Average Effort
Combating misinformation and flawed logic as a fitness coach feels a bit like trying to share a news story during the 2020 federal election. Every piece that proverbially floats across your desk is riddled with bias, deceit, and false promises. Then, it’s spun in a way that makes you feel better about yourself and conveniently tells a story that’s more in line with your own agenda.
One such notion is the idea that every training program or fitness journey implies a binary, all-or-nothing mentality. Either your best effort or no effort — nothing in between. Ironically, it’s kind of like politics; you’re either Liberal or Conservative based on your vote — nothing in between.
After-all, anything worth doing is worth overdoing, right? Always give your best effort, right? If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you, right? No pain no gain, right? Let me know when I should stop.
We pride ourselves on going all in, and we’ve started to tell this story in the fitness world that if you’re bringing anything shy of your best effort, then it might not even be worth doing.
I mean, I get it. No one would be interested in buying the Average At-Home Bodyweight Fitness Program to Get You Average Results During Quarantine. We’d much rather opt for the Best At-Home Bodyweight Fitness Program to Get You Shredded for Summer.
The reality is this — the best fitness program is the one that you follow consistently.
They all work.
Herein lies the problem though; the fitness industry and its influencers are making a fortune by selling an intense and unrealistic short-term commitment that implies the results you’ve been looking for “all your life” can be achieved in a fraction of time.
60-Day Slim Down
6-Week Summer Shred
60-Minute HIIT Session
6-Minute Six Pack
And the only reason they keep selling these programs is because people keep buying them! In my experience, the truth about building your body sounds much less sexy and buzzword marketing worthy. Dr. Stefi Cohen shared this in an instagram post a few weeks ago, and I think it perfectly captures the point I’m trying to make here…
“Progress is the result of the average of efforts, which means doing something is better than doing nothing.”
The perceived barrier to health and wellness is so high because of the all-or-nothing mentality that fitness programs and their coaches imply.
I’ll take the consistent athlete who shows up every single day over the athlete that hits it hard for 4 days in a row, only to take the next week off.
Lift the lightest bar. Take the easy path. Half-ass it.
It doesn’t matter how you see it, just do something. Luckily, the fitness game is one that rewards any and all efforts over time, not just your infrequent and inconsistent best.
