Finding your soulmate is an important part of life, and it applies to your fitness journey as well. When it comes to deciding what you want to focus on fitnesswise, it can be tough because there are a lot of options out there. Today we are going to talk about finding your soulmate workout and why you should take the time to do it.Why is this important?

Figuring out what and who your workout soulmate are is super important to anyone’s fitness journey, especially in the beginning. The bottom line is setting yourself up for success. By figuring this out maybe even before you start will save you some time and help with consistency.

Motivation: Picking a discipline and sticking to it helps make your progress easier to measure in the beginning… remember, a lot of the things we are going to teach you require you to set a baseline.

• In the beginning it’s super difficult sometimes to find the motivation to stick with the changes you’re trying to make. Every person is individual, and motivation can be fleeting. Especially if it’s not something you’re used to doing. Setting a baseline of some kind is important because it helps give your motivation some stamina. In the beginning of my journey, I would find myself trying to find or make excuses not to go. 

Variety: You’re never gonna stick to something if you hate it, so take the time to find something you really like. If a certain workout interests you, check it out. If you like it, now you know where to start when it comes to building a training plan. Once you figure out what training style you like, the options are nearly limitless.

It helps you make clear goals: If you decide to start lifting weights today, you can set very specific training goals for both the short and long term. Same goes for running, swimming, biking, anything really… once you have a loose trajectory, you can start fine-tuning details. This will help you stay motivated when you don’t always feel like getting it done.

• Making a list of small, attainable goals is a super great idea. It gives you something to work toward, and the reward is attaining it. Then you continue to build off those goals. Do you want to be faster? Do you want to be stronger? What is it that you want to get out of yourself? How do you want to push yourself? Do you just want to consistently go for 3 months? 

MOTIVATION

1. Staying motivated can be difficult some days, so when it comes to your training sessions, you want to take away all of the guesswork if you can. When you look for your first love, make sure there are plenty of well-established plans out there. Sign up for some free samples or scope out some youtube videos.
2. Motivation is rough. I always found myself WANTING to get in better shape, but never wanting to stick with it. I would get bored. Or I was tired. Or I felt intimidated that day. The list goes on. If there was an excuse to find, I would find it. And then, I found a gym I liked. And a workout buddy I didn’t mind going with. And then,  I stopped making so many excuses because  I enjoyed what  I was doing. On the days I “didn’t feel like it” I would just yell go, go, go in my head and  I’d fucking go anyway. There’s a saying: you’ll never regret going, but you’ll always regret not going. My cue was wanting do keep doing what i was doing, which was nothing. So I changed my routine, and went anyway. And then it just became what I DID

Figure out what you really like… because you’re never going to stick to something you hate. Do you like hiking? Swimming? Running? Weights? Barre? Yoga? Bodycombat? Turbofire? Try it. It’s all fair game, what’s important is you find something you truly enjoy AND DON’T BE AFRAID TO MODIFY MOVEMENTS WHILE YOU’RE STARTING OUT.

• Other things to also consider: time of day will matter for you, the type of workout you choose to start will matter. The person or people you’re working out with will matter. You want to find someone that makes you want to push yourself. 
• You’re not going to lift 350lbs right out the gate. Making sure you have your movements down and you’re using correct form before ever adding more weight.

TRACK YOUR PROGRESS – take photos and measurements, remember, like the scale…all you’re doing here is collecting data. Nobody else ever has to see these photos and numbers if you don’t want them to, they exist for you to reference in the future, that’s it. Future you will be glad you took measurements so you can see how far you’ve come.

• Oh goodness. I wish I had taken progress photos and measurements wayyyy longer ago than I did. I Have been doing this a long time, in and out. I officially took my first ever progress photos almost exactly one year ago, and my first actual measurements. I can tell based on how my clothes fit and every once and a while I catch a muscle in the mirror that I didn’t notice before. The kicker here? I weigh about 20lbs more than I did a year ago at this time, but  I don’t look like I’ve gained any weight. The scale is only a reference point. You have a weight RANGE. And that number does not define your progress.

VARIETY

It’s the spice of…whatever, you know the saying. Once you’ve settled on a training method, you can start to look around and see what’s out there. Do you like TurboFire? Dope, check out other Chalene Johnson videos. Do you like BodyCombat? Look for other Les Mills programs. Do you think lifting weights is cool? Check out any of the stacks of weightlifting books online and find a plan that works for you. Take advantage of trial memberships to gyms and fitness studios too… give them a couple of workouts to see if it’s something you like, if it isn’t, you’re not out anything other than the time you took to try something new.

