There is only one reason to touch a barbell or treadmill- to drive adaptation to get Results. You want results from fitness training, but more importantly, you need them.
At StratFit our whole purpose is developing and implementing systems for you to achieve your goals and live your best life. This is the only way to reach personal fulfillment, but more importantly, the world needs the best version of you. You don’t know what you can achieve and how much meaning you can add to the world until you have reached and lived at your best. That is why you need to train.
In the last article, I outlined a few of the well-known long-term benefits of training and keyed in on the exciting short-term benefits of training for all areas of your life.
That article likely got you interested and motivated. Everyone gets motivated to start exercising from time to time. But as I have said in many places, 90% of people quit the gym within the first 90 days. The missing ingredient is sustained motivation.
So how can we sustain the initial rush of motivation? First, meditate on and find your own personal purpose for training. That is your reason for reading this article and even thinking about exercise at all. Once, you have found your purpose you need a new way of thinking that becomes a process of action. That new way we call ODMR: Objectivity, Discipline, Motivation, Results.
The power of ODMR lies in the linear causal linkage between each element; being Objective leads to Discipline, Discipline leads to Motivation, and sustained Motivation leads to Results.
Being Objective
The first condition for improving anything is being objective from the start. Before trying to improve your fitness we have to measure and test the important metric about your physical state and performance. At StratFit we use only the most objective measurements and tests to assess the Pillars of Your Fitness. Before we start training we measure or test your Stability, Strength, Endurance, Power, and Body composition with the most important exercises.
Once we have these results we know exactly where you stand—knowing that we will show you the Objective way to improve each of your pillars.
You might dread stepping on the scale, testing your vertical jump or bench press, or seeing where your Vo2 Max is but to begin the fitness journey we have to know where we’re embarking from; we have to be OBJECTIVE.
Becoming Disciplined
Once you know where you stand and the process to get to the next level, becoming Disciplined is a matter of course.
Periodic checks-ins of your body composition and performance metrics inform you about the process and keep you objective. This clears the mind and a clear mind is Disciplined.
A Disciplined mind can always push the body to be consistent, and this consistency is what gets you to the gym each day.
Finally Motivation
There is an interesting psychological transformation that occurs after one is disciplined for a long enough period- Discipline morphs into Motivation.
Discipline is the power to stay consistent by pushing yourself to act even when you don’t necessarily want to.
Motivation is the desire to act, wanting to do something.
Essentially what happens is you are disciplined for some time when training isn't very enjoyable yet and you haven’t seen any noticeable results. You're getting through it with the force of the mind.
Little by little you begin to notice that you feel better throughout your days and your performance in other areas of life begins to improve.
This tends to occur around the same time you start to enjoy training during the sessions- you directly feel the invigoration of the physical exertion and want to do it just for the sake of it; here training becomes autotelic.
au·to·tel·ic
/ˌôdōˈtelik,ˌädōˈtelik/
adjective
(of an activity or a creative work) having an end or purpose in itself.
Having Motivation is more enjoyable for the mind than being disciplined so when this transformation occurs staying consistent becomes a matter of course.
From time to time you will still have days you are tired and you won’t feel motivated, at those times you have to fall back on Discipline, but that becomes rarer and rarer.
The Whole Point- RESULTS
How the last step of the ODMR process occurs is now obvious. Once you’re consistently motivated your effort levels will be sufficient day-in and day-out and you won’t miss many sessions.
Your mind will be clear and won't fall for exercise fads and gimmicks.
Achieving training Results will naturally follow.
Assessing the Results should be just as Objective as the initial testing.
You start the entire process again but at a higher level. Building and perfecting the pillars of your fitness is a life-long quest for you to become the best version of you and sustain it. You need it. The world needs it.
Contact us when you’re ready to get to the next level and beyond.