I was totalling up my exercise session count from last year. I did 367 exercise sessions from May 1st 2012 to May 2013.
here is how it broke down –
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Total Exercise Sessions – 367 Sessions
Weight Training Sessions – 238
Fitness Sessions – 129
Days off Exercise – 80
Average Sessions per day – 1 / day
Ave session excluding off days – 1.3/ day
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Well this is all well and good what would be more interesting to you would be to understand my motivations around this exercise load. At 1 exercise session a day you would have to say I am pretty “motivated” to do exercise. I would say it is more than motivation, it is simply part and parcel of what I do and who I am. It is a natural thing to do and thus motivation to do it is not overly important.
This point can be seen when you look at my pre session, in session and post session motivation and experience. It would break down to something like this –
**************** Pre Session Motivation ************
Sessions I was super pumped and keen to do – 52 (1/week)
Sessions I was wanting to do – 104 (2 / week)
Sessions I didn’t really want to do – 104-156 (2-3/week)
Sessions I completely against doing – 52-104 – (1-2 / week)
******************** In-session Motivation***********
Sessions I was on fire – 52-104 (1-2/week)
Session I was pretty good – 156 (3 /week)
Sessions I was ok to poor – 52-104 (1-2/week)
Sessions I was pathetic – 52 (1 week)
******************Post Session Feeling**************
Pumped – 104 (2/week)
Good – 240
Bad – 15-20 ( only when irritated an injury and knew it would happen beforehand yet still trained)
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What am I saying???
Ok, to sum it up – I exercised every day and felt great after pretty much every session. However, I only wanted to exercise about half of the time and my performance in the session were below par in about 40% of the sessions I did.
The funny thing is how you define a below par session. This is normally the feeling I could have done more and I did feel that energised or motivated compared to normal. However, if you review the workload done objectively you will see a below bar session is still probably 80-90% of a fully pumped and excited session.
This is why you get great results simply by showing up week to week. The below par sessions were pretty much as good as a fully pumped up session bar just a 10-20% difference. If I should be running speed 10 I went at speed 9, if I was meant to lift 100kg I moved 80kg, instead of 15 minutes running I just did 10min. Compare this with the alternative and you see that sitting in on the sofa watching TV is not even in the same league as the debate of whether to go speed 8 or 10. Speed 0 is much much slower!
What does it mean for you?
It means if you want to consistently exercise you have to distance yourself from the pre session feeling and forget “reviewing” how good your session was as a basis for deciding if you should go again. instead you need to just focus on doing the exercise session after session.
Keys for doing this!
I wrote about this in my book, the two biggest killers of exercise are –
– Setting a minimum time of doing exercise
– Setting a minimum threshold of doing exercise
When motivation is low your pre conceived ideas of having to do “25 minutes” or having to go at speed 12 will be enough for you to pull every excuse in the book. Your main focus should be deciding on whatever gets you through the door. Once you have a got yourself into the gym, out into the park, onto the road or the spare workout room……..Just get going…….focus on your set out minimum plan. If after warm up you want to do more then do so, if not, then don’t!” Forget evaluating how good the session was, simply congratulate yourself for doing a session and then return the next day or similar for more.
Keep doing this and before you know it you will never be missing an exercise session and in 12 months time you would have chalked up many exeercise sessions. Now that is what the basis of results is about!!!
Wednesday – Sunday
The After the previous fat stripping days I returned to more muscle building nutrition, though I was a little low on the goal protein intake, the rest of the numbers were fairly accurate.
Diet – Protein – 160g, Carbs – 348g, fat – 96g, calories – 2895 , % P: 22 C : 48% F: 30%
Exercise – Weights – 3 session, Fitness – 2 sessions
Weight – 73.4 kg average Body fat – 42 mm*
Supplements – Protein shakes
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*This is my own 10 point self measurement system, it does not correlate to body fat scores. At a guess 40mm – 7.5%, 50mm – 9.5%, 60mm – 11%, 70mm – 12.5%. I do not take it everyday if looking to gain muscle or maintain as it puts me off wanting to eat more. If on fat loss phase i take it daily.
** All reference to people, their goals, their jobs and even when i met them are completely distorted from the actual person/event I am talking about…this keeps their privacy but they are based on real people with real stories.
Vauxhall & Victoria – For Personal Training in Vauxhall & Victoria please contact me. I am available for sessions in homes, private gyms or parks for Personal Training in Vauxhall & Victoria