly from someone and start expecting your body to adjust quickly and give you the exact results the other person experienced. Does your body respond better when you do weight training exercises? Then why don’t you take an interest in it and learn to practice all you have to know about this particular exercise. If chest exercises work best for another colleague, that’s okay. You don’t have to force yourself to fit in. The goal is to physical exercise to become mentally happier and physically strong and healthy, so focus on achieving just that.
- You’ll Mess Up Sometimes
Just like any goal worth pursuing, you will have some good and bad times, celebrate your wins, and when you fail, pick up good lessons so you can do better next time.
You may have a plan even before your first day at the gym, but guess what? Circumstances at the gym might force you to change that plan, and it does not equate to failure. You only have to learn to adapt and embrace change as you start your fitness program. Not all your efforts will lead to smashing your targets, and that’s perfectly fine.
Keep your head up and learn these lessons from failure in the gym:
- Learn to embrace and adapt to your failures
- Learn how to prioritize your fitness goals
- Learn to stay consistent
- Don’t Compare Your Results to Others’
Comparing your fitness journey will keep you unfocused, and this will not help you meet your workout targets. You’ll end up cheating yourself because you’ll be spending valuable time and resources to study the journey of others while neglecting your journey.
It’s unhealthy to compare your one month journey to another person’s five years journey. Don’t believe all the pictures you see on social media. Invest enough time and resources in your journey, the grass may look greener at the other side, but it didn’t come by chance, it took diligence and hard work.
It’s not bad to have a few people or even social media fitness influencers you constantly check up on to pick some lessons and inspiration for your journey. Still, immediately you start to wish you were like them and even begin to feel depressed because of such comparisons, you quickly need to check yourself and maintain focus. You can be another person’s point of reference in the near future if you focus on your journey today.
- Involve friends and family
Friends and family are people we spend most of our time with. What better way to stay committed and find motivation when you feel like giving up than to have friends and family who understand the importance of fitness and are on the same journey as you are. Please get to know what interests your family and friends and invite them to the gym too. Instead of buying your usual birthday gift for your spouse, how about signing them up for the special dance class at Fitness 1 Gym? Go ahead and sign up for a group cycling class for you and your friends.
Don’t leave them out of your journey. You’ll do yourself some good if you involve them since they are the ones who will be available when you need the emotional and physical support to keep you going.
- Keep a fitness journal
Your fitness journal will help you record every little detail of your fitness journey. Keeping a journal will be of great help to keep daily, weekly, and even monthly track of your journey. The more you document your daily workout experiences, the easier it gets to identify what workout activity works best for you and what doesn’t. When you document your fitness journey in a journal, it helps you stay more honest and accountable to yourself.
If you do not see the results you wish for, try writing in your fitness journal. This way, it will be easier to track your diet and workout routine. If you are honest with yourself, your fitness journal will assist you in finding out the number of times you skipped your workout.
Aside from these benefits, keeping a fitness journal can also help you:
- Stay focused and motivated
- Equip your trainer with the needed information so they can track your fitness progress.
Whether your fitness journal is an app on your phone or a book by your bedside, these are necessary details you should consider tracking in your fitness journal:
- Entry date and time
- Fitness goals
- Record mood
- Food/Meal eaten
- Gym exercises
- Progress photos
- Personal fitness successes
- Favorite motivational quotes
- Helpful tips from a blog article
Whatever your fitness goals are, do well to make a journal entry each day and stay honest about what you write in your fitness journal. No cheating!
- Sign Up With a Well-equipped Gym
We can’t even emphasize this enough. Many fitness professionals have explained how much influence your workout environment has on your motivation and efforts during your workout activity. If you are in Accra Ghana, register with the best gym in Ghana, where you can get access to modern gym machines and professional fitness coaches.
The journey gets lonely sometimes, and like-minded people who visit the same gym as you will come through for you when you need them the most.
Embrace your journey, keep working out, eat nutritious meals, and speak to your trainer when you have to. Adhere to these and see yourself smash those fitness goals in your journal.
References
Cherney K, Healthline, How Often Should I Weigh Myself? May 22, 2019, https://www.healthline.com/health/diet-and-weight-loss/how-often-should-i-weigh-myself
Skilled at Life, 38 Success Secrets You Must Know Before Starting to Exercise, https://www.skilledatlife.com/38-success-secrets-you-must-know-before-starting-to-exercise/
Snap Fitness, Keeping A Fitness Journal Tips And Benefits, Oct 25, 2018, https://www.snapfitness.com/us/blog/how-to-keep-a-fitness-journal-benefits-tracking-your-training/#
Green L, Comparing Yourself to Others Is Sabotaging Your Fitness Goals, Dec 12, 2017, https://www.self.com/story/comparing-yourself-to-others-wont-help-you-meet-your-goals
HealthLink BC, Nutrition and Physical Activity, https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/health-topics/ta1294
Trifocus Fitness Academy, The Power Of Motivation In The Fitness Industry, May 30, 2018, https://www.trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za/blog/power-motivation-fitness-industry/
Smith S, 4 Lessons to Learn From Fitness Failure, https://www.active.com/fitness/articles/4-lessons-to-learn-from-fitness-failure