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Maintaining Your Fitness Momentum
February 13, 2012
Gold’s Gym - Capitol Hill
Keeping it real with self honesty
When health related changes didn’t work, why didn't they work?
If we have repeatedly tried to lose weight and keep it off, go to the
gym on a regular basis, or stay away from unhealthy foods, we know
the reasons why we failed.
We have the capacity to determine our…
sabotages
Some of the most common sabotages are:
- looking for perfect information from perfect (people like us) people (terminal uniqueness)
- structuring of physical and mental time
- inability to keep the focus on ourselves
- not developing a plan that includes incremental goals
- thinking you can do it on your own
Self-reinforcing behavior
Looking for change and appreciating your effort is a key element. If we don’t recognize our smallest change and celebrate them, we are likely to frame this change as doing what other people naturally do.
Measurement of both internal and external signs of signs allows
the change to become self-reinforcing more quickly.
Getting the most from your time and effort.
Most of us have a limited time that we can spend in the gym. Make every minute count.
Knowledge of what works
Know the heart rate that you need to reach for your particular cardiovascular goal and know how to monitor this. Know basic rules of strength training and the physiology of muscle growth. Know the processes not to use.
Have knowledge of the many variables. Just as variable cardio training is useful, variable in strength training keep you routine fresh and prevents muscle…
Habituation. Just as we become accustomed to sounds,
odors, and sights, our muscles habituate the same exercises
Making a place for fitness your domain
Attitude and motivation
You control your attitude; it is an inside job. We can choose to be
disgruntled and unhappy while looking for deficits instead of
strengths. A strategically placed stick-note that says “I control my
attitude” can go a long way toward changing our attitude and our structure of mental time.
Vision: What will your end product look, act and fell like?
How will other perceive you differently? Without a vision,
We often find that we are lost in a sea of the expectations of
others. To keep your vision, we can use…
Symbols for all of your senses to keep the vision alive.
Challenge yourself to develop visual, auditory, olfactory, and
tactile symbols that keep you focused on you goals and vision.
When you don’t meet your personal goals, don’t use justification, rationalization, intellectualization. Recognize that, just as relapse is a part of recovery, you are working long-term to improve your health and wellness. This isn’t about losing 10 pounds to look good at an up-coming event.
A contract with yourself
Who is the change for and why? If it isn’t for you it isn’t going to last.
Cost/benefit analysis – if the benefit really isn’t worth the cost, we
aren’t going to do it for the long-term.
Support and the many options – we can select our support system.
Identifying the linkages of lifestyle changes allows us to take advantage of the self-reinforcing nature of health-related change and the accompanying lifestyle change.
Functional training and the benefits
Contemplate the difference between continual improvement versus maintaining change.
Prepared by Herman “Ray” Barber, MSW, Ph.D.
ACE Personal Trainer and NSPA Conditioning Specialist
docray@me.com
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