Hofstaders Law states that everything takes twice as long as expected, even when you take this into account.

We’ve never been good with the concept of time but working on getting our new space set up has definitely taught me loads about this law. Things we thought would take a couple of months have taken over 12 and once one hurdle has been overcome, another has seemed to crop up.

Being someone who encourages our gym community to be patient with and enjoy their fitness journey has been useful practice for me. Below are some ideas that we’ve used which happen to transfer to getting into shape as well…

PUT THINGS INTO PERSPECTIVE: Instead of magically using a supplement/special weight loss plan to get you into shape in a week, you’ll have to put some effort into it, build habits and lay a solid foundation of health and fitness so that you can look feel and move better long term.

Either way the next 6/12/18/whatever number of months will pass anyway. This means you could go for the quick fix, get all excited for a few weeks and then quit when life gets in the way or you could go for the less exciting sounding option but the one that you’ll be able to stick to and use to transform your fitness – long term.

REALISE THERE’S ALWAYS OPTIONS: Things get in the way and you have to improvise. For The Fitness Society as a business this has meant pivoting to using Zoom/a school yard as training locations during Covid and now an old retail unit as our temporary space while we get our new home ready in Smithfield. For you getting into shape there are a number of things that could throw curveballs your way. There are also a number of solutions that you can use to smash those curveballs to bits. For example:
– You struggle to prep healthy meals during the week: Set a couple of hours aside at the weekend to bulk prep healthy meals and snacks. Can’t do that? Then buy a number of healthy ready meals.
– You’ve a sore foot: Lift weights for your upper body/go on a bike (carefully!) and look after your foods even more closely. Too many people decide that if a certain body part is injured that it is their get out of jail clause for looking after their overall health, where the truth is that even if you have an issue on one joint/muscle etc you can still get a hell of a lot of exercise done. Just be very careful with anything you do!
– You hate weights: Then do body weight training. There are so many varieties of workouts and places you can do them that you don’t have to be confined to any one type. You just need to make the decision you want to get into shape and then go and find a program you like.

HAVE A COMMUNITY TO SUPPORT YOU: Our business would be gone if we didn’t have a strong community to support us. Whether that’s people to give us advice, help us find a temp location, helping get the location ready or to come and join our sessions. You will hit your fitness goals much more quickly when you have a community helping you and you’ll enjoy the process so much more.

KEEP THE BIGGER PICTURE/YOUR WHY IN MIND: Having a “why” in your mind for getting into shape should be the first thing. Because it is so important. It will help drive you to push forward when things are busy and tough. It will also help you switch questions in your head from things like “why am I doing this workout” to “how can I eat a bit healthier today” which is a huge difference.

Our why as a business is based around surveys we have read like nearly 50% of people are intimidated by joining a gym and 44% of people said they had given up hope of improving their physique. Facts like these lead to a lot of things like obesity, diabetes, heart disease. When you look beyond the numbers means too many people lacking confidence, too many avoidable early deaths and too many kids playing in parks on their own because their parents don’t have the energy to join in.

Do we think we can change all of the numbers worldwide on this? Unfortunately not

Do we think we can help make a big dent in numbers in our community by providing a fun, inspiring, safe, dynamic space to progress your fitness in?

Watch this space…