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SHOW TRANSCRIPT

I don’t want diabetes.

I don’t want high cholesterol.

I want independence and functionality and strength and vitality.

If I give up prior to six months, I’m missing out on some of the most dramatic and amazing benefits of strength training.

We really cross that line into seeing those long term benefits and creating a wonderful future.

Welcome to the Strength Changes everything podcast, where we introduce you to the information, latest research, and tools that will enable you to live a strong, healthy life.

On this podcast, we will also answer your questions about strength, health, and Well being.

I’m Amy Hudson.

I own and operate three exercise coach studios.

My co hosts are Brian Sigan, co founder and CEO of The Exercise Coach, and Dr. James Fisher, leading researcher in evidence based strength training.

And now for today’s episode.

Did you know that most people will give up on a new exercise program within the first four months?

Across the fitness industry We have seen clients who stay with a program longer than six months are far more likely to achieve the goals that they came in looking to achieve.

In today’s episode, we’re going to learn what research shows about how to make healthy new habits stick, why people fall off the bandwagon, what you can do, and the mindsets that you can adopt that will allow you to actually succeed and not become another statistic.

If you’re just starting an exercise or strength training journey following years of inconsistency, maybe without ever seeing the real changes you’ve been after, this episode is for you.

Dr. Fisher is with me today and we’re going to discuss all of this.

So, headline Dr. Fisher across the fitness industry, we see that the first four months are what we can consider fragile.

So, why is this the case?

Yeah it’s really fascinating.

It kind of transcends neuroscience and behavioral science and our ability to take up new habits and engage in new activities.

We can actually take a step back to even beginning engagement in new habits and specifically in exercise habits.

And there are six stages of what’s called the trans theoretical model of behavioral change.

And it relates to Obviously, multiple things, and we’re bordering into psychology here.

But the initial stage is sort of.

Psychology here.

But there’s the initial stage is sort of pre contemplation, and that’s people that may be friends of people who are listening to this podcast who have got no intention to begin exercise or anything else like that at all.

And they may even be aware of the health benefits and that they’re supposed to exercise, that it’s good for them, but they are not interested.

There’s a contemplation stage where people are now beginning to think about it, but they’re not clear on how it would fit with their life and so forth.

There’s a preparation phase where people are intending to change and maybe they’re starting to put things in place.

Maybe they’ve inquired about it, or maybe they’ve thought about what days they might be able to exercise, or they’ve looked up different memberships at different exercise facilities.

And then there’s action where people begin to engage in an exercise program.

Now, beyond that, there’s also maintenance where the new behavior is starting to become ingrained within their social interaction, within their lifestyle.

And then there’s what’s called termination.

And that’s almost that it’s become so ingrained in their life that they do it as autonomously as brushing their teeth, as automatically as brushing their teeth.

It just is so ingrained in them.

It’s just such a part of them that they don’t even imagine existing without it.

Wow.

So there’s quite a journey.

That people take before they actually are at the finish line of success, so to speak, in an exercise journey, it sounds like.

Yeah, absolutely.

And it can take some time to get through that journey.

You know, there’s research that suggests that, you know, habit forming can take, well, between 66 and 250 days.

So obviously, how regularly we engage in that habit and how often we kind of fall off the wagon.

In that process, can impact it.

But yeah, it can take time.

It’s not an easy thing, and people should be aware of that, that if they’re struggling, they’re not alone.

This is well studied.

Yeah, yeah.

So, what I’m hearing you say is that the decision to start on a health journey takes a little courage and it takes some action on your part.

But there’s a lot of forces subtly at work behind the scenes that are kind of trying to dissuade you back into the status quo, to go back where you came from.

And you have to be aware of those and fight those.

Is that your statement?

Exactly.

And the reality is that.

We are creatures of habit.

You know, I wake up in the morning and I go through the same routine almost every day.

And we, you know, human beings like that habit.

They like the same things that we do.

So doing anything that changes that habit, that challenges that habit, has to some extent a degree of fear attached to it from a psychological perspective.

And it has, you know, an innate kind of It’s challenging the status quo quo.

It’s change, and change sometimes is hard to manage.

It’s hard to incorporate into a lifestyle.

I think about that quote like when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change.

Like we’ve gotten to the point where I no longer wish to be where I’m at, I want to be somewhere else.

And so I think if you can remind yourself that I don’t want what I’ve always had for the past 10 years where I’ve struggled to stay consistent and do something.

