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In today’s office-bound environment, achieving your fitness goals isn’t as easy it used to be. And let’s be honest, being fit has become a very trendy thing.
Two hundred years ago people didn’t need to go to the gym, because they were physically active in their everyday life. But now, if you want to be fit, you have to work at it. Sometimes, however, you don’t feel like working at something after a day at the office.
That is why we saw it fit (excuse the pun) to give you a couple of easy-to-follow tips on how to achieve your fitness goals.
So, here are our top five tips on how to become (and stay) fit:
- Stay consistent
- Stay consistent
- Stay consistent
- Stay consistent
- Stay consistent
Thank you for reading! We hope our blog post helped!
Okay, jokes aside. Being consistent is crucial when it comes to reaching your fitness goals. And that is definitely our most important tip (a bit more on that later on). However, we have some other tips as well, so keep reading.
Reach Your Fitness Goals!
Not everyone’s fitness goals are the same. Maybe your goal is to stop breathing heavily after climbing a set of stairs. Or perhaps you want to start competing in marathons. Are you a top amateur athlete and you feel ready to enter the big leagues? If so, your fitness goals will look different than many other people’s.
1. Setting your Fitness Goals
It is crucial that you don’t set too many goals at once. Don’t try to go from zero to hero in a month’s time.
When you set your fitness goals, you have to be brutally honest with yourself. Here are some ideas on how to set achievable fitness goals:
- Set one goal at a time. Instead of trying to change your diet, sleeping habits and training schedule all in one go, execute change one thing at a time. (How do you eat an elephant? Bite by bite.) We recommend that you start out by training on a regular basis. After you got that down, you can tackle the rest.
- Sit down and look at your weekly timetable and decide how much time you can squeeze off for training. Then, put your training times in your weekly planner.
- Start out slowly. Don’t injure or demotivate yourself by taking on too much.
- Adjust your goals as you move along. It is super motivating to achieve a goal, but don’t let achieving your first goal stop you from growing. I’ve been an athlete all my life, and I’ve achieved many of my goals. But every time I attain that new level, I set a new goal. It keeps me focused and motivated.
- Make use of technology to help you set realistic goals. There are hundreds of fitness apps out there to help you. I use the Nike Running App and can honestly say that it helped me to improve tremendously.
My next goal is to compete in an ultra triathlon on 1 December 2019. What is yours?
2. Stay Consistent
You knew this one was coming, right?
If you want to become fit, it won’t happen in one hardcore exercise session. On the contrary, if you overdo one of your first sessions, you might stop training altogether.
So don’t do that.
Instead of overdoing it, stick to a steady schedule. Remember the famous fable of the rabbit and the tortoise?
“Slow and steady wins the race…”
The rabbit was so confident in his speed that he overexerted himself early on in the race and decided to take a nap. He firmly believed that his natural speed will secure him in the first place. But in the meantime, the tortoise just kept on moving at a steady pace and in the end, he won!
What is the moral of the story? Don’t exercise in bursts! Train according to a schedule.
Exercise vs. Training
Notice where I used the word training and where I used the word exercise above? I did that on purpose!
You see, there is a subtle difference between the two. Training is a focused, goal-oriented process. Whereas exercise is just a random burst of activity. Training is consistent and exercise is not. You can exercise once every month. But you have to train at least three times a week.
Do you see the difference?
Back to being Consistent
If you want to attain and maintain any level of fitness, keep working at it in a structured way. Even if you only do 5 minutes of training every second day, it is way more beneficial than exercising for three or four hours every second week.
3. Do something that you enjoy
You wouldn’t believe how many people think that jogging is the only way to train! The other day I spoke to someone who firmly believes that jogging is what stands between her and her fitness goals. And she is not the only one with that ridiculous belief!
Do you think there are other ways to become fit?
Well, if you do, you are absolutely right! There are myriad different ways to improve your fitness! You can dance or cycle or row or swim or jump trampoline. The list goes on and on.
And if you are not naturally inclined to enjoy traditional sports, we encourage you to find an alternative method to attain or maintain an active lifestyle.
For instance, I love being active and outdoors. My wife, on the other hand, didn’t enjoy that sort of thing when we got married. But because she loves me, she bought herself a mountain bike to come out and ride with me. Unfortunately, she never got to love it.
However, she started attending a yoga class across the road from where she works. This class opened up a whole new world for her and now she is in the gym at least four times a week, doing bodyweight training, yoga, or some other form of weight training.
She absolutely loves it! In fact, if she doesn’t get in her weekly dose of training, she becomes grumpy.
What is the point of all this? Simply put; if you don’t enjoy the form of training that you start out with, switch it up. Find that one activity that makes you happy and I promise you, you won’t look back.
4. Sleep Well
Now we know what you are thinking: “Of course you are going to say that people have to sleep well to reach their fitness goals!”. We are, after all, a bed company, right?
We can see why you would think like that. But here is the thing, every top athlete or coach will agree with us. Sleep is a crucial part of any healthy lifestyle and fitness program. There is a whole library of proof out there to support our claim.
Unfortunately, sleep isn’t always a big priority for a lot of people. Why sleep when you can watch Netflix, play World of Warcraft or go out with the crew? Well, if you want to become and stay fit, here is why:
- During sleep, our bodies produce growth hormone which stimulates muscle recovery and tissue repair.
- Our brains consolidate what we’ve learnt when we sleep. If you learned a new technique to improve your lifting skills, it will sink in so much better if you get a proper night’s sleep after your workout session. Think of sleep like a long term filing tool for your brain.
- Sleep-deprived people are more prone to injury.
- When you are sleep deprived, you give up more easily. In other words, achieving your fitness goals is a lot harder when you don’t get enough sleep.
If you are still not convinced, most world-class athletes make sleep one of their top priorities. Some of them, like Christiano Ronaldo, even have sleep coaches!
The National Sleep Foundation recommends that adults should get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night.
5. Start!
Even though the start is normally at the beginning, we decided to make this the final step to reaching your fitness goals. And here is why:
It would have been a tad silly of us to tell you to start right now, without showing you how easy it can be to get and stay fit. Don’t you agree? Now that you know the steps, it is a lot easier to start, isn’t it?
Moreover, we have seen, time and time again, that the best time to start is now. Today! Don’t wait for next week or next month.
And here is how to start. Go grab your weekly planner or diary. Now, scroll back to Point Number 1 and write down your fitness goals.
Are you done? Good!
Now, get down on your hands and knees and do a pushup. And then do another one for good measure.
Thus begins your training. And the rest is, as they say, history!
Are You Ready to Start Ticking off those Fitness Goals?
I sure am! Just hold on a sec while I do a couple of crunches… In fact, while I do my crunches, why don’t you drop down and gimme ten?
Good job! We’re off to a great start ladies and gentlemen. Now, stay consistent and enjoy your new active lifestyle. Happy exercising!