 Do you need some hacks to help yourself stay consistent with your workouts? Watch this. Our next caller is Chris from Minnesota. Chris, what's happening? How can we help you? How's it going guys? Good. All right. First off, I have to do the obligatory thank you for the content you produce. I really liked that you guys make the health and fitness space entertaining to listen to on a daily basis. Thank you. Awesome. That's all Justin. My question is about routine inconsistency. I'm getting back into lifting and fitness after about a year long break and I'm starting into maps anabolic. I've learned that I'm a very routine driven person. And when I struggle to maintain consistency, it's usually because my weekly routine gets thrown off for one reason or another. So the actual question I have is what other hacks and daily routines have you guys found to help yourselves or past clients make health and fitness a part of their daily life? Oh, Chris, did you listen to the, I didn't, we did an episode at it or was it, I don't know if it was Q and air or an episode that we did. And I talked about the weekend hack. Did you hear me talk about that yet? Was that with Jason Phillips? Oh, it might have been with Jason. Was it recent? Yeah, I think so. It was, it was a recent episode. It might have been with Jason, but I basically what I was talking about was making your, like when the weekend and then the week sends the follow, right? So in the past, uh, you know, I used to train really hard and consistent Monday through Friday. I was the most dialed on my diet, didn't miss my routine because my whole, whole routine was there. I'd work, I'd work schedule where I got to work at the same time and left work at the same time. And because I had scheduled clients all day long, I had to be very regiment about what time I ate. And so it was really easy for me to stay tight Monday through Friday. And then Saturday or Sunday would be, oh, you know, I sleep in, I'm tired and then maybe I'll watch a little football on Sundays. Hey, if I'm going to enjoy off the diet, and maybe that's when I'll have my pizza, you know, so what I found was many of these weekends, I would easily have one or two days that actually would kind of cancel all the good work that I did in the previous week, because I was moving so little, sometimes not training. And then also if I were to over consume, it would be on those days. And so I had switched this mindset up about, I don't know, seven years ago or so, maybe longer, where I said, OK, I'm not going to put a lot of pressure on myself throughout the week. I know I'm going to have some days off or I miss workouts or maybe I, you know, eat off the meal plan, but I'm going to win Saturday and Sunday. Saturday and Sunday, that's going to become my day where I'm more tight around the diet. And then if I want to cut loose during the week, I will. And what I found was it sets the tone for the week. And because it's easier for me to be consistent during the week, even though I gave myself the flexibility to go off the plan or stop or take a day off, I wanted to stay consistent. And just, you know, winning the weekends was a huge hack for me. So I don't know if that's something that you've implemented or tried, but anybody that I've taught that to sees a big difference in their consistency. You know, Chris, I'm going to comment a little bit on your question because I don't think people realize just how important this question that you're asking is of all of the, for the average person, of all the factors that they need to consider when it comes to their workout routine. The most important factor is how can I organize things or do things in a way that will lead to consistency? Because a bad workout, I mean, of course, if it doesn't hurt, you know, that stuff, but, but a workout that's not that effective done consistently is more effective than a super effective workout that's done consistently. It's the most important thing for the average person. If I had to look at everything, I'd say just be consistent. Number one, then let's look at kind of everything else. It's like the biggest rock. Okay. Here's the single, the single most effective thing I've ever seen help someone with consistency. And this is only if this particular thing works for the person. But if it does, it works better than anything else. And I'll give you a little bit of a background. You know, when I managed gyms and I managed and worked in gyms for a very long time, when you do that for a while, you notice trends in your facility. So, you know, you work in these big box gyms. You see crowds of people coming in at different times. You start to notice trends when it's busy, when it's not busy. Certain months are busier than other months. Who's more consistent versus who's less consistent? And there is no group more consistent in the gym than the morning group. Okay. The six a.m. The five, six and seven a.m. crew, whatever you, whatever you want to label them is by far the most consistent member base that you'll find in your gym. The evening people, super transient. You'll have a small group that always show up at night, but it's like the most transient is after work by far. The middle of the day, you know, maybe not as transient, but not nearly as consistent. It's the early morning crew that you go to the gym. When I would go in at six, seven a.m., it was always the same people in the gym. And it was like that for years. It was the same people all the time by far. Now, this is for me too. Now, I don't like working out first thing in the morning. If I'm comparing it to other times in terms of performance and strength and endurance and all that stuff. But the reason why I work out in the morning is there's no better thing I've ever done for consistency. If I start my day with my workout, I'm going to work out. If I end my day with my workout or interrupt my day with my workout, all kinds of stuff can get in the way, even if you're fanatical, it just becomes a big pain in the butt. Work goes a little longer than you thought. Oh, this popped up. Got to pick up the kids. I'm tired, whatever. But if it's the first thing I do when I wake up, it's the first thing that I do. And I'm the most consistent ever when I do that. So if it works for you, because this doesn't work for everybody, but if it works for you, start your day with your workouts. And if that's what you always do, like I said, there's nothing I've ever seen to improve consistency. No single thing I've ever done to improve consistency better than that. Yeah, I just wanted to add, I guess, too, in terms of like things that I try to figure out initially with clients, like what's going to benefit them the most in terms of them coming back, having consistency, but also what's going to move the needle a bit more that's really not invasive. So like if I'm looking at it in terms of lifestyle, like Adam's talking about winning the weekend, you know, I'm looking at certain things that will improve their posture, improve their mood, improve their energy, all these things that we can ritualize. So