5 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Working Out\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
I\u2019ve been training consistently for roughly 10 years, and over that time I\u2019ve made plenty of mistakes. I\u2019ve even repeated some of those mistakes more times than I care to admit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Looking back on the past decade, I\u2019m glad I made all those mistakes. I was able to learn from my mistakes and grow as a person and coach.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n
No one is inherently good at \u201cexercising.\u201d We\u2019re all human and we all make mistakes. Mistakes lead to frustration, which eventually leads to us giving up. If you\u2019ve even been at that point where you feel like you\u2019ve tried everything and nothing works, you\u2019re not alone.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n
To help you all on your fitness journey, I want to share 5 things I wish I knew when I started working out.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n
Nutrition is king<\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
: We\u2019ve all been told \u201cyou can\u2019t out-train a bad diet.\u201d If you\u2019re anything like, me you\u2019ll try your hardest to prove that sentiment wrong. I tried for about 6 years…turns out it’s true! Unless you\u2019re an ironman athlete training 3 hours a day of Michael Phelps, no amount of exercise will ever balance out a poor diet. It wasn\u2019t until I made serious changes to my nutrition that I started to see results. I started to prioritize real, whole foods and put more value into meal prepping than training. Does moving the scale feel like an uphill battle? Chances are that you need to overhaul your nutrition. Until you do that, you\u2019ll be fighting an impossible fight.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Progress is not linear:<\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
You\u2019ll have your good days\/weeks\/months and your not-so-good and that\u2019s ok. I was so wrapped up in the \u201cmicro\u201d, constantly checking my progress every month to see what changed. My happiness rode on that tiny snapshot. Forget the fact that I may have doubled my pull ups over the past year or lost 30lbs. If I didn\u2019t see a significant change every 30 days, I failed. If you have this viewpoint, you\u2019re setting yourself up for failure and disappointment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Don\u2019t compare yourself to others:<\/p>\n
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If you want to compete with others on how much you can lift or how well you look in a bathing suit, there are plenty of competitions for that (don\u2019t forget your spray tan). But if your goal is to become the best version of YOU, don\u2019t waste your time comparing yourself to other people. There will always be someone stronger, fitter, leaner, or more jacked than you. Worry about yourself and becoming the best version of you there’s ever been.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Find your why:<\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
Working out isn\u2019t always fun. Eating healthy isn\u2019t always fun. Going to bed early isn\u2019t always fun. Getting up early isn\u2019t always fun. None of these things will ever be easy, and none of these things will ever be that enjoyable. So if you\u2019re hoping to get results that stand the test of time you better have a pretty damn good reason to do the work. When I started training, my why was probably the same as every other bro in the weight room at Penn State, and at that time in my life that was a good enough reason to do the work. As I\u2019ve matured, my why has matured. My purpose for training is what drives me to eat the way I do, sleep the way I do, train the way I do, and live the way I do. I want to be healthier at 30 than I was at 20, I want to be stronger at 40 than I was at 30, and I want to feel younger at 50 than I did at 40. Every decision I make regarding my health either pushes me closer to these goals, or pulls me further away. What is your why? Do you want to get off your blood pressure medicine, keep up with your children or grandchildren, fit into your clothes from college, do your first pull up? Identify what your why is and everything gets easier.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Be patient and accepting:<\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
