I like these questions because it helps you explore your motivations for taking action. In this case, it helps you understand why you might be struggling with exercise consistency.
To be clear – there is nothing wrong with selecting exercise for the physique changing potential it might give you. But problems start to arise when that’s the only reason why you’re doing it.
I’ve seen it with clients time and time again. They tell me they “like” so and so exercise. But when I ask them if they really like it they tell me – “well I like what it does to my body”.
So we give it a try, and more times than not, consistency starts becoming an issue after a few weeks, and that bleeds over into their eating, mindset, and results.
Enjoyment must form the baseline of your exercise program. Performance and physique improvements are secondary criteria for selection, and are side effects of liking what you do.
Yes, you can grind it out and get results in the short term. And there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that. But if you’re looking for long-term change, you need to be able to answer “very likely” to the question above.
Physical change happens much slower than most people’s willpower can sustain them. It can take months for changes to become visually obvious, and that’s usually too long for people to engage in exercise they don’t enjoy.
Enjoyment ➡️ Performance ➡️ Physique
Long-term change happens in that order. You can’t sustainably have one without the one before it.
For your physique to change you need an improvement in performance. After all, that’s why your body changes – to adapt to you getting stronger, faster, etc.
And you’re not going to improve your performance without enjoying what you’re doing, as consistency and adherence hinge on you liking your physical activity.
So if you’re tired of starting and stopping your transformation, and exercise is part of that consistency struggle, consider diving into your motivations behind your exercise selection.
Talk soon...
PS: I send out a weekly article like this to people on my email list. So if this article was helpful to you consider clicking the button below and joining. It's 100% free, of course 🙂