5 Reasons Why You're Not Making Fitness Progress
The typical gym membership is broken.
Odds are, if you made your New Year's Resolution to join the gym, get into into a consistent workout routine, improve your energy, and lose weight, you've already quit.
Research shows only 10% of people who got started after January 1st, are still committed to their goals.
Here at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning we are doing something very different.
We know how hard it can be to get into shape on your own. We know the struggles and frustration our members faced before joining our program. We know how hard it can be to overcome your fear in starting and how easy it can be to quit. We know how hard it can be to stay self-motivated.
This is why we've changed the gym experience forever.
No more wondering what exercises you should be doing or how to do them. No more worrying what exercises to avoid because of your bad knee. No more having to drag yourself to the gym and disliking every minute of it. No more starting and quitting.
One of the biggest ways we get our new members committed, consistent, and well on their way to reaching their goals is by making progress.
It's the secret sauce to their incredible transformations. 
You see, the key to fitness success and reaching your goals is progress. It's the thing that keeps us moving in the right direction. It builds tremendous amounts of momentum and it keeps us motivated and wanting more. As soon as you see that things are working and changing, you're well on your way to transforming your body and health.
The problem is, progress can easily come to a screeching halt. We can feel like we haven't started to make progress or it can feel like we're no longer making progress and are stuck in a plateau.
Today we're covering why you're not making progress and the exact steps we take to help our members do so.
1| You're not focusing on small wins
Fitness success is the accumulation of small victories created over time.
No one finished a workout, looked in the mirror and said, "Yes, I've done it. I've reached my goals."
Many of us fail to see progress because we're so focused on the BIG goal. For example, say your goal is to lose 30lbs. This a significant amount of weight that is well within your grasp, but will take time and effort.
A lot of will only measure our success on that number on the scale. We think if the scale isn't moving, we're not progressing, we get frustrated and quit.
Instead, we get our members to focus on the small victories that will lead you to that end goal. As I said earlier, success is the accumulation of small wins over time.
These small wins include things like getting to the gym 2x/week for the month, increasing the length you are able to hold your plank, skipping that fast-food breakfast for a healthy option you make at home, or increasing the amount of weight you use on your exercise.
These small wins are progress. They build crazy amounts of momentum and confidence that you can do this! They are the little victories that get you consistently moving toward your goals.
2| You're measuring the wrong things
Let's go back to our 30lb weight loss goal.
It's easy to get tunnel vision on that number. It becomes the ONLY thing we look at and can even become obsessive. If we don't instantly make progress toward that number or reach it in a short amount of time, we must be doing something wrong, right? Wrong.
Progress comes in many shapes and sizes. Focusing on one single area like the number on the scale is a recipe for frustration.
First, the scale doesn't tell the whole story. Say you start working out and drop some weight initially but things start to plateau even though you're working hard with your workouts and on your nutrition. Frustration kicks in. Are you going backwards? Has progress stalled?
No.
We've seen members completely transform their health and bodies and only lose a few pounds on the scale. What they didn't know is that they were losing fat, and gaining strength and muscle. We've seen endless members lose 10-20lbs of fat, gain 5lbs of muscle and their body's look and feel completely different. They even drop multiple pant sizes.
Instead of focusing solely on the scale as the measure of progress, we get our members to focus on the big picture and all of the things that show they're moving and progressing in the right direction.
These are things like:
Improvements in energy levels
Improvements in sleep, mood, stress levels
How their clothes fit
Improvements in workout consistency
Improvements in body-fat percentage (how much fat they're losing, and muscle they're gaining)
Improvements in total-body and core strength
Improvements in workout performance, intensity, endurance
3| You aren't enjoying your workouts
If there is one thing I know, it's that you'll never get into the best shape of your life while hating your workouts.
If they cause you any amount of confusion, frustration, or intimidation, they aren't going to work. You'll never be consistent enough with them to see the progress you want.
And this is what is happens to most of us who aren't seeing the progress we want. We are unsure of what to do for workouts. We are intimidated to try something different than the treadmill or elliptical. We get tired of the same old boring routine. These things all add up to consistency and motivation dropping, then we quit and progress ends.
So, what are we doing about this at DSC?
First, we want our members to not just like their workouts but LOVE them. We work hard to create an environment people want to be in.
What we have found is very simple: in order to be consistent with your workouts (and in turn see fantastic results) you need to enjoy it! It needs to be something you look forward to, not something you dread.
You see, when it comes to making real changes with your health and fitness, consistency is KING! The more fun you have with your workouts, the more you look forward to them. The more you look forward to them, the more you go. And the more you go, the more progress you make.
Secondly, we take the guess work out of your workouts. Every step of the way from the warm-up to the exact number of reps and sets of each exercise has been planned for you by our coaches.
4| You're not focusing on getting stronger
Think of your overall fitness as a house. You want the biggest and nicest fitness house in 2020 and we're going to build it.
It all starts with your strength. Your overall strength is the foundation of that house. Without that foundation it doesn't matter how big your house is, it will fail. In fitness terms, this means you won't reach your potential or worse, get injured. With a strong foundation of strength, everything else fitness related only gets better.
Your running improves. Your yoga improves. Your cardio improves. Your injury prevention improves. Your workout intensity improves and so do your results.
Strength simply allows you to get more out of your workouts.
Here's an example:
As part of your workout, you're doing burpees. The burpee requires you to get down to your hands, kick your feet out, hit a push-up, kick in, stand up, and jump.
Think about the level of strength it takes to control your body-weight and get up and down in a quick manner.
Now imagine completing burpees with a really strong upper body, core, and legs. Now it's easier to get down and get up which means we can do more burpees in a shorter time. This gets us even stronger and allows us to workout at a higher intensity -- more fat-loss, more calories burned, better results.
The best part about strength is that it's measurable. Tracking improvements in strength is a fantastic sign you are making progress from month-to-month and workout-to-workout. Aim for small improvements in your strength by completing more reps in your workouts and/or increasing the weights you use during your workouts.
Click below ⬇️ to learn more about making strength and priority in 2020.
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5| You're going at it alone
Improving your health and fitness doesn’t need to be a lonely journey.
Why do most people go through endless cycles of starting and quitting? They go at it alone.
Walk into most gyms and find:
No support
No direction
No community
No motivation
This leaves people feeling intimidated, confused, alone, bored, and unsupported which is recipe for seeing no progress and quitting.
This is not a recipe for fitness success and consistency.
At DSC, we obsess over creating a welcoming community where our members feel supported, motivated, and constantly working towards their goals.
Our coaches provide everything you need to make progress from:
Designing your workouts before you come in so you don't have to think about anything
Guiding you through 100% of your workout so you know you're doing everything correctly and safely
Motivating you to get the very most out of each workout
Creating a personalized approach to workout around injuries
Creating a fun environment you look forward to coming to
When it comes to seeing incredible progress and results in 2020, don’t go at it alone!