7 Reasons Why Your Fitness Plan Fails

Anyone can say “I want to get fit,” or “I need to lose weight.” But what’s your personal finish line look like? Is a weight on a scale? Inches on a waistband? Number of pull-ups you can successfully execute? To have the proper motivation you need to have a goal—something to work towards and certainly something by which you can measure your progress against. Be specific and track your progress. When you see how far you’ve come, it’s easier to get back on track if life gets in the way and you have a few too many margaritas (and too few workouts) on vacation or indulge at someone’s birthday dinner.

So many gym-goers fall prey to this. You show up, look around to see what you want to do, and start working on a few machines or hop on a treadmill. When you don’t have a set plan of attack, your workouts will no doubt be shorter and less effective. So you need to start by developing a plan and then have the patience, fortitude and commitment to stick to it. “A program should be developed around a person’s age, goals, diet and time,” says Steve Kamb of Nerd Fitness, who offers everything you need to factor in to start your own plan on his site. “Developing a workout routine for yourself can be scary, but it’s really not too difficult and kind of fun once you understand the basics.”

A human body reflexively backs off when it gets uncomfortable, as you’ve no doubt experienced. Many guys may put in the time at the gym but not necessarily the effort required to get the results they’re striving for. Ask a personal trainer how often they have to ask clients to slow down or ease up and they might just laugh. Once you’ve set your goals, push yourself to achieve them, try to beat your personal bests and results are all but guaranteed.

It’s understandable that a guy would want to lift as much weight as he can. But that effort doesn’t do much for you, especially if you get hurt, says Tom Holland, exercise physiologist and author of The 12-Week Triathlete. Instead of straining under all that weight, Holland suggests focusing on the quality of the movement instead, using slow and steady movements to see the most gains.