1.DESIGNING & PLANNING.
In order to start, you first need to get clear with your fitness goals. Those goals can widely differ depending on the individuals but can all be summed up within the following 3 categories (that can be combined).
BODY COMPOSITION GOALS: you are thriving to change the way your body looks with one form or the other. It can be loosing body fat, building lean muscle, optimizing your nutrition, etc. This category doesn’t have an end goal - it needs to be refined and adjusted on a day to day base.
DEVELOPING SKILLS: you want to get better at crafting some specific movement patterns (like a free handstand or a snatch for example, improving your running efficiency, etc). You are willing to put some time, efforts and lots of reps to get better overtime to that skill you are working on. Successfully earning that skill has an end point once you have it but will likely need constant attention in order to maintain it.
PERFORMANCE DRIVERS: you are craving to perform at something. You have likely build the foundation in order to chase a personal best and achieve something you have still not accomplished. Whether it’s hitting your first marathon, build to a new one rep max Deadlift, or running across a country (who does that?!), your fitness will be heavily emphasized on optimizing your time, life and workouts around that specific performance. This category has a clear goal to work towards and can likely be measured.
The first mistake I see way too often is to not be deliberately clear on those goals. You want too many things all at once and therefore, have too much variables at hand in order to see progression.
When you are working towards improving your fitness, getting very intentional about what you are curious about and interested at is the first step to take action.
Once that main trajectory has been clearly thought and articulated, what follows is planning you roadmap in order to slowly but surely reach that goal. You can ask yourself those few questions in order to gain control and clarity around your choices:
Who is an expert in the field, that has enough experience and that I can learn from?
What's the estimated amount of time and frequency this goal will required? Can it realistically be incorporated into my current life demand (work, family, stress levels, etc)?
What type of training stimulus this fitness goal require me to take action on?
How will my nutritional and lifestyle factors align with this physical project I want to go through?
In which environment should I go in order to feel my best and have the support system that will help me in this pursuit?
2.PREPARING THE SITE
At this point, just like you would do before building a house (like clearing the rocks, trees, and to dig a hole), you will need to remove any barriers that could potentially slow down your fitness journey, like bad habits, people or lack of time. This is a big one as time is the most detrimental excuse that we use to procrastinate on our goals. Clearing the obstacles out of the way is already a massive step in order to define and set up the small (but achievable) set points to reach.
Reaching for helped and guidances during the preparation phase can also be a vital step. Remember that, as long we something think like it, we can't be good at everything. Hiring a professional that is remarkable in the area and that has spent countless of hours figuring out how to perfect the areas you want to improve on is a very smart move to do in this stage of preparation.
3.BUILDING & FRAMING THE FOUNDATION
Once the terrain is ready, the next step is to lay down concrete blocks and to create a solid base that will support the base of your futur house. For our fitness, building the foundation require us to focus on the foundational exercises and on what truly works: compound movements, Functional Resistance Training (FRT), easy & slow runs, basic bodyweight exercises.
When you have selected those key foundational exercises, consistency is the next factor to master. Establishing a consistent routine that you complete day to day no matter what Is where magic happens. This is about accumulating "SMALL WINS" that compound overtime and allows you to build up your self-confidence. It's about doing the reps.
Framing a structured workout plan, including different types of exercises (cardio, strength training, mobility) across your sessions and weeks is where the "complexity" and where the beauty of elegant programing starts to arise. Even if your fitness goals require specificity in your training, you shouldn't tackle it with "all or nothing" approach. Holistic fitness means that we apply different systems into one elegant way of moving your body. We pull the levers on the priorities and keep the rest to minimal dosages.
In order to keep improving, week after a week, you gradually build up in intensity and add complexity by applying progressive overload. Meaning that overtime, you evolve (heavier weights, more reps, better contractions, improved range of motion, more challenging loading, optimized recovery, etc) and get better.
Be patient. This phase takes months and years to be fully developed.
4.ENHANCE & REFINE
After you've worked, practiced and progressed, adding specificity and looking at the details is the next step to level up your fitness. Looking at different type of methods and refining your craft will become at some point mandatory to avoid plateauing and to keep things interesting.
A few examples of refinements:
Tracking your nutrition closely and experimenting with different tools or currents (like intermittent fasting, low-carb/high fat approach).
Testing out new training concepts or advanced skills to keep your fitness fun & enjoyable.
Experimenting with specific exercices or machines to optimise your current training regimen.
Adding training volume into your week if you can recover from it (adding bi-daily workouts for example).
Learning about the different methods to improve recovery (when proper nutrition and sleep are checked in) like sauna, cold plunge, percussive therapy, cryotherapy, etc.
Understanding the few nutritional supplements that could beneficial to your health and fitness.
5.MAINTAIN & IMPROVE
If you follow these steps, I'm pretty sure your house is now built.
The difference between a house and a body though is that building a house has an end point. When it's built, it will most likely stay there for a life-time. Your body is unfortunately not like that. Once you got clear on your goals, that you have prepped how to tackle them and that you've been consistent enough at progressively get better at your craft... well you gotta keep doing it.
Maintaining your fitness is being able to continuously keep up with your regular training routines and habits that you have slowly engrain in your subconscious during all those years. It's about continuously showing up, setting new challenges and improving your craft. Just like you want to keep your house clean and tidy, you need to keep showing care, attention and deliberate practice to your body in order to avoid plateauing or regressing.
With everything we just listed, remember that effort, consistency, and hard work are the only components that will determine wether or not you succeed at building the fitness you desire.
Passionately,
Max & Ben
Written by Benjamin Desmet
If you enjoyed reading this email, you can support us by spreading it to the word. Hit the forward button, share it with a friend and tell us your thoughts! We love to hear back from you.
