Happy New Year!
You read right. September 1st or the day after Labor Day signals the start of the real New Year.
It’s when summer ends, school starts, and much of the corporate world emerges from it’s summer siesta.
It’s also when many people decide it’s time to buckle down and get into or (back into shape. And as a coach I’m here for it, because this is the BEST time of year to get the muscle & fitness ball rolling.
Forget January 1st. That’s for the diet tourists, the folks who make annual half-drunk New Years resolutions to “finally change their lives and drop 20 pounds by April” but end up bailing on the idea every year around Groundhog Day, fittingly enough.
Also pass on the “first warm day of Spring, gotta get in shape for Summer” approach. This crew tends to be washouts from the January 1st crowd and usually disappear as soon as drinks-on-the-patio weather arrives.
Indeed, September is special. The month of change and transition, it’s perfect for a new beginning because it’s the time of year when we really prioritize STRUCTURE.
And that is the MOST important thing the typical mature, working adult needs to change their body and get healthy.
Yes, structure matters more than calories and cardio and lifting weights; more than every healthy habit you’ve ever read about COMBINED — because you need structure to do all those things repeatedly, consistently.
One hard workout or perfect meal doesn’t get you lean and fit — it’s many good workouts and meals and healthy acts repeated every day consistently for months, even years.
And structure makes achieving this level of consistency possible.
“We are what we repeatedly do, therefore, excellence is not an act, but a habit” – Aristotle
When I finally came to terms with how important structure is for a regular person trying to achieve their fitness goals it completely changed how I coach.
Today I won’t work with someone unless I can talk to them and get a very good idea of what a typical day & week is like. I certainly won’t write them a fitness program or attempt to coach them.
Your goals and exercise history is helpful info, but now tell me what your daily commute is like?
What are your sleep & wake times?
Are your kids heavily involved in after-school sports?
How much time for YOU do you really have?
Once I know someone’s structure I can use it as a frame on which to “hang” the essential acts that will bring them towards their needs & their goals, whether its exercise or meal prep or walking or regular sleep.
And if they DON’T have structure? Then helping them establish one is priority number one.
Of course, if you’re 21 years-old or are a full-time fitness bunny you probably have fewer obligations and don’t need this approach. You can just buy training programs that match your goals and follow them to a T, adjusting your eat-sleep-train lifestyle as needed.
That’s not hard to do when you’re single and work three nights a week as a bartender and have a pet cactus named Charles. It’s decidedly more difficult when you have other responsibilities beyond yourself.
Anyone in a tank-top can send you a program or a meal plan or “assign you macros.” If that was all thats required everyone would be lean, fit, and jacked right now.
What’s missing from that coaching approach is YOU.
And you deserve better.
-Coach Bryan