On Saturday and Sunday, I had the opportunity to attend a course taught by Dan John, one of the top strength and performance coaches in the world. It was great to learn from him and gather fitness tips, and it was a nice confirmation that I’m on the right track and doing the right things for my clients.
Of course, I still came away with a valuable list of simple yet very effective tips, tweaks, and improvements I will be making to my coaching style and programming structure based on what I learned.
The bonus from this weekend was that it helped me reflect on the many hard-earned fitness lessons I’ve learned in the past 25 years as a trainer and coach.
- Fitness Tip No. 1: Simple is Good
- Fitness Tip No. 2: Perfection is a myth
- Fitness Tip No. 3: You Get What You Focus On
- Fitness Tip No. 4: Plan for the “Big Rocks”
- Fitness Tip No. 5: Do the Work
- Fitness Tip No. 6: Own your S**t
- Fitness Tip No 7: Celebrate Your Successes…and Your Failures
- 7 Simple Tips for Every Area of Your Life
Fitness Tip No. 1: Simple is Good
If you have an internet connection, you could be fooled into believing that being healthy and fit is an extremely complicated process, but that’s not the case.
Being healthy and fit is exceedingly simple, and incorporating these 7 important fitness tips can help. Yet, most people go out of their way to overcomplicate the process.
Health and fitness is about doing a few simple tips consistently, over the long term. We all know the basic health & fitness lessons:
- Eat healthy
- Exercise regularly
- Drink lots of water
- Get a good night of sleep
- Have fun with people you like being around
These simple fitness tips are often seen as “common sense”, yet few people do them to the level necessary to accomplish their goals. The general consensus is that the basics are “boring”, “overrated”, or “unnecessary”.
People often think, “It can’t be that simple. There must be more to it than this.” As a result, they continually jump from one strategy or tactic to another, with none of them providing the desired results.
The tips I mentioned above are the essentials and skipping them is the reason so many people struggle. While there are definitely some nuances to each point, at the basic level, these simple health & fitness lessons are understood by most people…yet not followed consistently.
Fitness Tip No. 2: Perfection is a myth
Ahhh, perfection. It’s time we get this fitness myth out of our minds (and ways).
We all have ebbs and flows in our efficiency and effectiveness. This is a normal part of life and learning.
However, so many people are striving for fitness perfection when they have yet to master the simple tips and basics (see point above).
Imagine if you were getting into fitness and you held yourself to the standard of an Olympian. How realistic, successful, and motivating would this be when you continually failed to meet that standard? Not very!
The other side of this fitness myth is that repeated failures create a self-defeating mindset that begins to sabotage any forward progress. Simple fitness basics can help to overcome this.
Have you ever had a bad day on your fitness or nutrition plan, where things seemed to go “off the rails”? (It happens to us all). I’ve seen many clients turn this one rough day (or poorly chosen meal) into a week-long slide of poor choices, self-flagellation, and pity parties, missing out on important fitness lessons.
This is equivalent to getting a flat tire on your car, becoming upset, and slashing the other three tires just to spite yourself. It sounds funny, but I see people do this every day in fitness and nutrition.
This is equivalent to getting a flat tire on your car, becoming upset, and slashing the other three tires just to spite yourself. It sounds funny, but I see people do this every day in fitness and nutrition.
A good reminder is that “Every Day is a New Day”.!
It’s normal to have an “off-day” in health & fitness. The key is to get back on track the next day and strive to string a few good ones together as a bonus, incorporating these 7 simple fitness tips along the way.
As one of my mentors likes to say…”Fail forward”. You can do this by taking imperfect action and applying important fitness lessons to it. Do something, if it fails, learn from it and move on.
This beats “procrasti-planning” every time! (Procrasti-planning is the “analysis by paralysis” approach where you plan everything to the minutiae, but fail to actually implement or take action). This is a key factor holding many people back from getting the fitness results they want.
Fitness Tip No. 3: You Get What You Focus On
Quite often, fitness lessons come from observing that people will say they want fitness, but then complain about not getting it. Yet, when we look closer, we realize that they actually spent very little time or effort working towards that objective.
This is the situation where people “talk” a lot about what they “want” to do in terms of health & fitness, but spend almost no time actually “doing” that thing and applying simple fitness basics.
They may also spend a lot of time thinking about why they “can’t” do it, but that’s a whole other mindset post.
Where we spend our time is a direct reflection of what’s important to us in life.
This brings me to the next fitness lesson and one more simple tip…
Fitness Tip No. 4: Plan for the “Big Rocks”
Identifying what are the most important areas of your life is crucial for your well-being. We call these key priorities your “Big Rocks” (from Steven Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”).
The answer to what’s important in terms of fitness and other areas is different for every person, and only you can answer it. There is no “right or wrong,” just what’s important to you at this point in your life and fitness journey.
Once you’ve identified these fitness areas, the next step is to determine the most important aspects within each area. Breaking down the various aspects of each fitness priority can help you identify which specific parts will give you the most benefit for the least time and effort. This is where simple fitness tips and the Pareto principle (80/20 rule) come into play.
