Life goals that add meaning to our lives are rarely handed to us on a silver platter. This holds for fitness goals and the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle such as attending martial arts classes. In addition to putting in the work, you need to stick with your fitness plan in the long term.
Staying The Course When Obstacles Get In The Way
A long-term commitment to your fitness plan may sound doable in the context of a conversation or a passing thought. Yet the reality may feel different in the weeks and months to follow after paying for that gym or studio membership.
Chances are that most of us will deal with roadblocks as we follow our fitness plans. These roadblocks are part of the process, so we have to navigate around them.
Here are the most common roadblocks that will randomly pop up on your fitness journey. Each of them has a solution, so we’ll also talk about solutions.
1) A Casual (Half-Hearted) Approach To Fitness
Set attainable short-term goals when training in martial arts. Subsequently, more long-term goals that you can achieve gradually.
Fitness goals and New Year resolutions start with high energy and high hopes, but many fail. The ones that work have a secret ingredient: A workable plan that delivers results.
Take an open-ended fitness goal like “I’m going to lose weight this year”. This is a non-specific goal that’s easy to ditch, thanks to a lack of milestones and timelines. The ‘plan’ leaves plenty of room to freestyle your fitness journey, with unpredictable results like quitting.
How To Prevent The Failure That Results From A Casual Approach To Fitness
Have a plan that details what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it. Start by setting a very specific goal, like “I aim to gain muscle tone and lose 40 pounds in eight months”. Already this goal is focusing your mind and holding you accountable with a target weight and a timeline.
Now figure out the different exercises, workouts, and nutrition plans that you need for your goals. This step forces you to find information from professionals, or through your research. At this point, you’re mentally investing in your fitness journey and your chances of success are growing.
Next, use the information you gather to create a fitness plan with realistic milestones. The plan should start with moderate changes to your diet and workouts that you can manage. This plan should gradually shift towards more demanding workouts to match your improving fitness. To recap, this is what your action plan should look like:
- Break down the main goal into smaller goals (create milestones).
- Be specific and deliberate in terms of the different exercises that go into your workouts.
- Figure out the length of your workouts.
Depending on the nature and duration of your workout sessions, figure out when and where you’ll exercise. Your plan should also take your schedule, habits, and personal preferences into account.
2) A Hectic Schedule (And Everything That Comes With It)
At Evolve MMA, we offer a diverse range of class schedules that accommodate different timings, starting as early as 6:30 AM and extending as late as 11:00 PM!
Work, family commitments, school, and social commitments take up the bulk of our time. For many of us, the long hours that go into adult stuff leave little time for anything else. Fitting workout sessions into busy, draining days then becomes a challenge that requires a creative mind or super-human abilities.
Overcoming A Tight Schedule And Fatigue To Achieve Your Fitness Goals
Even a light exercise such as walking, jogging, or cycling will take you a long way.
Nothing good comes easily, so we have to be creative when fitting workouts into a tight schedule. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Incorporate exercise into stuff that you have to do anyway. You could turn quality time with the kids into a fun-filled cardio session. Try the same tactic with errands by biking or walking to different places.
- Use your lunch break for a short walk, a lunchtime jog, or a half-hour gym session.
- Have short workout sessions during the week and longer workout sessions on the weekend, when you have a little more free time.
- Schedule your workouts at the time of day or week when you have the most energy.
- Multi-task by exercising while doing laundry, or as dinner cooks in the oven.
- Tone your muscles at your desk if you have a desk job. Towards this end, keep dumbbells or an exercise tube at your workstation.
Guerilla fitness may seem like an extra weight on top of a heavy load, but it’s easier than it sounds. Here’s a fun fact to encourage you: It takes as little as six to ten minutes of daily exercise to wire your brain to seek out exercise, so every bit of effort helps.
3) Unrealistic Fitness Goals
Schemes like crash diets that promise results in two weeks cater to the human appetite for a quick fix. These kinds of short-term interventions yield temporary, often unhealthy results. Unrealistic fitness goals are also a sure recipe for frustration and a loss of motivation.
Avoiding Unrealistic Fitness Goals
There’s a difference between ambition and impossible goals that drive you to chase wild schemes. Learning the difference equips you to pursue a fitness plan with lasting results. Use the following tips to craft realistic fitness plans:
- Pursue martial arts like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai to benefit from a well-structured fitness plan.
- Avoid comparing yourself with other people because we each have unique responses to different interventions.
- It’s always a good idea to consult a trainer that can cater to your unique needs.
- Build your fitness plan with smaller, more short-term goals.
A long-term view that focuses on short-term goals keeps you from chasing the latest trends and fads. This mindset also helps you to remain consistent in your fitness journey.
4) Lack Of Consistency
Maintaining a consistent schedule conditions your body effectively, bringing you one step closer to your goal with each session.
A consistent workout schedule gets the body into a rhythm that enhances its base functions. Creating this rhythm improves the body’s physiology by:
- Conditioning the heart, lungs, and blood vessels.
- Building muscle mass and increasing metabolism.
- Strengthening the body’s muscular, skeletal, and nervous structures.
Skipping workouts keeps the body from falling into a beneficial rhythm. Instead, the body ends up playing catchup when you finally resume your workouts. The time that the body uses to regain lost ground should be going into reaching and surpassing multiple fitness milestones.
Dealing With Stagnation In Your Fitness Journey
The solution is to change your workouts regularly, with the following steps:
- Increasing the number of reps you do in one minute or one set.
- Use heavier weights or more resistance as you exercise.
- Completely change the types of exercises in your workouts.
- Increase the difficulty level of your exercises.
These simple measures should be enough to keep the body from falling into a comfortable, stagnant state.
5) Overlooking The Roles Of Diet And Rest
A nutritious diet will aid you in achieving your fitness goals faster and also make you feel better entirely.
Exercise can’t compensate for a poor diet, a lack of rest, or substance abuse. This is why an effective fitness trainer includes nutrition and rest days in their clients’ fitness plans.
The Solution
Use research or professional guidance to create meal plans that complement your lifestyle, schedule, and fitness plan. A good plan will enforce gradual shifts toward a healthier diet that you can stick with. Your meal plan should feature tasty, nutrient-rich foods that help with your fitness goals.
The overall plan will also factor meal preparation and rest days into its timetable.
Roadblocks Are Easier To Conquer When You Have A Helping Hand
Life has plenty of surprises for us, even when we’re busy with our dreams and goals. The best we can do is to adapt and evolve when roadblocks get in the way. This means that a flexible, resilient mindset will be an important asset in your fitness journey.
You’ll also need people to cheer you on as you achieve your mini-goals. Your cheer squad will keep you accountable and motivate you on the hard days. Consider signing up for group activities like martial arts training and high-intensity interval training where you get to make new friends and have fun while you exercise.
Book your complimentary trial class with our World Champions below!
If you have any other questions regarding Evolve MMA and the programs we offer, you can get in touch with our membership executives at the following locations:
Evolve MMA (Far East Square)
26 China Street
Far East Square #01-01
Singapore 049568
Phone: (65) 6536 4525
Evolve MMA (Orchard Central)
181 Orchard Road
#06-01 Orchard Central
Singapore 238896
Phone: (65) 6536 4556
Evolve MMA (KINEX)
11 Tanjong Katong Road
#02-52 KINEX
Singapore 437157
Phone: (65) 6288 2293
Evolve MMA (Clarke Quay Central)
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#04-18 Clarke Quay Central
Singapore 059817
Phone: (65) 6226 2150
Evolve MMA (Star Vista)
1 Vista Exchange Green
#02-26A The Star Vista
Singapore 138617
Phone: (65) 6539 9590