When it comes to getting healthy, there is no end date. There is no level of strength, fitness, or body composition that signifies the end of the journey. When you commit to your health, you commit to living a healthy lifestyle forever. Until you make that commitment, you\u2019re kinda just pretending. Sure, you might drop a few pounds, shed some inches, or gain some muscle mass. But without a real commitment, it’s only a matter of time before you fall back to where you were when you started. For the first five to six years of training I got bored a lot! I fell victim to chasing what was next. I constantly hopped from program to program and diet to diet. I never stayed with one thing long enough to let it work! That\u2019s what we do. We want results right now, and if we don\u2019t get them, we move on. \u201cThat diet doesn\u2019t work,\u201d \u201cthis gym sucks\u201d \u201cthat trainer doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s doing.\u201d We never let the hard work pay off, because we quit before we let it. Patience is a virtue. Those of us who are the most patient will see the most change. Don\u2019t take my word? Try it for yourself.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol><\/div>\n
I could probably have a list of 100, but these five have been the most powerful \u201cmistakes\u201d I\u2019ve made throughout my fitness career. If you have any questions, or if you’d like to share some lessons learned of you own, I\u2019d love to hear them.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n
5 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Working Out\u00a0 I\u2019ve been training consistently for roughly 10 years, and over that time I\u2019ve made plenty of mistakes. I\u2019ve even repeated some of those mistakes more times than I care to admit.\u00a0 Looking back on the past decade, I\u2019m glad I made all those mistakes. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_wp_attached_file":null,"_wp_attachment_backup_sizes":null,"_wp_attachment_metadata":null,"_elementor_code":null,"_elementor_location":null,"_elementor_priority":null,"import_errors":null,"import_feed_limit":null,"import_info":null,"import_post_content":null,"import_post_status":null,"import_post_title":null,"import_post_type":null,"imported_items_count":null,"imported_items_hash":null,"last_run":null,"last_run_id":null,"source":null,"_menu_item_classes":null,"_menu_item_menu_item_parent":null,"_menu_item_object":null,"_menu_item_object_id":null,"_menu_item_target":null,"_menu_item_type":null,"_menu_item_url":null,"_menu_item_xfn":null,"_wp_old_date":null,"_has_fluentform":null,"_encloseme":null,"_oembed_0adae7e862bca11131c6787f8be710b3":null,"_oembed_1ac191dbaa745b6d2afe1f9df8974842":null,"_oembed_22bf6e6fc6bbe1cb9b3f46587b2d284e":null,"_oembed_400e0583f10c9af064d1d27d296af1ac":null,"_oembed_67135f6a2a81f6972572b7b9daf5de41":null,"_oembed_af23f4638c415d32b8ddb54cdfc7eb43":null,"_oembed_c91bb95746f43b53cfc236318dcde2f3":null,"_oembed_ed5df8101219fab1e558a75871d8bcf8":null,"_oembed_fbe77649558e75c65ee10fe60e8e9b36":null,"_oembed_time_0adae7e862bca11131c6787f8be710b3":null,"_oembed_time_1ac191dbaa745b6d2afe1f9df8974842":null,"_oembed_time_22bf6e6fc6bbe1cb9b3f46587b2d284e":null,"_oembed_time_400e0583f10c9af064d1d27d296af1ac":null,"_oembed_time_67135f6a2a81f6972572b7b9daf5de41":null,"_oembed_time_af23f4638c415d32b8ddb54cdfc7eb43":null,"_oembed_time_c91bb95746f43b53cfc236318dcde2f3":null,"_oembed_time_ed5df8101219fab1e558a75871d8bcf8":null,"_pingme":null,"_wp_old_slug":null,"feedzy":"1","feedzy_item_author":"","feedzy_item_url":"http:\/\/www.gagestrengthtraining.com\/5-things-i-wish-i-knew-when-i-started-working-out","feedzy_job":"1510","feedzy_job_time":"1618373138","_elementor_screenshot":null,"wprss_feed_image":null,"wprss_feed_is_updating":null,"wprss_last_update":null,"wprss_last_update_items":null,"wprss_limit":null,"wprss_site_url":null,"wprss_url":null,"wprss_best_image":null,"wprss_feed_id":null,"wprss_images":null,"wprss_item_author":null,"wprss_item_author_email":null,"wprss_item_author_link":null,"wprss_item_date":null,"wprss_item_enclosure":null,"wprss_item_enclosure_type":null,"wprss_item_permalink":null,"wprss_item_source_name":null,"wprss_item_source_url":null,"wprss_template_type":null,"_edit_last":null,"_edit_lock":null,"_wp_trash_meta_status":null,"_wp_trash_meta_time":null,"_elementor_conditions":null,"_elementor_controls_usage":null,"_elementor_css":null,"_elementor_data":null,"_elementor_edit_mode":null,"_elementor_global_widget_included_posts":null,"_elementor_page_settings":null,"_elementor_pro_version":null,"_elementor_screenshot_failed":null,"_elementor_template_type":null,"_elementor_template_widget_type":null,"_elementor_version":null,"_wp_page_template":null,"_wp_desired_post_slug":null,"rank_math_analytic_object_id":"68","rank_math_internal_links_processed":"1","rank_math_seo_score":null,"_thumbnail_id":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gagestrengthtraining.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gagestrengthtraining.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gagestrengthtraining.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gagestrengthtraining.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gagestrengthtraining.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gagestrengthtraining.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gagestrengthtraining.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gagestrengthtraining.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gagestrengthtraining.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}