Developing a Fitness Discipline

A critical habit necessary for a healthy life!

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First and foremost, I’d like to wish the happiest of birthdays to the editor-in-chief of HIB who also happens to be the person who gave birth to me. She’s the one who makes these weekly blog posts possible. Mom, you’re one of a kind and I can’t thank you enough for all that you do!

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Now the discussion on discipline…

As a personal trainer working with clients for almost two years now, I’ve had the opportunity to observe human psychology and the most important driving factors that dictate our behavior. To date, one of the most cited reasons why individuals decide not to prioritize exercise is because of perceived time restrictions… however, I’d argue that this claim is a camouflage for an underlying lack of desire. And it’s often subconscious to the one in disguise.

While most (hopefully all) people want better health or at the very least to maintain good health, we often lack the drive to do the things required to achieve it which leaves a disparity. I find it beneficial to visualize these opposing forces as two different ends on a seesaw which I’m not even sure still exist.

On one end lies our intrinsic desire for a long, healthy life characterized by better aesthetics, more energy, and mental fulfillment.

Then, sitting across the plank represents the lack of motivation we often feel when it comes to the effort required to exercise. Included on the dark side are other negative health habits such as not prioritizing sleep, eating readily available processed foods, and going overboard on alcohol consumption. The list goes on.

Unfortunately, many individuals find healthy habits toilsome and/or boring and continue to load up the side characterized by “instant comfort” resulting in long-term dissatisfaction and frankly, a shorter life.

What do I mean by instant comfort? Takeout fast food, late-night Netflix binges, and mindlessly scrolling on social media are a few to get the ball rolling.  

While all of this seems doom and gloom, it’s certainly true that we can turn the table and stack the cards on the way-too-often neglected side of the seesaw.

Not only can we begin to add weight to the weakened side, but there are also ways in which we can exponentiate this process by unweighting the opposing forces in conjunction with moving the pivot point of the seesaw and increasing the mechanical advantage.

This may sound confusing so let me show you how this looks by putting my 1^st grade art class skills to work. FYI, I didn’t watermark this beauty but understand it’s a federal crime to print and re-sell someone else’s work as your own. Half kidding.

There are a couple of big takeaways I want you to understand from this graphic. On the upper left in red, we have a lack of motivation and desire to put in the effort necessary to exercise. On the right is our intrinsic desire for good health and the pivot point is of course labeled as such.

We can simultaneously increase the load on the right by stacking on top of it a learned enjoyment of exercise while eliminating the poor mindset that is weighing down the left side.

This isn’t even the most important part, however.

You’ll notice that the pivot point has shifted to the left in the updated seesaw which represents what discipline does. If you have any relevant background in simple physics, you’ll understand that this shift puts the right side of the seesaw at an incredible advantage.

When we develop true discipline, we no longer require the need for motivation. Instead, we act because it’s part of our routine. It’s what we do regardless of our momentary internal state.

Once you get to this point, not much can stop you.

I agree 110% that motivation is fleeting and we need to develop discipline to succeed at really anything. The most disciplined people of us all (i.e. navy seals, professional athletes, and ultra-marathoners) also promote this argument with great intention but don’t tend to share the blueprint to build such a habit.

In the lines to follow, I will provide a handful of strategies that can be leveraged to provide ‘take-off energy’ to help you build a lifelong disciplined fitness practice.

I want to again reiterate that these motivational approaches are meant to serve as steppingstones and RARELY work if you don’t treat them as such (*cough-cough New Years Resolutions). Think of them like using training wheels as a tool to learn how to ride a bike; if you never take the training wheels off, you never truly learn how to ride.

That was deep. The iced coffee is doing its job this morning.

Alright, enough of the chit chat. Let’s get practical and discuss a few of the MANY ways to turn this into a reality.

Buddy Up

One of the ways in which you can go about this is finding an accountability partner to regularly exercise with whether that be in person or virtually. For some psychological reason, we have less issue in letting ourselves down than we do someone else. Find a person you know who will hold you accountable and dedicate yourself to doing the same for them. Iron sharpens iron, it will make you both better as a result.

Long-Term Outlook:

It’s likely that this partnership won’t last forever due to scheduling conflicts, different goals, etc. This short-term accountability partner is meant to spark your intrinsic drive, get you moving, and help you create a disciplined practice of your own.

Create a Deadline

As touched on in a previous 4-Minute Friday post, it’s woven into our psyche to meet deadlines. We tend to work most efficiently when there’s a hard deadline in front of us… especially when it’s literally right in front of us. We can leverage this idea to promote our exercise habits as well.

Schedule a 5K race. Write down a certain weight you’re required to meet in 12 weeks. Put in writing the number of times you’ll go to the gym in the next month.

These goals/deadlines exploit our internal brain circuitry for a good cause.

Long-Term Outlook:

Although goals are great and one theoretically can continue scheduling race after race (it’ll get expensive, believe me), this isn’t feasible long-term. Once you meet whatever deadline you set, use the inertia to make this practice a daily ritual. Each day can be a deadline of its own.

Do the Challenge

While I’m not the biggest advocate of fitness challenges, it’s wrong to say that they can’t be beneficial for some. If you tend to be the all-or-nothing person, these ‘all-in’ challenges are a way to quickly get out of a rut and back on the right track. If you decide to do one, I recommend going the “75-Soft” route which can be read about here. The 30x30 challenge is also another good option that’s a little shorter in length.

Long-Term Outlook:

If done correctly, you’ll see quick improvements in your health but the motivation can also quickly slip away when the rah-rah of the challenge ends which is the downside. These challenges are meant to stoke the fire of your internal discipline and be the beginning of a lifelong fitness practice.

Make it Exciting

Excitement tends to beget motivation. How can you become more excited about exercising? First and foremost, find a practice that you enjoy… or at the very least, one you don’t hate. If you despise group training, well, that dance class all your pals are doing probably isn’t the best option for YOU!

Another way to generate excitement is through accessorizing. It may sound goofy but buying that new pair of running shoes, pre-workout supplement, or gym bag can often kindle the fitness fire.

Long-Term Outlook:

Unless you are made of money, this is of course not a long-term strategy to increase exercise motivation. But, it can be a valuable tool to leverage in the short-term to build long-term discipline.

Make 2024 the year of discipline!

Quote of the week: “If you want freedom, then you need to have discipline…the more discipline you have in your life the more you'll be able to do what you want” – Jocko Willink

DISCLAIMER

This is NOT Medical advice. Consult your medical professional before starting any supplement, diet regimen, or workout program