It’s January, and everyone and their mother is at the gym this month. Fitness equipment is on sale, gyms are offering ridiculous deals and sign up bonuses. It is the month of being truly committed to getting in shape; probably the most common New Year’s Revolution. Aside from it being January, its also about 4 months until summer (I live in the Southwest alright) leaving most people more than enough time to get that bikini body before the warmer months or an important vacation or event. Its also just over 5 months until the biggest EDM festival in America, Electric Daisy Carnival, and rave booties need to be built.
This is a phenomenon I like to call “deadline fitness”; in which us humans create a static and possibly arbitrary deadline by which time we need to be at a certain fitness level. And never, in the great history of deadline fitness, has it EVER worked as a long term goal. Why?
Deadline fitness relies upon a explicitly identified end date, be that the first day of summer (arbitrary) or a wedding you have to be in (static). Unfortunately, once that deadline passes, motivation to continue the previous weeks’ fitness routine decreases with each passing day. The only exception to this rule I have found is the rare few people who begin a fitness routine with the goal of losing weight or getting healthy and then are motivated past their deadline by the pleasure of their results. That’s the only group of people I have ever found to be able to withstand the motivation drop after the identified deadline passes.
Another reason why deadline fitness is inefficient is that it can skew the way that you view your fitness level. If you work your freakin ass off for four months and end up with your six pack and your booty and tight calves and are stoked at how you look in a swimsuit, it can be pretty easy to blow off a workout here and to overindulge there. This happens because we basically forget how hard it was to get to that fit point. Same way we do with memories- You remember the good, and devalue/ignore/forget/bury the bad. Being fit is a lifestyle commitment: in order to maintain your fitness you have to keep working at it. When you get fit on a deadline and then neglect to reevaluate and think “Wow, I feel wonderful. I should keep this up so that next spring I don’t have to work my ass off!”, you can continue to blow off a workout here and to overindulge there until you’re right back where you started.
Exercise and diet should be approved by your physician, but honestly when was the last time you went to your doctor and said, “Can I lift, bro?” Deadline fitness is harmful because it can promote unhealthy fitness practices such as over working yourself and improper eating, causing muscle injury, malnutrition, and anorexia, among other less serious consequences. This might be confusing, but think about it in terms of money. For the most part, people who don’t work to earn their money have a difficult time understanding that you need to work to see tangible, lasting results. Same goes for getting in shape; if you take shortcuts you’re not doing yourself any favors.
Bottom line, deadline fitness fails because it doesn’t fix the problem, only the symptoms. Like I said before, fitness is a lifestyle commitment to making healthy choices everyday whether you’re in the gym or not. It is indeed possible to maintain your fitness goal by having consecutive deadlines, but at that point you need to realize you are able to stay on track with or without the motivation of a deadline. I hope a few of you will take this to heart when January ends and the gym rush dies, so that you can lead a longer healthier life.
This is a phenomenon I like to call “deadline fitness”; in which us humans create a static and possibly arbitrary deadline by which time we need to be at a certain fitness level. And never, in the great history of deadline fitness, has it EVER worked as a long term goal. Why?
Deadline fitness relies upon a explicitly identified end date, be that the first day of summer (arbitrary) or a wedding you have to be in (static). Unfortunately, once that deadline passes, motivation to continue the previous weeks’ fitness routine decreases with each passing day. The only exception to this rule I have found is the rare few people who begin a fitness routine with the goal of losing weight or getting healthy and then are motivated past their deadline by the pleasure of their results. That’s the only group of people I have ever found to be able to withstand the motivation drop after the identified deadline passes.
Another reason why deadline fitness is inefficient is that it can skew the way that you view your fitness level. If you work your freakin ass off for four months and end up with your six pack and your booty and tight calves and are stoked at how you look in a swimsuit, it can be pretty easy to blow off a workout here and to overindulge there. This happens because we basically forget how hard it was to get to that fit point. Same way we do with memories- You remember the good, and devalue/ignore/forget/bury the bad. Being fit is a lifestyle commitment: in order to maintain your fitness you have to keep working at it. When you get fit on a deadline and then neglect to reevaluate and think “Wow, I feel wonderful. I should keep this up so that next spring I don’t have to work my ass off!”, you can continue to blow off a workout here and to overindulge there until you’re right back where you started.
Exercise and diet should be approved by your physician, but honestly when was the last time you went to your doctor and said, “Can I lift, bro?” Deadline fitness is harmful because it can promote unhealthy fitness practices such as over working yourself and improper eating, causing muscle injury, malnutrition, and anorexia, among other less serious consequences. This might be confusing, but think about it in terms of money. For the most part, people who don’t work to earn their money have a difficult time understanding that you need to work to see tangible, lasting results. Same goes for getting in shape; if you take shortcuts you’re not doing yourself any favors.
Bottom line, deadline fitness fails because it doesn’t fix the problem, only the symptoms. Like I said before, fitness is a lifestyle commitment to making healthy choices everyday whether you’re in the gym or not. It is indeed possible to maintain your fitness goal by having consecutive deadlines, but at that point you need to realize you are able to stay on track with or without the motivation of a deadline. I hope a few of you will take this to heart when January ends and the gym rush dies, so that you can lead a longer healthier life.