Personal Training Help for Your Fitness Journey
At Thesis in Washington D.C., we support our clients with truly personable, professional, and intelligent approaches for their health and fitness journey. Our reputation for excellence in personal training in D.C. and providing the best gym in D.C. is what we are credited for.
However, did you know that our best-in-the-business, exceptional personal trainers also encourage and support our clients by helping them navigate fitness goals that work for them?
We understand that fitness goals might look different from person to person, depending on the client’s unique lifestyle demands and precious time allotted to fitness. No matter your current fitness level, setting a fitness goal like weight loss or nutrition coaching can help keep your health at the top of your to-do list.
What’s true for all our clients on their road to wellness?
Setting attainable goals realistic to their lifestyle, with easy, measurable steps and tracking progress, while making time to celebrate successes along the way, can help create a life-long habit of improved health and increased fitness.
Set Personal Training Goals That Are Realistic to Your Life
One of the most important aspects of serving our clients is truly listening to their goals, stresses, and frustrations. Whether our client is a government employee, a busy student struggling to manage life and exams, or a harried working parent balancing fitness and life responsibilities—the professional staff at Thesis Gym is here to help plan out a realistic goal for their personal path for success.
Health and fitness are a continuous juggle, and not everyone has the same lifestyle or amount of time to dedicate to exercise. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, “Setting goals is a key part of improving health through better fitness.”
Having a fitness goal can be motivating and can help you remember to move regularly. Fitness goals that are realistic to your unique lifestyle are key to sticking to the plan. For extremely busy people, the goal of “5% body fat by December” would be difficult and discouraging if not met. Set a goal to focus on the journey rather than just focusing on the end result. One example of a journey goal would be, “Work out 4 x per week”. According to Better Up, “Research suggests it’s best to focus on cultivating a healthy lifestyle rather than weight loss.”
Start with Simple Fitness Steps
A person with a flexible schedule may be able to visit the gym four times a week, whereas that busy parent might begin with a goal of twice a week. Forbes Health stresses, “When setting fitness goals, we often accidentally muddy our paths by being too eager or too ambitious in our goal setting, according to Dr. Galasso. Taking a calm, confident approach to goal setting is best when setting individual goals.”
Be honest with yourself when thinking of your typical week. How many times a week can you visit the gym or squeeze in a walk on your lunch break? It’s okay to start with small steps to build up your confidence and help create those healthy habits for life.
What Do Concrete, Actionable Fitness Steps Look Like?
“Move more every day” sounds great when talking about increased fitness, but not exactly a concrete step to take; it’s not a concrete, quantitative goal. “Visit the gym before work, three days a week” is an actionable step. Instead of “walk more”, try “reach at least 4,000 steps each day”. Make sure that these are small actionable steps toward your goal, and that they’re within reach, and realistic to your lifestyle. Even one simple, but doable step such as, “Go to the gym every Thursday” can build your confidence over time, creating a healthy habit.
You can always add in more steps and gradually increase your goal over time. According to Forbes, Louisa Nicola, director of Neuro Athletics in Australia suggests “Keeping your goals in sight to avoid a phenomenon called delayed discounting.” She states that “The farther [sic] away your goal, the less the reward motivates behavior and the less dopamine [your brain] secretes in pursuit of that goal,”
Keep Track of Your Health and Fitness Success
Another underestimated, yet super-simple tool for success: Track your progress with an app like the free Thesis Fitness App or a handy, inexpensive little notebook to visually see and remember your progress. For example, you could write down, “Friday: walked for 20 minutes in the morning, reached 4,500 steps,” or “Thursday: went to the gym for 1 hour, cycled, used weights, and stretched.”
This straightforward tool for success and motivation may only take a minute or two a day, yet could be one of the most important habits to build long-lasting, life-long fitness and improved health. “Maintaining a fitness journal can be one of the most impactful things you can do for your own training,” Men’s Health Magazine tells us.
Making a note of when you took the concrete steps towards your goal can feel like a small win, carving out the path to continuous success. With positive momentum, you’re more likely to repeat the routine and keep at your actionable steps towards your goal.
Celebrate the Progress!
Logged a week of goals? You hit the gym every Thursday for a whole month and stuck to the plan? Celebrate your successes with a reward of your choice. If your goal and actionable steps were followed through, why not take notice of your positive progress? Some ideas for healthy celebration bonuses could be:
- Extra splurge on Netflix
- Buying a new piece of clothing
- Pencil in extra me-time
- 30 minutes browsing your favorite bookstore/specialty store
- Self-care visit: haircut, manicure, or pedicure
- Get a massage
The American Heart Association offers a caution to avoid food as a reward, “Food rewards are generally not recommended because these reinforce unhealthy eating habits. If you have worked so hard to get active and possibly lose weight, but then reward yourself with a high-fat meal or treat, you may sabotage some of the healthy habits you have worked so hard to create!”
Plan your fun reward beforehand, and when you hit your mark—don’t forget to cash in on the treat that you earned. Also, remember the built-in rewards for all the improved steps towards better health and fitness that you are taking. The American Heart Association lists a few for us to keep in mind:
- Healthier weight
- Lower blood pressure
- More-stable blood sugar
- Better cholesterol numbers
- Quality sleep
- Improved muscle tone
We Can All Set Realistic Health and Fitness Goals for Continuous Success
Fitness goals help keep up our momentum and ensure we make important time for ourselves every week. At Thesis Gym in Washington D.C., we meet our clients exactly where they are, and offer support and encouragement for their health and fitness journey. Setting realistic goals that can easily be integrated into our client’s unique lifestyle is key to staying motivated and accomplished.
Small, actionable steps are the stepping stones to check off along the way. Tracking your exercise takes only minutes but can truly be elating to see the accumulated progress logged. Lastly, celebrating your hard work with tangible perks can only make your pathway to better health and fitness more motivating, exciting, and rewarding.
Make an appointment with a Thesis professional and see how our private personal training can help support your health and fitness goals. Let our exceptional trainers be your supportive village on your unique wellness journey.
