3 Rules for the Perfect Workout

At the end of the day most workouts work if you do. This weight set or that machine. This run or that bike ride. You can argue the relative merits all you want, but if you work at it, they pretty much all work.

That brings us to my 3 rules for the perfect workout.  Do it! Do it! Do it! And a bonus rule, Love it!

Do it is pretty simple, just go out and do it. Choose something easy for your age and fitness level. Yes, I will say that again very slowly.  Choose. Something. Easy. Choose to do it regularly. Choose a time that works for your life, your family, and your schedule.

Now pretend you’re Nike, kick your butt in gear and go do it.  Motivation is much easier if you know the task will be easy.  Much easier.  The immediate goal is simple.  It is not weight loss, nor fitness, nor even health.  The immediate goal is to create a new habit. A solid life-changing habit.

Perhaps you can barely jog to the corner.  Then go half way.  Make it easy. Do it again tomorrow. Are you sore on that second or third day?  That means you did too much.  Tomorrow, sit your butt down and for the exactly the same amount of time that it takes to do the workout, sit and visualize it fully and completely. (I will go through this process in detail in another article.) Then go out again on day 3 and do your workout.

Translate Do It, Do It, Do It into Habit, Habit, Habit.

You are not Michael Jordan or Serena Williams or Lance Armstrong.  Professional atheletes, especially the elite ones, long ago made the habit of working out. They do it smart and hard. If you are a pro athelete, you are not reading this article.  You are out there earning your paycheck.  You already have the discipline that comes from a deep long term habit. AND you have the  best coachs, trainers and nutritionists in the world to make sure you that you don’t do too little, nor too much.

Get over it, guys.  We are not pro atheletes.  The pros will smoke us at 20 and 30 and often at 40, but if you keep at it and if they get lazy after they retire, you can smoke them at 50, 60, 70 and beyond.

If you want to be a “Lifer” in fitness start at the habit level.  Otherwise, every plan and commitment you make will fall apart and eventually you will quit. Most people avoid pain when they can.  This “no pain, no gain’ thing is for the pros who get a paycheck for painfully pushing the ragged edge.  The rest of us need to focus on starting and NEVER stopping.

Your first job is to start the habit.  Your second job is to keep the habit. Forget that nonsense about it taking 21 days or one month to create a lifetime habit.  Bull.  It takes what it takes. Each kind of habit, and each person is different.

Focus on creating a LONG term habit, and to do that you must make it a habit that you enjoy.  Don’t batter your body; and don’t destroy your will and your self respect.  Take one step at a time and keep stepping.

Studies have shown that most people over-estimate what they can do in a day or a week or a month.   BUT the same studies show that most people radically under-estimate what they can do in a number of years.

Schedule it.  Then Do It. Congratulate yourself and then Do It again.  Sore?  Back off the work, but stay on the schedule.  Build the habit and the habit will build you.