Like, I’ve spent long enough spinning my wheels.

I’m ready to make a change, but I know that my default is not to do anything.

Even that knowledge can be empowering.

And it actually kind of feels like a challenge.

Like, okay, I know this is the case, and I don’t want to be one of these statistics, right?

So, let’s talk a little bit more about why or what we can do about this and what we need to keep in mind in terms of kind of keeping our own expectations in check about the journey ahead so we can really set ourselves up for better success.

So, you know, change takes time, right?

Physiological change and habit change and emotional change takes time.

So, I mean, I’d love to hear you kind of spell out for us, you know, physiologically, a lot of people start an exercise program because they have physical goals that they’re looking to.

Achieve.

So what does data show about what people can typically expect to achieve on a strength training program over that first year?

Yeah, absolutely.

I think this is a great question that people should be aware of when they enter into an exercise program.

You know, what can they expect and kind of what motivating markers are they going to come across that’s going to either spur them on or maybe even kind of make them feel a little bit disheartened?

And being aware of those, those, you know, issues might issues might help them kind of foresee them and prepare for them.

So, of course, anybody engaging in strength training for the first time is going to make rapid initial gains in strength.

Strength is, we’re very adaptable from a strength approach.

And a lot of that is neurological.

Our ability to recruit our existing muscle fibers will improve.

Our ability to send our impulse from our brain to our muscle fibers will improve.

It’s all about neurological and neuromuscular efficiency.

And that will happen, you know, almost from the first workout onwards.

We may experience disorders from those workouts, but there’s really positive things happening.

And if that’s all we get, that’s not a bad thing.

But that’s going to happen really through the first few months, or certainly through the first few weeks.

It takes some time to start to see physical change.

So it takes some time to start to see muscle size increase or to start to see body composition adapt around that strength training program.

And that’s completely normal.

Our neurology is easier to adapt than our morphology, than actual cells as far as muscle size and as far as.

Body composition.

So they’re going to take some time.

But the real wins, and this Is where people really need to look at engaging in strength training for the long haul, the real wins occur, you know, sort of post 12 weeks, you know, three months plus.

We’re talking about our reductions in cholesterol.

We’re talking about increases in bone mineral density, which really is going to be key after about six months or so.

We’re going to see reductions in, or sorry, reversal of things like diabetes and reductions in fasting blood glucose.

So a lot of our health markers start to come in a bit later on in that exercise journey.

But they’re the ones that we’re probably most interested in, or we maybe should be most interested in.

Okay.

So, some of the most dramatic and glamorous outcomes are happening past the six month mark.

So, what you’re saying is if I give up prior to six months, I’m missing out on some of the most dramatic and amazing benefits strength training.

Yeah, absolutely.

And when people engage in strength training, they will feel better.

There’s evidence of the acute benefits.

We’ve done a podcast previously about the acute benefits of a workout, of a resistance training workout.

But it takes time for our body to make those changes.

Absolutely.

And I know we’ve done a previous episode.

So if you want a very detailed breakdown of exactly what research has shown to happen with consistent strength training over the course of one’s first year.

Go back to episode 48.

In that episode, Dr. Fisher breaks down exactly what we have seen happen over the course of the first year.

But the point being is that basically, at first, to very oversimplify it, when we first get started, our body is adapting to the stimulus we’re giving it, and our muscles are responding.

Oh, you’re strength training now.

I better sort of start adapting.

There’s neural adaptations that are happening.

And they compound upon themselves over the first year.

But we’re building that strength and we’re building that muscle that then sets us up to enjoy a lot of the other benefits, the external ones or the measurable ones, maybe that a lot of people are looking for later down the road, if that’s kind of a fair way to oversimplify it.

Yeah, no, I think that’s a great way to oversimplify it.

And it kind of lends into the next thing that we’re going to talk about.

Yeah.

So, I mean, so that’s like physical changes or physical outcomes.

Let’s talk about now the emotional commitment piece.

So, again, we’re talking about habit change and establishing strength training.

So, let’s talk about the emotional commitment piece, not only to achieve like an initial physical goal, but then create like more of a lasting identity change in oneself.

What does the research show about that?

Yeah.

So this is really grounded in what’s called self determination theory.

The best kind of explanation in context of self determination theory is we may begin an exercise program for the extrinsic benefits attached to.

To engaging in that program.

