Introduction
Our primary topic this week will be consistency. Some key words that can define consistency are; regularity, dependability, steady, and uniformity. Knowing what, when, and how you are going to do something can fit into these words if it is prioritized. The word is not important, but your actions are. If your actions are consistent, you will have success!
I want to discuss a few areas that we hope to help you as you move through your journey at Prime and in life. Many people join a gym for one of a couple reasons. It can be to lose fat, gain muscle, live healthier, or improve their abilities for something. There can be many other reasons, but these are fairly common. The areas I will discuss about consistency are choosing your frequency, eating, sleeping, prioritization, and daily movement. We will dive a little deeper into a few of these areas to help you improve over the next few weeks as you are starting your journey at Prime.
Training Frequency
First, let’s talk about choosing your frequency. With the Spring Sprint Program, you are being given an opportunity to attend 3 Prime Performance Training sessions each week. If you have not been in a gym at any point in the last 6 months, or have never truly followed a strength training plan, I believe 2-3 days a week for this is an excellent choice. There is a common misconception that you must spend 5 days a week in the gym to achieve your goals. While that may be true for a high level athlete, most people are not that. Many of us have full time jobs, families, hobbies, and any of a million other things that take up our valuable time. We want to set you up for success and if you are going from zero days in the gym, how long will it take for you to burn-out with 5 days in the gym?
It takes 24-72 hours to recover from a high quality strength training session. People with less experience will be in that longer range more often. So if it takes 2-3 days to recover, that means your body is using the fuel you put inside of it to repair itself each of those days. This is not the same as soreness, in fact, you are probably going to be pretty sore the first couple weeks. As you get used to a new stimulus, the level of soreness will reduce week to week. However, the recovery process will continue to take most of those hours even if you are less sore.
With that said, how many days do you have time for? If you only had to make it 2 or 3 days a week, it is much easier to accomplish that as a mini-goal than it would be to hit 5 days a week. Also, you are probably going to feel better during those workouts and the days between. If you are feeling good and have time, we have a variety of MetCon classes you can attend as part of your package. Choose a frequency that you can be consistent with and celebrate each week you hit that frequency. If you do this for a month, you will see progress in your strength and a small step toward your long term goals. Do it for a year and I am certain you will accomplish whatever goal you set, so long as you are staying on top of a couple of the other things we are going to talk about.
Eating
Our second topic is eating. I’ll be the first to say, I love eating, I enjoy my meals everyday because I find food that tastes good and fits within my goals. There are a few things I want you to think about when choosing meals. Starting with those first two, does it taste good and does it fit your goals? A third, is it leaving you feeling full? If these are all being met with your primary meals, the desire to snack or continue eating should go away and stay away for a few hours, hopefully until your next meal. Satisfaction and satiety are two things that can trigger the desire to eat, and if they are not met, you are more likely to want more. I have had plenty of days where I try something new and it turns out awful. Even when I eat it all and should be full, the satisfaction is not met and I want something else that I enjoy. That is why both are equally important.
How does this play into consistency? Most people have some type of schedule. Most of us work and have a morning alarm, a lunch break, and whatever else you can think of that you do day to day. Some people do not work, but even then there is likely some type of morning routine or just a way you go about your days. In either situation, we need to do a little work in planning what meals we can eat and when. There should be some regularity in your 7 day schedule. Now, most people have different schedules M-F compared to the weekends, and that is fine, but it is why I choose the 7 day schedule. For building muscle, we need to eat a little more than we burn in a day with a focus on protein. For those looking to lose body fat, we need to eat a little less than we burn in a day focusing on total calories and protein. This is why having meals at regular times is important. Are you eating 3-4 balanced meals with 1-2 small snacks in a day? Or are you skipping meals and binge eating at night? Can you guess which of those two scenarios is better? I’m sure you can.
