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Fundamentals # 2: Consistency

September 22, 2012

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit. -Aristotle

In my opinion, 90% of success with training is just turning up and being consistent. You won’t get magical results in a few short weeks. I have had clients (trying to lose weight) who have lost inches or a few kilos in two weeks (which is something to be really proud of!) but for long-term, LIFE-CHANGING results it’s gonna take at least a full year of CONSISTENT exercise with a good program and good eating habits to get the results you are after.

If you are after fat loss/have body composition goals, diet consistency comes into play.  Without consistently following an eating/diet plan, without committing to it and sticking to it at least 80 % of the time, then the diet is bound to fail and you won’t reach your goals. Dieting success relies on how consistently you can follow through on your plan, day in day out. Even the most efficient diet plan will produce no results if it’s not consistently adhered to. Of course you will have days when you screw up, days when you decide not to stick to your plan, which is fine, but like I said above, it’s what you do and what you eat 80 % of your time that matters.

With training, even the most excellent of training programs that incorporates the best exercises in their best intensity levels and frequency, becomes useless if it is not consistently followed through on. The training sessions must be attended, the exercises must be performed properly, the weight lifted, the sets completed. There must be some form of consistent overload. Rest and recovery also needs to be consistent as well to get the results you’re after (more on this later).

Such is the importance of consistency; it's the heart of success. I daresay it’s even more important than what diet and training program you decide to use. I have seen people with suboptimal training and diet programs get better results than someone with the perfect training and diet program and all the right knowledge, just because the one was consistent where the other one wasn’t.

(I feel like I should add here that a big part of consistency is finding a diet and training program that suits you and your life. If it doesn't suit you and fit in with your schedule, if it takes more time and effort than you are willing and realistically able to put in, if your goals are unreasonable and don't match your lifestyle, you will find it harder, if not impossible, to remain consistent. So that is something to think about when deciding on your personal goals.)

A large percentage of people reading this will probably NOT act on this simple advice. They’ll keep scanning other articles, other websites, books, magazines, DVDs, forums looking for the “secret formula” or instant quick-fix.

Well, there isn’t one. If anything, this post IS the magic formula. Because consistency WORKS!

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