So it might be that somebody wants to lose weight for a wedding, or maybe they’ve had a health scare and they’ve been told to get their blood pressure down.

So they’re thinking of a very kind of, oh, so I’ve got my blood pressure down.

That’s great.

I’ve lost weight, that’s great.

That’s my outcome goal and so forth.

And that’s absolutely fine.

But self determination theory, we talked about the movement of exercise habits or healthy habits from being extrinsic to being intrinsic, to being almost the act in and of itself, or the way that we feel about the act, or health benefits are also thought about as being intrinsic benefits rather than extrinsic, rather than external.

So, if we’re starting to think long term, if I’m 40, 46 years old and I’m starting to think long term about, okay, what am I going to look like when I’m 80?

What am I going to function like when I’m 80?

I want, so that will be termed ill health avoidance.

I don’t want high blood pressure.

I don’t want diabetes.

I don’t want high cholesterol.

I don’t want.

Dependence upon other people.

I want independence and functionality and strength and vitality.

That would be ill health avoidance.

And that’s very much an intrinsic motive.

And the idea of self determination theory or the discussion of it is it’s autonomy and competency in the actions itself.

But it’s a shift from those extrinsic goals of maybe body composition or fat loss to well being and understanding the long term benefits.

And it really just being a part of you, almost putting the benefits aside and it becoming as autonomous or as automatic as brushing your teeth.

It just becomes a part of who you are.

Yeah.

It’s not really because I’m running away from something else or I need this thing to happen.

It’s because this is who I am and this is what I do.

It is a part of who I identify as a person who cares for their health, right?

To me, that’s really the win because if it’s, if that is a piece of one’s identity, um, it’s it, they don’t have to make uh, there’s not a lot of work necessary to keep that up, it’s just sort of going to happen by default, just like before what used to happen by default maybe was nothing.

If you can make that shift all the way on to the other side of the spectrum, which takes time and work, you will then win, right?

And that’ll be uh, no longer a battle for you.

I think that sums it up really nicely.

I think the idea of who we are is who we are.

You know, I strength train because it’s part of my identity, it’s part of who I am.

If you ask me out of the blue, if you’re somebody I’ve never met before and you ask me what are the things that I do, what makes me me, one of those things is going to be I strength train.

So I think that we all have these multiple kind of facets of our life that we identify with that determine who.

We are as a person.

But certainly, yes, adding in those healthy habits and adding in those that strength training is a key part of that.

But that’s where we want to see strength training become.

That’s when we really cross that line into seeing those long term benefits and creating a wonderful future.

There’s a really good book I’m listening to right now called The Motivation Myth.

And related to this point, a lot of people, the You know, a lot of people, the author makes a point that a lot of people believe that in order to take action, sometimes they need to wait for motivation to hit.

In order to go to my workout, I’m going to wait till I feel motivated to work out.

And that’s the myth.

He says, no.

What research really shows is it’s the act of going to the workout or it’s the action itself being taken that creates motivation.

So it’s kind of backwards.

So if you’re struggling to go to your workouts, the solution is just to go to the workout because then you will get more motivated to keep up with the journey.

And sometimes, I mean, there are like mental tricks that I’ve also heard from people like Mel Robbins or even the guy from that hit TV show on Netflix owning Manhattan, Ryan Serhant.

They’ll say, Mel.

Robbins’ thing is, five, four, three, two, one, go.

You count down from five, you kind of say, like, I’m not going to give myself time to talk myself out of it.

I’m just going to say, five, four, three, two, one, and here I go.

I’m just taking the steps without overthinking.

I think Ryan Surhant goes, ready, set, go.

You just say it to yourself and you just start doing it before you talk yourself out of it.

And so that’s helped me before, too.

Sometimes you just got to lead yourself down the right path without, you know, talking yourself out of it.

So, Dr. Fisher, I think what helps a lot of people is to kind of like get some advice from an expert on reminders or mindsets that they should keep in mind when they know they’re vulnerable.

So, I want you to talk to the person in the first month, a few first few months of a strength training journey.

They just got started, they just got to the action phase, right?

They’ve been contemplating and considering, and they’ve just started a strength training journey.

And they know they’re kind of high risk for, you know, giving up still because they’re below the four month mark, zero to three months.

What are the most important things that that person should be focusing on and keeping in mind?

Yeah, there’s lots of free.

A lot of fragility in the first few months.

There’s, you know, emotional insecurity in the environment that we’re putting ourselves in.