Now it’s time to create a plan to make your fitness goals happen. This includes incorporating fitness tips, putting them into your calendar, and making them non-negotiable. This means they get done no matter what, as they are simple yet crucial lessons for your fitness journey.
Fitness Tip No. 5: Do the Work
Being fit and incorporating these 7 fitness tips isn’t rocket science. It’s simply a matter of consistently doing the work over the long term to achieve fitness goals.
As mentioned earlier, people often complicate the fitness process by searching for hacks or shortcuts to success, investing significant time and resources. While it’s important to be efficient and find what works best, the fundamental work still needs to be done.
Sometimes, individuals fail to take meaningful action because they spend too much time trying to avoid the necessary basic steps that have been proven to bring success.
It’s important to remember that imperfect action is better than no action at all, and avoiding excessive planning (procrasti-planning) is key.
It’s highly likely that someone else has already accomplished what you are trying to achieve in terms of fitness. Learn from their experiences and follow a proven plan. Once you have gone through the entire process, program, or journey, then you are qualified to form an informed opinion about potential changes or adaptations.
As Beverly Sills famously said, “There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.” Embrace the journey, put in the work, and incorporate these 7 simple fitness lessons to achieve lasting results.
Fitness Tip No. 6: Own your S**t
Taking ownership of our fitness actions and outcomes, and incorporating basic fitness tips are extremely important to long-term success. Plus, once we overcome the fear, embarrassment, and other emotions of dealing with the reality of our fitness situation, it’s exceptionally liberating.
The great news is that we have MUCH more control over our health & fitness results and outcomes than we give ourselves credit for.
Unfortunately, most times we shift blame to outside sources because we are scared of facing the tough choices and decisions that often need to be made. But the solution is to start small and make a habit of owning your moment-to-moment fitness behaviors and applying basic, simple fitness tips.
If you make a health & fitness mistake…own it! Recognize it, apologize, and let people know what you will do to fix it. Then make the change you promised.
If something unexpected or outside of your control happens in your fitness journey, focus on what you can do to make your response to the situation more positive and productive.
Remember, we can’t control everything that happens to us in terms of health & fitness, but we can ALWAYS control our response to that situation and apply learned fitness lessons accordingly.
Fitness Tip No 7: Celebrate Your Successes…and Your Failures
We set fitness goals and strive to improve because change is important to us. When we reach a milestone in our fitness journey, it’s important to celebrate the fitness wins, no matter how small.
In fact, at the beginning of our health & fitness journey, it’s beneficial to set the bar low so that we can have many small wins in a short amount of time. This approach has repeatedly been shown to have a tremendous impact on our mindset, motivation, dedication, and future success. Simple, basic fitness tips can help us achieve these wins.
Take time to reflect on what you’ve accomplished in terms of fitness. Then, reward yourself with positive “gifts” that move you forward in your fitness journey (instead of taking you further from your fitness goals).
These fitness rewards can be tangible or intangible, but they should be desirable and motivating for you. For example, if you reach one of your weight loss milestones, you could reward yourself with a great massage, a new fitness outfit, or something similar.
It’s important to remember that our fitness rewards shouldn’t be counterproductive. It doesn’t make sense to reward yourself with junk food or decadent treats when you reach a weight loss objective. Yet, this is what often happens, so it’s essential to be mindful of our choices and align our rewards with our fitness goals and hard-earned fitness lessons.
On a related note, there will be obstacles, setbacks, and challenges. It’s crucial to celebrate these as well, as they provide great fitness learning opportunities. They teach us what to do differently in the future and arm us with the fitness knowledge needed to take another step closer to our goals, incorporating valuable hard-earned fitness lessons.
7 Simple Tips for Every Area of Your Life
I hope you learn as much from these 7 lessons and incorporate these simple fitness tips as I have. As you may have noticed, these principles are applicable to health and fitness, but also to your work, family, and social life.
That’s the cool part. The same fitness lessons that will help you look great, feel amazing, and get you in the best shape of your life are the same ones that make it more likely you will have a happy home life, get that promotion at work, and enjoy your circle of friends more. These 7 tips can have a positive impact on multiple areas of your life.
If you want more energy, to feel what it’s like to have a fit, strong, sexy body, and be comfortable and confident in your own skin, I have the fitness programs and hard-earned yet simple fitness tips to help. Just reach out to set up a quick call and get started on your fitness journey.
The next step is up to you… Are you a “Day One” or a “One Day” type of person?
Take action and embrace these 7 fitness tips to achieve your goals.
Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, for more health and fitness tips and tutorials.
We share the lifestyle we love!
Expert Personal Training and Lifestyle Coaching To Help You Thrive
Comments
Amazing article…I enjoyed reading it. Thanks for sharing.
You are very welcome Valentina! Glad you liked it!
Perfection is more than a myth: It’s unobtainable! Not even your trainer is perfect! And any trainer telling you otherwise is toxic! Do what you can at your own pace, and push your limits at your own pace!
Exactly Nyxie. Good point.
So many great fitness tips. I love the “own your shot” it’s true that we get out what we put in.
Thank you for the information.
Julie
Glad you liked it Julie. Feel free to ask any question regarding your heath & fitness journey.
