Consistency Unlocks Health & Fitness Potential

Consistency unlocks health & fitness potential. Can it really be that simple? It sure can my friends. I’ve been asked countless times, “what’s the best exercise for this or that?” And early in my career, I would have an exercise I thought to be “the one”. For example, I would say, “bicycle crunch” for abs, “burpee” for total body metabolic conditioning, “lunges” for legs and butt, “plank” for core and “running” for conditioning. And all of these are right answers and it would be hard to argue otherwise.

Through the past several years I have found new ways of approaching health and fitness with lots of success and it is not about a specific exercise or about a specific program. No, it’s more about Consistency. Consistency unlocks the key to your potential in my professional opinion because it is more about the repetition of “doing something over and over and over again”, as the great transformation coach Zig Zigler once said. It’s the countless minutes, hours, days and years that create a mastery of the way you do or don’t do something. Here’s a Zig Zigler speech I’ve also enjoyed listening to. Click here

Whether you do yoga, pilates, strength training, cross-fit, swimming or enjoy walking, you must have the consistency to unlock your health & fitness potential. There is no perfect exercise, but practice does make perfect.  Malcolm Gladwell, author of one of my favorite books Outliers states, “it takes 10,000 repetitions to become a master of anything”. I don’t think you literally have to do something 10,000 times, but I do believe it is a lot more than most people think or do. As I was writing this blog post I did a rough calculation of how many hours I’ve spent exercising since I started working out when I was 15 years old. At 43 yrs old now, I’ve roughly spent 8,000 hrs working on strengthening, toning, and conditioning my mind and body. What I find interesting is that I feel so much wiser today than I ever have about my health and fitness. I don’t ever claim that I know everything, and I know I never will, but what I do know is the wisdom I’ve gained from the 8000 hrs I’ve spent exercising gives me an extra edge that is allowing me to tap go into some deep places with clients to help produce some of the best transformations of my career.

In many cultures, the elderly are worshipped for their wisdom, for example in Japan, but here in the United States more often than not, we tend to discard or disregard the aged or elderly for their knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom is a trait that can not be taught, it is typically learned through experience. Consistency in your health and fitness efforts will undoubtedly create the wisdom needed to learn how your mind and body integrate for optimal results. There is no one size fits all or cookie cutter program out there. We each have a uniqueness that goes beyond the surface and requires someone who is willing to put in the time, bang out the reps, explore new things, show up on the days when you don’t want to, make the time and always have fun doing so.

My answer now to a health and fitness questions related to “what’s the best exercise for _______?” is now without hesitation, CONSISTENCY!

I am a big believer in how you do one thing is how you do everything. I’ve provided a link to several popular apps that can help you begin to develop consistency in just about any area of your life. Give it a try and start working towards the 10,000 hours to health & fitness mastery.  Click here

Yours always in health & fitness,

Steve Jordan