We’re still yet to build this as a habit.

So for me, in the first few months, the goal is showing up, it’s adherence, it’s engagement in the task, it’s not succumbing to other opportunities or other barriers, it’s knowing the barriers might occur.

But it’s being persistent with what you’re trying to achieve.

It’s about identifying those barriers.

Somebody calls you up for dinner and says, Hey, let’s go out for dinner tonight.

And you were planning to go to the gym.

You were planning to go to a session.

You’d booked the session, but now you’re thinking, Hey, I’d rather go for dinner.

And at that point, it’s that emotional my habits say, I want to go for dinner.

But this is where you need to make that switch and say, I need to go to the gym for the first few months.

I need to make this regular twice per week.

I need to engage in this.

This is what I’ve got to do.

And you can put everything else to one side just for a short enough period of time to get through this first few months of this becoming ingrained in your life, of this becoming your new habit.

Okay.

So, habit anchoring is important.

What about belief building?

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, knowing that you can do something.

So, people are often engaged in strength training, a fear around engaging in it or perceived complexity around it.

So, of course, going to the exercise coach and being coached through it by a personal trainer, understanding that you’re more capable than you think you were, that you’re stronger, that your physique is not a barrier to this, that you can build strength, that anybody can build strength, and that there are You know, that this will increase and seeing those numbers increase.

And also building your education about.

The value of the activity you’re engaging in.

So, listen to this podcast, build your belief in what you are doing, not only by seeing the numbers going up each workout, showing up, like Dr. Fisher said, but listening to this podcast so that you can gain more energy behind and motivation, you know, a little bit of extrinsic motivation to continue to deepen your belief in this new healthy habit and in yourself to succeed.

Like he just said.

And one thing I would add too is to work to build an emotional connection with the people that you’re exercised with.

So, your trainers, share how your body is feeling, ask questions, learn about their lives, and they’re going to ask you about your life and build a friendship, build the trusting relationship because that relationship is actually also key to your success.

Opening yourself up to receive guidance and education from your trainers is also crucial.

Yeah.

I love one of the key things that you said there was learning.

And I love this concept.

When we learn about things, we become more and more enthusiastic and more passionate about those things.

And learning, forming a relationship with the machines is really key.

Understanding how certain machines feel, how a leg press is going to feel.

Kind of, I mean, we’re talking about moving beyond almost the three month mark.

This can become long term now, but understanding that some machines are going to be less.

You’re going to have less enjoyment on some exercises than others, but knowing that they’re still wonderful for your health and your well being and your functionality and so forth, understanding how you grip, understanding how you retain posture, starting to learn that technique, listen to those coaching points, engaging in those coaching points.

And every time you go back, trying to think, okay, this is what I need to do on this exercise and so forth.

So I definitely think that learning phase can be really beneficial.

And of course, learning the Positive health benefits and the things that we’re talking about on this podcast, as you said.

Okay, let’s talk about.

So, that was the zero to three month mark, getting myself going and building my motivation and belief, knowing that I’m in that fragile phase.

Now, let’s talk about months three through six.

So, this is where sometimes we see people start to see some plateaus in their initial strength gains because, you know, maybe after years of inactivity, once we do start strength training, our muscles are very happy that they’re doing this.

And there’s quite a lot of Gains that many people see quickly, especially those deconditioned people who are just getting started.

And there’s kind of a dramatic, you know within months three through six, those huge jumps may not be as prominent.

So, what are the most important things to keep in mind during that period of time?

You’re still in technically the risky phase there with month three to four, and you’re trying to get to the sixth beyond.

So, what should people keep in mind there?

Yeah.

So, this is very much a Transition phase.

We’ve kind of gone through this degree of fragility, but we’re now, we’re not quite into that.

It’s not quite ingrained in our life per se yet.

So, it’s understanding, as you said, that there might be some degree of plateau.

Those initial strength gains are not going to continue infinitely.

So, we might still see numbers go up on occasional sessions, and that’s almost certainly going to happen.

But if they don’t go up, we might start to be disheartened by that.

And that’s okay.

It’s understanding that that’s, that’s a natural process.

A natural process and it’s almost a requirement to allow our body to then make other changes.

That’s, you know, we almost have to hit that neurological plateau to allow our body to make those morphological adaptations.

So it’s about reframing our understanding of those plateaus and saying that they’re good things that they’re happening.

And now we want to keep working.

We can start to think about our efforts.

