5 Fitness Goal Mistakes – And The Best ‘Fixes’
Lachlan Rowston — co-founder of Lockeroom – the private personal training gym for business executives
1. Too Aggressive From The Outset
Don’t go in too hard – look to build up to things, because an unrealistic workload and intensity from week one simply isn’t sustainable.
Fix: Look at fitness and personal training as a lifelong journey — what can you sustain for five years and not just five weeks. Shift your perspective and timeline to eye off long-term success. Each week your routine should make you feel like you’re holding yourself back and wanting more, not hanging on for dear life.
2. Overly Expectant With Results
Too many people want change to occur in just days. They want personal trainers to get them results overnight— the reality is it takes months to see small changes and years to see permanent changes. The thing is, your body is always trying to pull you back to ‘homeostasis’ (your ‘normal weight’) – that is, if you’ve weighed 100kg for the last 10 years and you’d done some great work and got down to 90kg, your body will actually then fight for months to get the weight back on whilst it adjusts to the new weight you’ve achieved. This is simply an inbuilt survival mechanism we all possess. Change is hard, maintenance is best.
Fix: What people who are in shape need to do to maintain involves a lot less, and is a lot easier, than what they had to do to change to that body – so don’t try to copy them. Once you achieve your ideal bodyweight, maintain that for 6-12 months to achieve a new homeostasis.
Be patient and stop looking in the mirror every day — you won’t see a difference for some time.
Lockeroom co-founders Raphael Freedman and Lachlan Rowston.
3. An All Or Nothing Mindset
People say, ‘I’m a person who’s either 100% or nothing.’ Well, this is the fastest way to fail because it’s completely inflexible as it allows for no errors. Quitting an entire personal training plan because of one missed workout is like getting a flat tyre and slashing the other three — it’s stupid.
Fix: Adopt a 90/10 rule for the first six months, 80/20 for the next six to indefinite. This means 90% on track following a personal training plan, 10% off the personal training plan and so on. The initial stages are harder, so allow less deviation, but as the good habits become more ingrained and the likelihood of a stumble is less likely, you can allow more freedom.
4. Processed Goals Over Results-Based Goals
Meaning, tell yourself (and follow through) on attending the gym or your personal trainer twice a week, every week for 6 months – not, ‘I must lose 8kg in 8 weeks.’ Success comes from creating new habits /processes — results are just a side effect of this. Saying, ‘I want to lose 10kg in 6 months’ has no inbuilt plan as to how to get there – and opens you up and exposes you to unhealthy methods.
Fix: Set yourself daily and weekly process goals — write them down. Do only one a week, if you fail in that week, repeat that one the next week. In theory, and with no slip-ups, you’ll have four new habits by the end of the first month.
5. No External Accountability
It’s nice to believe in ourselves, but most people’s fitness track records look like a train wreck of crash dieting and yo-yo weight gain. Everyone on this earth performs better with some accountability – simple! No skin in the game means no result.
Fix: Get some skin in the game by posting on socials and getting a personal trainer, telling friends you’re goals and hwo youre getting there, hire a trainer. Hell, back yourself and put a bet on the line – e.g. “tell an ex you’ll send them $1,000 if you don’t lose the weight by a nominated date.” Yeah, that’s some accountability right there.