All it takes is a little consistency...

Yesterday, I was talking to one of my clients about the single most important element to success in personal physical fitness. The element of consistency.

There are thousands of programs and diets you can follow, but without consistency in both, your chances of success are slim. Obviously if fat loss and a positive body-composition change are your primary goals, you must place an immediate emphasis on your diet to make sure you stop adding any more weight. Diet alone CAN cause major changes in body-composition but in order to really make sure the weight stays off permanently, we must exercise on a regular basis as well. The added muscle mass and related increase in activity allows our body to become a much more efficient life-long fat-burning machine. Even if we are happy with our appearance, strength, flexibility and conditioning training is a must to ensure we keep up a good quality of life now and into the future. You can think of it as an insurance policy, allowing you the best possible chance of maximal physical function far into your later years.

The big question becomes, how do we stay consistent? This is one of the biggest challenges we face in many aspects of our lives. I think the best way to ensure consistency in exercise is finding ways to make it work for YOU. As we are all individuals, a one-method solution will not work for everyone and will only stick for those who prefer that particular method. The obvious solution is to actively do what you ENJOY doing. Working out with a specific performance goal in mind be it squash, tennis, ultimate or golf helps many people stay consistent as it offers a real reason to do so, improved performance. The other major factor we must face is time. Some of us are able to keep up a 3 to 5 times a week workout lasting well over an hour. Most of us are not... The important thing to remember is we do not NEED that long to get a great workout. The other important thing to remember is doing something is better than doing nothing, so even if you only have 10 minutes to spare for exercise today USE IT. Consistency is nothing more that a habit, so is inconsistency... Trade one for the other and see the real results that have eluded you for so long and live a longer, happier and more satisfying life!

Do.