So now we probably have a good understanding of the equipment, of the workouts themselves.

And now we can become, we can almost embrace the effort.

We can reframe the effort as something that we enjoy.

It’s 20 minutes.

We want to go in and work hard.

We want to go in and push those boundaries and push the barriers.

And Not be discouraged by not seeing numbers go up every session.

I love what you remind us too.

It’s kind of the, what you said is between months three and six, even if you see what feels to be a plateau, that is necessary for your body to continue to basically rebuild itself from the inside out in order to site you up for those more dramatic results that happen after that six month mark.

It’s a necessary bridge to cross.

So it’s not nothing it’s crossing a bridge.

And so I love that reminder because, again, not everything is bells and whistles and mountaintops.

It’s consistency that’s the actual win, which we’ve talked about before, too.

And so keeping that in mind, learning to love the experience itself, focus on that.

Don’t focus on over here, focus on that.

If you focus on over here, sometimes it’s too far out in the future and it’s Not enough motivation to keep you motivated right now when you’re not seeing it yet, right?

And so, if we can, I like the reminder stay motivated and know what’s going on behind the scenes, which is still profound and important.

I love it.

And then, okay, let’s finally talk about kind of the month six through 12.

So, somebody has made it through, you know, that initial six month period of time and they’re a little bit more in the flow.

What are the most important things for them to keep in mind?

Yeah, so I think that by this stage, it should be ingrained within them.

They should at least have an idea of a longer term vision of who they want to be.

So now maybe they’re well on their way with a weight loss journey or with the initial extrinsic goals that they had.

But they might see now that they have longer term intrinsic goals, as we talked about self determination theory, they might now see that actually this is Part of who I want to be.

A stronger person.

I want to be a healthier person.

I want, I have a long term vision of how I will look in a year or two years or five years or 10 years or beyond.

And it’s now about having that, having that identity that this is, these are the steps and that these are not, you know, it’s to some extent there’s an understanding that this was not the arduous task that it was originally thought to be.

There’s a quote by an exercise scientistslash exerciser over here, and he said that anticipation is worse than participation.

And it’s basically this idea that when we’re in that pre contemplation or that contemplation stage, there’s a degree of anxiety about what we’re doing.

But once we start to undertake it, we realize actually it’s not as bad as we first thought.

We actually maybe enjoy it, and we realize that the commitments weren’t as big as we thought.

And by this six month phase, I think we’re now hopefully realizing that two 20 minute workouts per week is not a big commitment, but the health benefits that we can now see over this period that’s passed and over the long term period can help really form our identity and our healthy being.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, we would like, we want you to transition into that new identity.

And so during those months, you’re probably starting to enjoy some of the glamorous results, or if you’ve stayed consistent, you’re a different person.

So you have to keep that in mind.

I am a different person and I’m continuing to become a different person.

I am keeping myself young.

I am turning back the clock.

I am maintaining a new identity as a healthy person.

And this is part of my lifestyle just like brushing my teeth, you know?

And I think that is really the identity change that will keep you successful long term and not give up once again, just like most of the people will on an exercise program.

Sometimes I remind clients, if they’re with us for one year or even two years or something, I will say, How many people do you know that have stuck with the same exercise program for two years?

They barely can think of anybody.

It’s so rare that somebody sticks long term with a challenging exercise program.

And so you really need to give yourself a pat on the back.

We’re trying to make it easy through 20 minute workouts, through appointments, and it should be part of your lifestyle.

And so, but it is something to celebrate too.

And that’s where we want you to go.

We don’t want you to give up.

We don’t want you to be back in a facility saying You know, I really, it’s been 10 years and I’ve struggled to stay consistent again and again.

This is going to be different.

I hope this episode helped you understand kind of that journey and what you can do at every piece of that journey to succeed.

Dr. Fisher, do you have any final thoughts for the listener today?

No, I think that an understanding of how to engage in this journey and how to, how to, Know how this journey might pan out is really important.

And hopefully, it’s been useful for the listener.

We’re cheering you on.

We want You strong.

We want you to succeed.

So keep with it.

Go to your workout.

We will see you next week on the podcast.

Until then, we hope you remember strength changes everything.

Thanks for listening.

If you enjoyed today’s episode, please share it with a friend.

You can submit a question or connect with the show at strengthchangeseverythingcom Join us next week for another episode and be sure to follow the show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts so that you never miss another episode.

Here’s to you and your best health.