Training With A Purpose
Congratulations on coming this far!
This is when the fitness journey starts to really get fun!
Now that you have a better understanding of how to train and build a healthy, sustainable lifestyle around it, it's time to start making more specific goals and training with a purpose. This concept of learning and mastering specific skills gives you more ownership of the training process and will keep you motivated to work hard and continue to make progress.
Goals of Step 3:
Learn more advanced exercise techniques and skills
Begin training with a purpose towards specific training goals
Maintain progress from Steps 1 and 2
Implement all of the Nutrition Pillars
Advanced Exercise Skills
When you first start off with fitness it can be intimidating to see what other people do in the gym. Advanced exercises or heavy weights seem so far from where you're at that you think you'll never get there or you even convince yourself that you don't want it anyway!
The truth is, none of it has to be that scary! While some advanced training styles may not be for you (and that's okay), often times they can be the ticket to unlocking a greater purpose and desire in your training!
There are a lot of different advanced exercise skills that you might see people performing at the gym or on social media, including:
Program techniques such as circuit training, HIIT training and other advanced programs
Powerlifting (Back Squat, Bench Press, and Deadlift)
Olympic weightlifting (Snatch and Clean + Jerk)
Kettlebell Training (Swings, Snatches, and Turkish Get-ups, etc)
What's awesome about it is, they all started just like you! The only difference is that they've already gone through the phase you're at now and decided to learn these advanced skills and make them a part of their fitness.
The best part about this phase is that it transforms your mindset from having exercise be a thing you have to do to reach your goals and makes your exercise into a goal itself! By taking on the task of learning new advanced exercises you turn your fitness into a skill practice, just like playing a sport or learning an instrument.
Train With A Purpose
This comes at a perfect time after where we just left off with talking about advanced training skills.
To this point, your goals have probably all be focused around external outcomes like changes in your body composition. While those are fantastic goals, now that you've been committed to fitness for so long, it's important to begin to get yourself invested in the training itself to keep you motivated each day.
On top of that, if you've been seeing the results we hope, you may come to a point where results slow down and come at a more modest pace. While there is nothing wrong with that at all, it can make it hard to 'see' how far you're continuing to come.
Training with a purpose is about picking specific and challenging training goals that keep you motivated in the gym and give you measures of progress in addition to your other, external goals.
Some examples could be:
Perform your first unassisted Chin-up
Do 10 strict chest to ground push-ups
Barbell Squat your bodyweight for 3 reps
Complete a mile on the air bike in under 2:30
You'll notice each of these goals is a specific gym-related goal. You'll also notice they're completely different from one another!
There are tons of different things you could choose to work towards in the gym and it's entirely up to you.
At MB Sports Rehab, this is when we have you write specific goals on the goal board to make it official and we go to the achievement board to pick certain challenges for you to work towards!
Nutrition Pillars
In Step 2 we discussed implementing 2 out of the 5 Nutrition Pillars (why nutrition matters and tracking your food). Now that you have been consistent in the gym, and with nutrition, this is a great opportunity to begin to implement all 5 of the Nutrition Pillars, which are:
Why Nutrition Matters
Tracking Your Food
What are Macros
SMART Goal Setting
Creating Routines and Habits
How to Progress to Step 4:
Train consistently for 9 months to a year
Learn advanced exercise skills like kettlebell skills, barbell powerlifts, olympic lifts, etc.
Set specific, training related goals
