Inches and Miles
The small and big parts of exercise.
Jack Goodlett
5/25/20265 min read
The Path In Front
Often times the conversation around fitness builds a very skewed view on what is required to achieve anything. Making it hard for someone trying to build their routine for the first time, a confusing thing to try. And so often people give up.
The giving up in this instance is so unfortunate as we are then not talking exclusively about conquering mental health struggles, chronic pain or anxiety about starting, all of this is arguably conquered, that battle is won. Then it is people like us, the fitness professionals who are meant to welcome people in. Of course there is the route that is often the quickest: paying for the services of the professional, be that in a group class or privately.
This is not always a realistic route for people.
So fitness professionals and enthusiasts create online videos, social media posts; advice, tutorials breakdowns of a healthy living. The intention is clear in two forms:
1. Look at me!
2. Here is information that you can use in your exercising.
The way the information lands does not always come out the clearest.
The Inches
How long should you exercise for? How should you exercise? How many exercises should you do? All these questions have been answered so many times across the internet. And they mostly have varying answers. That is pretty incredible. You could look online now and find at least 10 different perspectives on body weight exercising.
The reason these “inches” become a problem is when, for example, all ten of these perspectives say they are the best and only way to weight lift, anything else is completely wrong and there is no benefit if it is not this specific way. Why would this happen?
We know we live in an attention based world, online creation content is based on fanning your arms the biggest while trying to simulate a klaxon sound with your mouth. To keep these words short, it appears as though that sometimes – based on the content – the audience walks away with an unsolved solution. Because it is all good to know how to Deadlift with a big bar and the bumper plates…what if the audience person does not have access to that equipment? But they then feel like they cannot complete a deadlift without these specific peripherals based on the perspectives they have listened to.
Of course, this observation is quite narrow, and that is because it is from the point of view of someone who is building their exercise routine for the very first time in maybe, ever. And so these inches become much bigger in the long term. Because it is an effective method to take the best advice from these 10 perspectives, but it turns out you have that thing scheduled that you know cannot be moved. Or working out here, has a knock on effect to the food shop. And then you made plans last month for this, now you are meant to be working out because it’s the only time you can.
The Miles
- In a 6 week period you should look like THIS!!!
- THESE PEOPLE USED THIS DIET. IT WILL WORK FOR YOU TOO.
- You know, because of aaaaaall of this information, that MEANS it absolutely works all of the time.
Those above bullet points are massively generalised. And they are very catchy headlines to get us into a routine that will keep us streamlined on our health and fitness journey.
These “miles” that are setup for people often times work for a specific type of person. Again, that is usually the idea.
The work The Move Way does, will not appeal or benefit every single person. And that is ok. However, when talking about the online conversation of different parts of exercising, so many times have I seen a routine or diet plan that someone has been trying for months and cannot keep consistent because of one specific life event, or another.
The Miles, the longer road ahead, the part where we are truly making those bigger changes to our lifestyle. Like changing social life dynamics when talking about sleep schedule. Or changing diet boundaries when talking about weight loss or muscle mass increase. These miles need to be not necessarily set in stone, so there is room to adapt if needed, but they should be set out in a way, where even if there are changes, the moments of the day still feel the same.
It is important when switching up your routine or working on it for the first time, maybe ever, that the plan you receive from the fitness professional makes sense to you. Or if it is information you are getting from online sources (videos, articles, forums), make sure that you look into your day to day to see that it can stay consistent with you.
For example, we setup a plan where the goal is 7 hours of sleep a night (raising from 4ish hours) and increasing to 2 balanced meals a day (previously there is no set meal time or official meals being had). This plan cannot work off of the back of a nutritionist or personal trainer creating this plan for the individual as they have underlying mental health conditions which prevents a longer sleep cycle. And due to working long hours after a commute, committing to the meal plan also immediately finds difficulty. Is this a healthier route to stick to? Yes it is. However, in this scenario staying stubborn with this approach may not necessarily be the best course of action as it could only go to show minimal to no effect.
The solution is somewhere in the middle in regard to meals per day and sleep targets. However, for the above scenario, further medical professional help and guidance is required. Then we can reassess and adapt the plan. This is said to make the point that is it critical to check in and be honest with yourself. If you know you have commitments or considerations that can only be worked around – not through – then your discussion needs to be mindful of those factors.
ALMOST FINISHED
Let’s be honest, food and drink can be really hard to change. Be it because of upbringing, surroundings or cost there are sometimes absolute reasons why we can become stuck in our ways with our diet.
Exercise can be really hard to start, but if you are comfortable in the gym you have bought a membership to, or you are satisfied with the equipment you have bought for your home setup then it is a case of working through the movements. The journey from stepping into your exercise space to exercising is very small, especially if you have travelled outside of your home space to do so.
The journey to do the same for your food and drink routine can often have many other factors that lead to repeated decisions, which may not be lending themselves well to your nutritional goals.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. This is an observational piece on what I have seen within exercise and the in-person discussions I have with people.
If you have scrolled to the bottom to check for crumbs, here you go:
EXERCISE IS HARD TO START – BE KIND TO YOURSELF.
FOOD AND DRINK CHANGES CAN FEEL IMPOSSIBLE AT FIRST. TRY 1 SMALL CHANGE FIRST.
ALWAYS CHECK IN WITH YOURSELF WHENEVER YOU RECEIVE ADVICE FROM FITNESS PROFESSIONALS – IT NEEDS TO MAKE SENSE TO YOU FOR IT TO WORK.
MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS ARE TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY AND ARE A PART OF YOUR HEALTH AND FITNESS JOURNEY.
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