Sprinting Before the Marathon

 The all too common phrase “life’s a marathon not a sprint” we know it and embody it, popular figures such as Tony Robbins, Aubrey Graham (Drake), and Philip C. McGraw (Dr. Phil) have established this message that we have digested to be true. It is extremely popular in the Fitness Industry as you hear everyone talk about it, their journey is long, slow, and steady. This creates a devisable plan that will break down your large goal into chucks which allows you to chug along the journey with adequate progress and steady results. However, is it possible that this could be holding us back from our true potential?

Think of Newton’s First Law- an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an external force. This describes the principal of inertia, and I believe this inertia must be overcome by tremendous force. Let’s relate this back to fitness and set the stage. When we take on the proclamation to change we are met with inertia, a force that is resisting our ability to be different. Everything we do in our life consistently eventually becomes a habit. These habits are bounded to us like the gauze on a mummy. It takes a tremendous amount of deliberate effort to change them, here is where we must sprint.

This increase in velocity of progress, or sprint, will do several powerful things.

First, it will allow you to delve deeper into your goal. Most people when they take the marathon approach are stuck with the bad habits for ultimately months, maybe even years. These bad habits could include overeating, binging/purging, sweet addictions, and many more. The fact is these habits are not being changed effectively because the person whose got the marathon mentality is typically someone who isn’t fully committed. In my experience, those who only dip their toes into the water of fitness end up with the worst relationships to exercise, food, and commonly find themselves yo-yo dieting. The lack of commitment is the greatest concern, for it leads to a couple days of consistency followed by a celebratory binge session to top off the week. This decreases the amount of results achieved, and by sabotaging yourself you later find that your guilty, ashamed, and thus begin creating negative self-talk. This negative self-talk then feeds back into the poor relationships with diet and exercise again like a revolving door. Instead increase your velocity by delving deeper into your goals, understand what your “why” for doing this is, commit to that why, and treat yourself like you love yourself. This sprint will establish your connection to the goal which increases adherence and purpose behind what you’re doing. When things have a deeper purpose, we tend to be more invested in them and stay behind them longer.

Second, by sprinting you will see more results in this short term burst. Let’s face it everyone gets happy and motivated when they see any positive change in their bodies. This small sprint in the beginning will allow you to see the momentum of your choices as it relates to your goal. This will reinforce the positive behaviors that you are establishing. Remember, our habits can hold us back in the beginning, yet they take us to the finish line in the end. It’s all about getting the good habits established, and diminishing the bad ones. By seeing these results you are compelled to believe in the process, and when we believe amazing things happen.

As this picture from mensdatingmastery.com on The Self Fulfilling Prophecy displays our beliefs influence our expectations, these expectations influence our behavior, and our behavior influences our results. These results then restart the process over again by reinforcing those beliefs. This sprint that your going to do will pay dividends because it will set the stage for long term success by hacking into your psychological state, and if my experience in the industry has taught me anything its that a weight issue isn’t a weight issue, it’s what’s going on upstairs.

Now you’re fired up ready to sprint, but wait. The most important thing is how long should you sprint? Our body physically can only maintain a maximum effort sprint from 5-8 seconds, this is analogous for our rate of exertion in the course of our fitness journey. There are limits that we have to establish or else we sacrifice a much worse fate than taking it slow and calculated. As we discussed the increase in velocity will get us to understand our “why” at a deeper level to have a purpose behind what we are doing, and only after doing so, will we then be begin to apply some gas to create an energized current of growth. The journey starts upstairs-a mental sprint to chase our purpose. Develop your reason why you are doing this, refer to my article I wrote “Why Get Healthy” for help. After you have established a connection to a deeper meaning, you will then begin your sprint.

The sprint in our fitness journey should be one week or less. It should include trying to have each meal full of whole natural foods, high quality meats, and void of foods that come in packages, bags, cans, or wrappers. In addition to these vibrant foods aim to walk after your meals just 5-10 minutes, that is the only additional exercise you’ll need at this point. This allows us adequate time to see results in the mirror and feel the changes from the increase in nutrient dense foods, which supercharge our mood. After cessation of the sprint we kick our pace down to moderate those foods we had previously voided. Most people find that they have one of two feelings after this. One, they are so connected to their goal that they don’t want to reintroduce those voided foods. Or perhaps, they will feel that they want to overeat on those foods that “they have been deprived of”. Regardless of your feeling, here is where portion control becomes your best friend, because we cannot expect anyone to never touch these foods again. I recommend you reintroduce these foods with a high amount of attention on how they make you feel. After eating a well portion meal that may include these foods seek to feel the effects they have on you. Maybe it’s bloating, foggy thinking, mild sadness/anxiety, disturbed gut, or even skin reactions. Searching for these signs and symptoms are the marathon along with eating in proportion to your bodies needs, it’s about finding foods that you can digest well and have no adverse side effects from. That, in conjunction with finding a Fitness Professional who will systematically provide your body with the appropriate amount of exercise stimulus to induce slow progressive change is the long marathon ahead. So yes, life may be a marathon, but sprint a little to overcome the inertia of change and enjoy the road ahead.

I hope you’ve deeply enjoyed and learned from the posts I’ve created, it is a passion of mine to be able to influence as many people as I can so please share this and spread the love! Also I would love for you to check out my podcast “RWYS” it covers similar topics as well as Freestyle Friday’s where I deliver easy to implement tips to help you grow your wellness instantly!