Let’s move into some science for a minute. It is generally known that there are 3500 calories within a pound of fat. Therefore, you must burn 3500 calories more than you eat to lose 1 pound of fat. That would mean burning 500 calories a day less than you eat for all 7 days of a week. What if I have a bad day? Will I lose my progress? Maybe, it really depends on how bad that day is. I always suggest the rule of 2. Meaning, if you have a goal, priority, or whatever, do not miss that twice in a row. I had a bad day Saturday, does not mean that your week is ruined and that you will restart Monday. Make Sunday a great day instead. Take it even deeper, I had a bad meal at lunch and now my calories are too high. That’s fine, have a great dinner and try not to have two bad meals in a row. Consistently fall back to what supports your goals. One bad meal does not need to lead to a bad weekend or giving up until next week. Finishing the week in a 500 calorie deficit is better than finishing even or in a surplus. Although you will not have lost that 1 pound that week, in the big picture, that still supports the long-term goal, only a bit slower. The order of importance for consistency is something like this: Months>weeks>days>meals. If you consistently lose 1 pound every month, that’s 12 in a year. If you consistently lose at least 1 pound a month, then you can have even better success. If you are consistently “starting over” how much progress will you really be making?
The last part of this section I want to discuss is choosing quality meals often. Quality meals include lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, minimally processed foods, and foods that support your goals. Things to limit should be anything with added sugars, added saturated fats, or anything that does not support your goal.
My final note, please try not to listen to people trying to sell you things on Instagram. They want your money and do not care how they get it. At Prime, you have people who are going to care about you and want nothing but the best for you, even if that means choosing not to do business with us.
Sleeping
Sleeping is our third topic and is so because of how important it truly is. Sleeping is the time when our bodies go into repair mode. You go through all different sorts of stressors throughout the day, to include the high intensity training you will be doing here at Prime. General recommendations are 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night. Some people have no problem with that, others laugh at me when I suggest it because 4-5 hours is regular for some people. If that describes you a little, the quality of how you feel and potentially look will improve as your sleep improves.
I struggled with sleep myself for a number of years. I dealt with lower back pain, constant exhaustion, irritability, lack of motivation and other things while I was in the Army. I ate plenty of good foods and exercised more than 5 times per week, yet had both recurring and acute injuries and things never seemed to improve. Fast forward a few years, I no longer deal with any of that stuff, the biggest difference in my life in that time is my sleep has drastically improved. I have changed the way I get to sleep, what I do in the time before sleeping, and the time I choose to get in bed. Although each of those came at different times, small steps to victory.
Sleep must be consistent, every night get your hours in and I am certain you will feel better than if you do not. As we go through the day, our body is going through stages of breakdown and refueling, and exercise is a huge part of that. After training, we are weaker, more fatigued (not necessarily more tired) and in need of recovery. If sleep is lacking, so is recovery. Meaning more soreness, reduced muscle growth and adaptations, and reduced fat burning. While resting, our body’s primary energy source is fat. Therefore, if you want to lose weight and gain muscle, look better and feel better, then make sleep a priority.
Here are some tips to help you sleep better. First, prioritize your sleep, plan when you need to go to bed to wake up the next day. Second, create a routine for going to sleep, I would suggest a 30-60 minute plan of action. An example being, you need to go to bed at 10pm to get 8 hours. At 9pm, turn off all screens, start getting your stuff together for the next day (I get my coffee maker ready, pack my bags, and make sure my breakfast and lunch are quickly accessible). Conduct whatever hygiene you do, then maybe read for the remainder of your time. You may have a wildly different routine, but if there was one thing I would suggest the most, is turn the screens off 60 minutes before you plan to sleep. A third tip is to make sure you have some activity during your day. Exercising should help you sleep, but if you only do that 3 days a week, we need to do something those other days. Get 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day, do some yard work, try not to be sitting for 6, 8, 10 hours a day. Some people are desk workers, and that’s okay. You can still stand, take walks, and move if you plan for it. Seek out ways to be active. If you are someone who struggles with sleep, I challenge you to try these things for the duration of our Spring Sprint program and see how it goes if you stay consistent. There are a lot of books and articles that have more tips for sleeping well, find something that seems interesting and see if you can’t find more ways to improve. You can also reach out to us at Prime and we will try to help you further on the subject as well.