Hhhhmmm…I so much relate with the one to do with doing the actual work! Many of them stay quiet about this, in the hope that you will be back to them hence them making more money off you.
Yes, well, Health became a product also…Glad you like it Edgar!
Best tip in life not only in fitness is definitely DO THE WORK. You definitely get out what you put in when it comes to fitness. No shortcuts!
Great point Mandy! I think that this applies to many areas of life.
I really like the tip about celebrating success and failures, it just make thing easier and more achievable when you have this down to ground approach. The other tips are great as well, thanks.
Glad you liked it Ivana! As with everything in life, we should start with basic, small steps and goals.
I agree, it’s about consistency. I found results even just keeping consistent 5-10 min a day.
Exactly Cinny. People often want to know what is the best workout for them…Well, the best workout is the one that you do on a regular basis for a long period of time.
Not every fitness routine is for everyone. I think people forget that it really comes down to what works for each individual person. These are good points to think about.
Exactly Marysa. We are all different individuals. Thats one more reason why we need professional help sometimes.
Such great tips. I found when I started doing #6 more, I got way better results definitely!
Glad to hear that Steph and that we helped. All of these 7 tips can be applied to any aspect of life!
Wow! These are all really great and very helpful tips. I’m gonna keep this in mind thanks for sharing this with us
You are welcome Rose Ann, and we are glad that you liked the post!
I am new to working out and these are the things I really need to know! Thank you
You are very welcome Beth. Glad that we can help. If any questions feel free to ask. And good luck!
We should all know these. Deciding to be more active is an incredible first step to cashing in all of the amazing benefits of exercise.
Exactly Claudia! Moving your body offten has a lot of benefits for the body and for the mind.
Celebrating not just successes but also failure is really important to know. Im glad I came across your site.
Yes, it is. Glad you like it Colleen!
I love these tips! It’s so true that keeping it simple usually works better. My husband and I have a workout routine that we do every morning before the kids get up for school. It keeps us motivated since we push each other to get the work done.
Great to hear that Stephanie! Its crucial that your kids see you working out also, so that they can learn from you two.
Another tip I would add is that any fitness is better than none! Even if you exercise only a couple times of week, it will still have positive benefits to your health.
Exactly Bryan, thanks for pointing that out!
Thank you for the motivation! Celebrating successes and failures is important. Great tips for anyone to follow.
Thanks Catherine! And thank you for commenting!
Great tips to help you with fitness. I’m working on improving my fitness game nowadays and these are helpful tips.
Thanks Fransic, glad you liked it. And good luck on your fitness jurney. If any questions feel free to ask 🙂
Some great fitness tips in this article. Sometimes I need reminders that I need to be easier on myself when it comes to fitness goals!
Yes, Stephanie, we all need to be more real…Thanks for the feedback 🙂
Fabulous tips and ideas for fitness goals and the fitness journey in general. I really appreciate that just consistently doing the work, showing up, is needed for long term to achieve our fitness goals.
Exactly Debbie! Even small but consistent work brings us great results. Thanks for commenting!
Those are some great simple fitness tips. My favorite is #1 simple is good. Everyone knows concepts from basic fitness lessons but to follow these is another story. Thanks for reminding us to stick to it,.
You are most welcome Julie, and thank you for commenting!
I’m glad you mentioned consistency. That seems to be the one key ingredient to most types of success.
And somehow, we are all lacking it. That’s why having a personal coach and a community behind our efforts can be very beneficial and brings us great results! Thanks for the feedback!
Great fitness tips! You definitely get out what you put in to it and consistency is very important.
Glad you liked it Cindy! Thanks for the feedback!
Great tips, and important things we need to know. A lot of people trying to strive for perfection. Putting in the work is another very important.
We prefer a more real approach, based on our personal strengths and goals. Glad you liked the post Fransic!
Perfection is certainly a myth yet one that’s hard to shake! I’m certainly a one day type of person, but I’m working on shifting my mindeset!
Thank you for sharing that with us Sienna. We all where a “one day” person once. Shifing to a “day one” is the next step for you 🙂 Thanks for the feedback!
I like one “simple is good”. We have a family beach vacation in 3 weeks, and I want to start my “diet” tomorrow. But after reading your article, I decided to focus on a healthy diet and exercise. I don’t want to slave my body on low-carb food for 3 weeks and gain again during vacation.
Large oscillations in our diet can be very dangerous for our both body and mental health. Having a consistently healthy diet by eating real foods and controlling the sugar intake can be far more beneficial in the long run.
I love all my coaches but this information is definitely helpful!
Glad you liked it Vaishali. Thanks for commenting.
This is such an amazing post! Oh yes, perfection is truly a myth but sometimes we can’t help it and we just strive for perfection. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for commenting Valentina and for your feedback. We are glad you liked the post!
Awesome article. Love the motivational tips you share. I am considering hiring a Personal Trainer to help me achieve my fitness goals. and this blog has changed my perspective on the role of personal trainers and my responsibilities in achieving my goals. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Kevin for a great feedback! Glad that you found our article helpful. Good luck with hiring a personal trainer. Just send us an email if you need some help!