Streaking (no, not that kind...)
I’m a preacher of a philosophy I’ve dubbed ‘Practical Fitness’. For years I have been using myself and some of my fitness colleagues as ‘lab rats’ in our various experiments to learn the tricks to reaching your fitness goals. In this article I want to talk about one particular experiment I like to call 'Streaking' - and it doesn't involve running anywhere in the nude.
I’m the perfect candidate for this study because like you, my day job demands long hours, unexpected deadlines, and some really stressful days. The most common question people in our situation ask themselves is 'when do I have time to work out and be consistent when something else always seems to get in the way?' As well as busy professional lives, we also want to spend time with friends, family and colleagues by enjoying the occasional drink, meals out, take-away after a long day, and parties to let our hair down at the weekend. You’re expecting me to say you’re going to need to cut that all out to get results, right? You might be please to hear that if you thought that, then you’re wrong! I believe with the right amount of consistent training and a balanced diet, including those boozy weekends, you can stay in good shape eating more than just lettuce and cucumber with water on the rocks. Let me now go into detail about ‘The Streak’. Initially it was just a challenge between 3 trainers: PT DJ, Master PT Mike and myself. The challenge we set ourselves was to do some element of fitness everyday without a days break to see who could build the longest "streak" of consecutive days. See? No nudity! We all went for it, dug deep and made it past 75 days (3 months) each, and we couldn’t believe we actually made it that far. Streaking for 75 days proves that there’s always time to fit in your exercise - and that’s what we tell our clients. After enduring the challenge we certainly learned a few tips and tricks along the way to make ‘The Streak’, and consistency generally, easier.
1. Be Organised It's funny how we definitely have time for a fancy business meeting or black tie event but when it comes to the chore of self-development we suddenly lose all knowledge of the word commitment. Make your workout plan flexible and feasible. If you have a busy day ahead you don’t need to spend an hour in the gym to get your workout done: a quick 15-minute cardio burst might just do the trick. Consider making time for relaxing the body with Yoga, boosting your recovery with deep stretching, rehabilitating your joints with a cheeky dip in the pool and kicking back and sizzling in the sauna. In short we all have time, it's just a matter of priorities and a little organisation. 2. Be Realistic As much as we'd love to look like a super human, most of us won't make it to the gym for hours every day so lets make a realistic target to keep us motivated. Why not try starting with a target of just 2 or 3 days a week, but just make sure you stick to it. 3. Enjoy It The third and final tip is to enjoy feeling better, healthier and energized. Exercise isn't always fun in fact it's not fun for me either but the results we reap are worth the pain, hard graft and determination. Try and make it fun by doing things like working out with mates, trying out new classes, training in the sunshine or take up a sport you really enjoy. When you love or have interest in the activity it makes it superbly easier. It might be squash, tennis, football, swimming etc. and it all counts Much to our surprise ‘The Streak’ inspired over 159 people to start their own streaks and there’s nothing stopping you from becoming number 160 or 161. Although we trained every day the principle lessons are not making excuses for not having the time to exercise because there’s always a way. When it gets hard our tips (above) can help you get back at it. We engineered a master workout plan with sports scientists that allowed us to train every day without damaging our body so we didn’t need to take any days off. Don’t forget rest days are massively important and give your muscles time to recover and grow but on those days why not dedicate 20-40 minutes on stretches or yoga. Our experiment was also a competition so I have to finish be letting you know who was crowned the winner. Mater PT Mike got to an impressive 100 days, PT DJ did even better getting himself to 115 days and of course the winner me who has got to 248 days and counting.
