Last month we discussed the disappointments of weight-loss challenges. This month, let’s focus on something that will stick to you while that weight stays off: fitness-based challenges. The difference is in the approach and the commitment. Yes, fitness-based challenges are more difficult but as you can see if you go to any Denver gym downtown, the population tails off a couple of weeks after New Year’s, leaving only the 20% to achieve 80% of the calorie burning.
Instead of 18-minute workouts and 28-day diets, how about doubling the number of pull-ups you can do or tripling the distance you can run? Unlike a weight-loss challenge, fitness challenges are meant to last longer and create improved fitness habits, as you’re creating a multi-level paradigm that includes dietary improvements and commitment to getting to your downtown Denver gym (or wherever you find your motivation).
Fitness Advocates Get You To Your Goals
If you have the willpower to sweat profusely every other day for 45 minutes for 6 months, all the while tracking your progress, then it’s likely you might be a trainer-in-waiting (call me!). But for the rest of us, that’s why we offer personal and group training. These are safe spaces where you work with an advocate that wants to help you improve your fitness while holding you accountable to hit your goals. Maybe you don’t like kettlebell routines, but when you have someone pushing you through, you’ll notice that your reps will increase and the ease at swinging heavier kettlebells becomes an afterthought. Maybe you haven’t been able to break the 9-minute mile threshold on your own, but when you have a fitness partner, all of a sudden, you’re breezing toward 8:45 miles.
Where weight-loss challenges are usually inspired so we can fit into swim suit, dress or look good for a reunion, fitness-based challenges usually precede some sort of physical endurance we’ve signed up to do. Are you planning to climb a couple 14ers in a weekend? How about cycling the Triple Bypass or running a half-marathon? Regardless of your goals, you have to train for them. And, as we discussed last month, weight-loss is a by-product of good fitness. If the weight needs to come off, it will to accommodate your new lifestyle. Plus, it’s more likely to stay off because you’ve been eyeing a bigger prize: total fitness.