We work with busy moms, dads, and professionals at the gym. As such, they are constantly being pulled in various directions. A common scenario is someone will book a meeting with me, share their personal story, goals, and training history only to realize they don’t have time in their current schedule to actually train.
To be clear, I’m not saying they don’t actually have time to train, rather, I’m saying their current schedule isn’t consistent with having time to train.
What do we do?
The Client Avatar
Ultimately, they’re going to have to think about what they really want to accomplish. They’ll need to decide what’s really important moving forward, and begin to think about where they spend their time and money. We work mostly with folks that are 35-55 years old. So, the wheels haven’t come of the bus just yet, but they can tell things are changing.
When we sign a new client, our first action step is to create a sustainable plan moving forward. Nothing too fancy, nothing to “advanced”, just simple, straightforward work.
- They’re going to need to lift.
- They’re going to need to move more.
- They’re going to need to clean up their eating habits.
This is perfectly fine and to be expected. After all, if everything was going great… we probably wouldn’t be talking with them. It’s usually shortly after I lay out the basic prescription above that they ask: “is that enough”?
Yep, I say with confidence. Because… it is enough. Let’s look at a basic plan that we might use for “Barry”. He’s a 44-year-old guy with a couple of kids. He’s married, plays softball on Thursdays, and is a salesman. Barry needs to lose about 50lbs, and Barry’s back bothers him all the time. He knows if he were more active, his back would likely improve. Still, he hasn’t been able to get started. Barry also likes to play golf but his game hasn’t improved in years due to his declining physical condition and his increased work / family demands.
Planning
Here’s Barry’s 1 year plan. Yes, 1 year. He’ll see more progress in a year than he thinks he will BUT, he’ll also likely see less progress in 90 days than he’d like. Sorry, that’s the deal. No free rides.
- Lift 3 x Week
- Walk x 10K steps x Day
- Eat 12 Cals per 1lb of BW
- Sleep 7-8 HRS x Night
It’s likely that we’ll need to build Barry up to this level of work. We might start with 2x week training, 3K steps, and eating protein each meal.
A guy like Barry is going to want to come in guns blazing, he’ll say he needs to start TODAY. He’ll fill out the paperwork that day. He might even begin a “fasting” protocol he’s been hearing so much about, or “quit carbs”.
LFG, he’ll say.
Raising the Floor
I’ll tell him to pump the brakes. There’s no need to create a program that requires 12/10 effort each day. Rather, we want a 7/10 effort each day. If the effort is low, Barry can succeed. This is raising the floor. We pick stuff that you CAN DO, RIGHT NOW. Once you’ve built the habit of hitting the gym 2x week, let’s discuss a 3rd day. Does that make sense for you? It might. It might also make sense to add another 3K steps per day and teach you what the inside of your refrigerator needs to look like.
Barry’s results don’t only exist in the gym. He’ll need to move more, lift more, and eat “better” as I stated above. But… ONLY a LITTLE bit better.
What could you do on your busiest day? That’s a great place to start. Once you’ve decided what your “floor” level of work is. GET STARTED and don’t take less than that any day, for any reason. After some time, your floor will become second nature. That’s the perfect time to add something new, or raise the floor. We are simply going to repeat this as needed for as long as needed.
Keep in mind what I said earlier, you’ll like to overestimate your 90-day progress but vastly underestimate your 1-year progress.
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Hope this helps,
James