Consistency over intensity
It isn’t always about how hard you work during a training session, sometimes it can just be about showing up and doing something. Popular sayings like “go hard or go home”, or “either do it or don’t” can be misleading at times and taken out of context. Sure, they do have a place and time where they are beneficial, however, when we think about someone’s fitness journey (keyword, journey) these become less relevant.
Think about trying to squeeze all your weekly tasks in the space of an hour - seems like a tough challenge doesn’t it? Now, instead of trying to complete them in one hour think about breaking those up into daily and more manageable actions.
The point here is that, in order to succeed over time, we must be mindful of our level of intensity as well as our consistency. If you consistently manage and complete your daily goals/tasks, you are then more likely to achieve your weekly, monthly and yearly targets, whereas if you neglect those same things and only use bouts of intense activity to catch up, you are less likely to achieve what you want to. Similar thing happens in your fitness journey.
It is far better to stick to a consistent 3 times per week workout schedule, than it is to do a 1-2 times per week intense workout to try to fit all your exercise in. Of course I am not saying that there is no benefit in training with intensity, as long as it forms part of your routine.
Your body requires time and repetition for it to manifest the adaptations that you seek, so don’t be fooled by media telling you that in 30 days you can achieve this that and the other - generally speaking we need about 3 months to really start to see the benefits of exercise. Best benefit from something like this would be to build your routine, which does take about 1 month to establish.
So, if you do find yourself thinking about those 30-day challenges, please think about some of the following questions:
What about the 30 days after that?
How do I keep going?
How do I maintain this if I get through?
Simple answer to them - consistency. Set yourself the goal to keep going at a pace, time and hour that best suits you and keep showing up. Everyone has good and bad days, and not every workout will be incredible, but, if you show up, that is not only already a win, physically and mentally, but also a point for consistency.
