When you want attainable fitness…. why consistency and quality is key

In our culture, we have a view of more is always better. But nope, that’s not always true in all things. When it comes to fitness, for example, more can likely lead to two ends of the fitness spectrum, doing nothing and doing too much. 

When quantity leads to nothing… 

60 minutes,One hour. That is the magical fitness number where we tell ourselves only results can be obtained. It’s the magical amount of time we tell ourselves that we must workout in order for the workout to be “worth it”. Any less will not be sufficient, will not be enough. And so if we are not able to meet that magical 60 minute mark, we do nothing. Instead of checking off completed workouts and making gains based on consistency, we continue this 60 minutes or nothing attitude until our fitness dwindles to a nonexistent status. This is when quantity hurts us. When the quantity of minutes results in us not working at all, and this becomes a daily habit. Setting fitness goals that are consistent and obtainable will always bring more results over doing nothing. So if you’re in the mindset of “60 or nothing”, it’s time to reset that mind and come up with something you CAN do daily. 

And not only do daily, but do it well, extremely well, on a daily basis. If we pack our workouts with quality exercises, with quality resistance, using quality form, we will get the results we are so desperately seeking over doing something once for 60 minutes. The amount of time we commit to fitness will mean nothing if the quality of exercises is lacking or nonexistent. Ten squats of good form, using proper resistance, being done on a daily basis are going to gain better results than 50 squats done poorly without proper resistance being done once a week. 

When quantity leads to doing too much…

I have talked about our go big or go home attitude in our culture and how it also permeates our thinking when it comes to our health and fitness in previous posts, and this is just as relevant when it comes to pushing our minds and bodies past the point of healthy to unhealthy practices and even to the point of injury. Especially when we do this just to satisfy that more is better, go big or go home mentality. When your working out to the point where your form quality becomes obsolete and your body has to overcompensate for poor form, which can lead to injury, the quantity of your workout makes no difference because you’re no longer able to keep up your fitness routine do to injury, If you find that the quantity of your workouts often leads you to be either too sore or even injured to consistently workout on a daily basis you will not be able to receive the benefits of what consistent fitness can give both your body and mind. 

Think about when you want to have a healthier diet. Maybe you want to eat more fruits and vegetables and eat less fast food. On a Sunday you decide you want a have a healthier diet, and come up with a plan to eat nothing but fruit and vegetables every day that week to be healthier.You do great all day Sunday, meeting your all or nothing goal, but on Monday, with work, and kids, and schedules, and to-dos, etc.or simply being unsatisfied with a limited array of food, you’re not able to keep that all veggie and fruit diet, and since you cannot commit to this all or nothing diet, you give up. Eating fast food for the rest of the week. Just like one healthy eating day a week will not give you the benefits of a consistent, daily healthy diet, one 60 minute a week workout will not give you the benefits of consistent, daily workouts.

Attainable workouts that we can accomplish everyday are going to enable us to reach our goals and create a sustainable fitness lifestyle for the rest of our lives.