Why is it important to stay consistent when starting your fitness journey?
First lets define consistency. In the context of fitness, it simply means the act of showing up and getting the work done regularly.
Reason one we want to stay consistent is that things don’t just happen in a split second–you’ll need time to get stronger, build muscle, and lose fat. You’re not going to do a set of hamstring curls one day and wake up with massive hamstrings or be abel to squat 300 Ibs. Your efforts add up, and maybe even compound, over time.
The second reason to stay consistent is keeping a consistent workout routine helps prevent tightness in the muscles, which leads to better performance. Furthermore, the more inconsistent your exercising, the more you’re likely to fatigue. Fatigue is one of the major culprits of both acute injuries and overuse injuries.
The third reason why consistency is key is to form good habits. It’s that your habits, rituals and behaviors you perform automatically are grounded in consistency. Just so you know, your habits (e.g. reaching out for a pint of ice cream instead of working out after work) don’t just appear out of nowhere. They aren’t the results of genetics or random chance. Instead, they’re merely products of your behavior, accumulated over repeated instances. For instance, you wake up at 5 am one day to work out and go about your business as usual. You wake up the next day at 5 am, work out again, and resume your regular activities. After a few days of this, you’re almost going to feel like you’re ‘programmed’ to wake up at 5 am. And you’d feel off the entire day if you don’t get to break a sweat. Imaginably, relying on your habits to get you to the gym is much better than simply sitting around and waiting for motivation to hit you.
Stay consistent, form good habits, get fit and live a happy life!