Daily Movement
Move your body often, that can mean a lot of different things. Exercising is one of those things, but it is not the only activity you can do in a day. Choosing to be on your feet and moving often comes with many health benefits. Take morning or evening walks, park further away, take steps instead of the elevator. It does not have to just be walking. Think about the effort it takes to order food. You sit there and hit buttons on your phone and wait for it to arrive. Now, cook that meal. You must go back and forth to the fridge, stove, sink, table, trash, and whatever else. It also takes that effort for 20, 30, sometimes 60 minutes. You also control what goes into your food to help make better choices. Then you must clean up, an entirely different process that nobody likes doing, but you kind of have to. And it adds up to a lot more movement than just ordering out.
Try to be outside of your comfort zone a little for this. Not only does this build resilience, but it also promotes wellness. Think about things like eating your lunch outdoors. Although it may seem nice here in the spring, it might feel a little different in July and August. But if you stick with it, you will slowly acclimate to the heat or cold. Not to mention, the effort it takes to grab what you need and carry it to a different location where your body will face different elements for a period of time, then return back to where you came from. It becomes a lot more effort than sitting in a breakroom under artificial light. The sun is a great tool to pair with movement as it will provide energy and vitamin D.
Think about other ways you can be active whether it is at home, at work, or if you find yourself having to sit and wait for something. Find small ways to do things that promote your health and work towards your goal, rather than finding ways to not do things. Most of all, enjoy that process and experience knowing you are becoming better because of it!
Prioritizing
The next topic is prioritizing, what you may ask? The few things that we are asking you to do. Eat, sleep, hydrate, exercise, and move your body. What I mean by this is to make these things non-negotiable. A couple of them already are – you must eat and drink or you will die. You can survive 3 days without water, and you are still alive, so you are drinking enough to survive. However, it could still be something to improve (I knew a guy who lived on mountain dew).
A better example is your job. You would not skip work 2 or 3 days a week, now imagine only having to spend 1 hour a day at work a few days a week. That would be a heck of an investment, as would getting here and doing your workouts. Making your workouts a priority means not skipping them. If you plan for 3 days a week, then treat it like you would your job. If you can not make it, try to reschedule. It is okay to miss a day, but do not skip the day. Try to make it up later.
Going back to the meals and making them a priority. Do you show up to work with no food and no plan? That probably leads to a lot of fast food. This is something that requires work, you must put in effort beyond the gym to achieve your long term goals. Planning meals, prepping meals, making better decisions, and it is easier now than ever. There are dozens of deliver-to-your-door meal prep services, though they are usually expensive compared to making your own, but there are cheaper frozen meal options as well at grocery stores. More effort will yield better results. If you have body composition goals, it becomes more than just one meal, it is all of them, at least most of the time. Prioritize your meals to fit your goals. At first, it will probably be quite difficult, but you will learn and we will help you!
Prioritize your movement, as in, don’t be a couch potato. Try to increase your daily step count, which is easy to see if you have an apple watch or something similar. Learn a new skill? Find an outdoor community? Dog parks? Fishing? LARPing (hey everyone’s a little weird). What I am saying is find anything that is something more than just sitting, if you’re not already.
If you prioritize these few things, I am certain you will be happy with the results! Set yourself up for victory, and win back your health!
Targets
- Exercise a few times a week, determined by your goals and expectations
- Eat food that you love, but only enough of it that supports your goals
- Sleep 7-9 hours per night
- Move your body and aim for 8,000-10,000 steps per day, or more
- Prioritize these and stay consistent for the best results
TL;DR:
Consistency is the key to real progress — not perfection. Start with a realistic workout schedule (2-3x/week), eat foods that taste good and align with your goals, aim for 7–9 hours of sleep, move your body daily (8,000–10,000 steps), and prioritize these habits like you would a job. One bad day or meal doesn’t ruin everything — just don’t let it turn into two. The more consistently you show up, the better your results will be. Keep it simple. Keep it steady. Keep going.
Coach Vinnie