“To have and to hold from this day forward. For better or worse. For richer or poorer. In sickness and health.”
Many of us have said something similar to these words to our spouse.
But we’re not talking about marriage today- we’re talking about fitness.
I’m not suggesting fitness is more important than marriage. It’s not.
I’m also not suggesting you have a marriage ceremony between you and a barbell. 16 year old me might have been willing to do that. But those days are gone.
Fitness is simply a tool to help you get lean, strong, and healthy so you can do the things you love with the people you love.
So back to my point about fitness not being more important than your marriage. It’s not. BUT you being lean, strong, and healthy IS important for your marriage.
And for ever single part of your life.
Your life will be objectively better if you’re lean, strong, and healthy. I pinky promise.
But today I want to talk about how to approach fitness regardless of the season of life you’re in.
Fitness is for everyone, all the time. BUT some seasons are better than others for making progress. So let’s discuss the 4 major seasons we see and how to approach them.
Season #1- Your World Is Falling Apart
Season #2- Things Are Very Busy/Stressful
Season #3- Everything is Running Smoothly
Season #4- Life is Pure Bliss….Easy Even
Let’s discuss each one:
Season #1- Your World is Falling Apart
Let’s get the worst one out of the way. Bad news before good news right?
That’s how I like it, so that’s how you’ll get it.
There are times in life where everything seems to be going wrong. Everywhere you look is another disaster. This can come in many different forms, but the result
When life is punching you in the face over and over, it’s probably not the time to be working out 6 days per week and following a super strict diet (then again, is it ever actually time for this??)
My advice to you in these seasons is simply to do the best you can with what you have, even if it’s not that much. When life hits us hard, we go backwards. We lose progress. This is normal.
Sometimes the best thing you can do is try to prevent as much loss of fitness progress as you can. When things are really hard you have to pretty much stop everything. And I’m here to tell you that’s ok! Just do the best you can with what you have, even if it’s not that much.
The good news is that life isn’t always like this. If you’re in a difficult season, you can rest assured knowing there will be a good season around the corner.
Quick Note***- Fitness is a major stress reliever. Many people find fitness to be especially helpful during difficult seasons. If that’s you, don’t let this be an excuse to stop working out. If you can, keep the ball rolling!
But I have experienced first-hand in the last decade times where I was unable to workout at all. I didn’t like it. But it’s what I had to do at the time. If you find yourself in a similar situation, don’t beat yourself up! It’s all going to be ok.
Season #2- Things Are Very Busy/Stressful
The key to winning this season is to maintain the progress you’ve made OR to even work to make slow, steady progress. I would say Season #2 and Season #3 is where a lot of our clients find themselves.
Can you relate??
In these seasons you’re able to juggle everything for the most part. But that’s just it. You’re juggling everything. It’s taking a lot of effort.
You have time to workout but you can’t dedicate hours and hours and hours to it each week. So it’s important your program is maximally effective and efficient.
Done well, you can make amazing progress by training just 2-3x per week for 45 minutes. It’s what we recommend for most of our clients.
And if things are especially stressful you can workout just 2-3x every other week. This isn’t exactly ideal but neither is your situation. This is likely enough to help you maintain the progress you’ve made!
You shouldn’t lose any progress during these seasons. But you shouldn’t be pushing yourself for crazy fast progress either. Slow and steady wins the race here!
Season #3- Everything is Running Smoothly
I would say this is the goal for most of us. We want everything we do to be running smoothly. Life isn’t always like this, but sometimes it is.
Enjoy it! And make the most of it.
During these seasons you need to workout AT LEAST 2x/week. For most in this category I would recommend 3x/week. For a select few I would even recommend 4x+/week.
When times are hard, you want to do everything you can to maintain your progress. And when times are good, you want to go all out on trying to maximize your progress.
For most people I would recommend 2-4x/week.
Here are some reasons to stay towards the lower end of that scale:
- You’re Older
- Training a Lot Leaves You Feeling Fatigued All the Time
- You Don’t Love to Train
- You Want to Make Good Progress But Don’t Care About Making it Quickly
Here are some reasons to stay towards the higher end of that scale:
- You’re Younger
- You Feel Great Even When Training a Lot
- You Love to Train
- You Want to Make Progress Quickly
The main takeaway here is workout as much as you can and as much as you like and enjoy your awesome progress!
Season #4- Life is Pure Bliss…Even Easy
I’m not sure how much time we actually spend in seasons like this, but if you are here…enjoy my friend! And workout lots!
I suggest you follow advice for Season #3 with one extra piece of advice…
Sometimes easy times make us lazy and weak. Don’t allow an easy season to be an excuse to slack off. Take advantage of it and make good progress. Because when you fall into a season 2 or 1, you’re going to be kicking yourself for not making the most of this season.
Fitness is all about riding the waves, friends. Sometimes you get clobbered. Sometimes you paddle against the current. And sometimes you ride a wave all the way into shore.
Trust me. This analogy is perfect. Even though I’ve never surfed a day in my life lol.