• With anything else, the key to this aspect of your journey is balance. You’re going to have to do some more homework here. Figuring out what you LIKE to do in the gym takes some time, and sometimes you’ll surprise yourself with what you like. I used to HATE running, or at least that’s something I had told myself because  I had never really given it a chance. Now I love it. 
• Most gyms offer a variety of classes. I’d start by picking a couple and just trying them out to see if it’s something you might like. You might have to go a couple times to really see if it’s something you’re digging.
• Orangetheory is a good place to go, they offer a couple of free classes and they do a combo of weights and cardio in their 1 hour classes. They also have a variety of class times during the day. 
• Most gyms also will do a free consultation with a personal trainer if you just have no idea where to start. 

You need to build some variety into your routine to keep yourself from getting bored, because sometimes discipline doesn’t outweigh motivation, so always have some go-to boredom busters in your training arsenal… 

Sadie: Personally when I’m feeling stale in a training cycle, I will program a heavy push-pull day for Phil and I… it’s movements we are super familiar with that we can do at a heavier weight and it won’t take as long as one of our traditional Olympic lifting sessions would. We still got a workout in, it wasn’t what was on the schedule that day, but it doesn’t matter how you check the box, as long as you got work in that day.

• Sausha: We are human, so we’re naturally going to get bored at some point. Sometimes when I’m feeling that way, I’ll even bust out some of the old workout dvds that  I hung onto for times like that. They’re quick hitters at about 30-60 minutes and It gets me through that boredom. When and if you’re feeling bored, that’s also a perfect time to try out a new class that you haven’t tried yet.

Beginning fitness is kinda like dating. You’re going to meet people along the way; some will be like-minded, some won’t. Trying out these different training methods and mantras will help you find who and what you align with the most. If you really like something, dig into it 100%. You’ll find your community, you just don’t know where to look yet.

GOAL SETTING

Goal setting is a very important part of the fitness process: it helps you stay accountable and it shows you that you really are capable of any fucking thing you set your mind to if you’re patient enough to work towards it. You should always have some short term and long term fitness goals.
Sadie: When setting your goals, focus on one thing at a time, and accept that your goals will change. When I started, I was doing TurboFire, so my first goal was to finish the full program as provided by BeachBody… once I did that, I moved on to circuit training, then once I finished the cycle, I joined a gym… it’s a process, if you don’t want to start at a gym, you don’t have to.

Sausha: Goals are important, but the SCOPE of goal is probably the key. Like, sure, maybe you are wanting to drop some lbs, that’s an awesome goal. But don’t put so much pressure on yourself to try to lose 20 lbs a week. One: that’s not safe, and two: it sets you up for some kind of failure right out the gate. Maybe set goals of 5 lbs at a time, if losing weight is your goal. Regardless of goal, you also want to make them attainable for a secondary reason: this journey isn’t quick. Losing weight takes time. Building muscle takes time. Commitment and consistency take. Time. to. Learn. Set your goals, but also be patient with yourself in the process. Remind yourself that this is a journey, and likely, a lifestyle change. Those changes take time to take.

Own them. These are YOUR goals. You can make them be whatever you’d like… try not to go to Instagram for goal inspo, dig deep on this one. This is something incredibly personal to you, don’t half ass it.

• Think about any other goals you’ve set for yourself in your life. Once you accomplish one set, it’s on to the next, attainable set of goals. 

Make your goals measurable. Wanting to “run far” is great and all, but how far is “far” after six months or a year? Make your goals specific, you want to run? Set a goal to train for and participate in a 5K. If you like it, make your next goal 10K. 

Hopefully we’ve helped take away some of the stress that comes with starting a training program. Think about motivation, variety, and goal setting… does the program you’re looking at check those three boxes? If yes, happy training! If you’re struggling for ideas and don’t know where to look for inspiration, email us. We can help you find your soulmate. Next week, we’re gonna talk about that thing that everyone is afraid of… your first day at the gym. It’s really not such a scary place, we promise.

We repeat ourselves a lot, but what you’re doing is going to be repetitive. This journey is so much fun. It doesn’t have to suck. And part of the non suckage is figuring out what you like and what you don’t like. The type of workout you find yourself gravitating toward at the gym or in that class, and then when you start enjoying it, I can’t even put into words how cool that feels. I feel like that’s when everything we’ve been talking about thus far REALLY starts to click. Like, awesome, man, I figured out my food and nutrition, I figured out hwo to attack each week, and now I figured out what I want my fitness to look like. Once you have that building block, the fun is limitless. Honestly!