one thing I had clients do was something they'd normally do, like take a shower in the morning, they do a wall press in the shower or they do it after they're done. They do something very simple that like covers a lot of the bases of the upper body and it sets your shoulders right, sets your neck, sets everything in the upper body, right? Posturally. And then the other one was like a 90 90. Maybe that I'd have them do before they sit down to relax. They do that first thing and watch TV or do something like that. And then, you know, if they're eating, if try to walk after they eat their meals, something like that where it's like it's very actionable and it's something that they can keep doing that doesn't really require a lot of effort or thought, which then builds momentum and builds going into then meeting and seeing me for the workouts. Chris, I have another hack that's more recent for me now, right? So I used to be an all or nothing type of guy when it comes to workout and diet and either I'm dialed in and consistent and crushing the gym or I'm super inconsistent and something that's changed in the last probably five or six years that I'm really good about doing now that I would have never done in my 20s, which is be OK. Sometimes with maybe that this workout today is just squats or just Turkish get ups and because sometimes I'll be sitting at home and it'll be like the weekend. And I know I told myself I'm going to get a lift in and I'm just like, man, I am not feeling like a 50 minute hard training session in the gym. And so I'll play this game where I'm like talking myself out of it. And then I ended up not doing it. Whereas now I kind of give myself this flexibility that, you know, I don't need to go to get 50 minutes and let's just go get four sets of squats out of them. I can go get four sets of squats. That doesn't take very much time. And what I find one doing something like squatting, deadlifting, Turkish get ups, overhead pressing, there's such big, good, gross motor movements that they have so much carryover and so much benefit just from doing them that it's OK sometimes for me just to have a workout where that's all I do. But what actually ends up happening more often than not is I go in with that attitude that I've accepted that maybe I'll just do four sets of squats. And then once I get it going, I feel good. And then I end up wanting to finish the workout. But a lot of it is the mental game of accepting that, hey, you know what? I don't have to do a full 50 minute workout. Maybe I'll just go in and do four sets of this movement that I know so valuable and allowing myself that freedom to be able to just do that sometimes. And again, what I find is I end up doing more or finishing the workout. And even if I didn't, I still got a great, you know, four or five sets in the squats, which, like I said, has tremendous benefit to it. Chris, do you have maps primed by any chance? I do. Yeah, that's been a real help. Awesome. Because the the stuff that Justin was talking about, obviously, is in the compass test. So I just want to make sure you had that so you knew how to do the wall press and what he was referring to. So I hope that all helped you out. Yeah, it does. You know, I really the morning thing you mentioned is it's probably the biggest thing and probably also helps in developing a sleeper team, too, which is something I struggle with as well. So there's probably more benefits than just being consistent at the gym. Yeah, cool. Well, thanks for calling in. I really appreciate it, guys. Yeah, no problem. Thanks, Chris. You know, I remember managing like when I first, I don't want to say man, I was even before I became a manager. This was when I was like, you know, a weekend manager or whatever. And I would go in hella early because I was super competitive. I didn't have kids and I wasn't married with my parents at my parents house. So I could just go be there as long as I want and I would show up at five a.m., six a.m., right? And I would do it and I remember like I took like a maybe a couple months and I remember thinking it's the same 30 people every time I come in at five a.m., every time I come into six a.m. And the rest of the time in the gym, it was always like you'd see your regulars, but it was always like this changing crowd, right? Because, you know, we were in big box gyms. And that's when I remember thinking to myself like, who the hell wants to work out at five a.m. or six a.m.? This is ridiculous. And then of course, as you get older, you have kids, you have stuff that and it's like, okay, yeah, you can't interrupt it that way. It just makes perfect sense. And it just, the only problem is the challenges is the whole. Okay, I got to wake up early. You know, I got to, I got to do that. And then I got to go to bed on time. I never felt as strong that early in the morning. Yeah, totally. You know, so yeah, you have to kind of work your way through that. But I agree. It is probably the best strategy in terms of being able to repeat that because nothing's going to like come in the way of your workouts. Typically. Yeah. Yeah. And I do want to say, you know, kind of reiterate this, that the, of all the factors that you have to consider, and they're all important. What kind of workout I do, intensity, sets, reps, exercise. That's all very important. We spend a lot of time talking about that. But if people just figured out the consistency piece for themselves, they would be 80% of the way there, you know? Yeah, I think, I mean, there's no doubt that the 5am crew is always the most consistent in every gym. But a lot, a lot for me has been having empathy for myself when it comes to like, I have to get this routine. Much of my drive in the gym was, you know, all about this look that I was always trying to achieve. It just wasn't worth it. If you weren't all. That's right, right. And so I had this pressure of like, if I'm not making gains in, you know, muscle size or reduce some body fat, I'm losing or I'm not, I'm not progressing. I'm not moving in the right direction. And so I had a lot of that attitude when I looked at my lifestyle. And as I've gotten older, I realized like, well, the real reason why I'm doing this is to be able to move and play with my son to be healthy and to be, you know, mobile. And like, when you think of those goals, if your goal is, you know, longevity and overall health and mobility, it doesn't always have to be this 50 minutes, you know, sweating, killing yourself routine. Sometimes it could be doing prime movements. Like Justin saying, like, you know what, I really need to address my posture. I haven't done any of that. So just sitting there doing the wall test for 15 to 20 minutes, like being okay with sometimes the routine doesn't look like this, you know, structured 50 minutes. Yeah, sometimes you're just, sometimes maybe it's just a good walk for an hour. Maybe like, there's been times like that on the weekend where I just, man, I need to go lift weights. But you know what, even though I'm not into it to go lift weights right now, I can throw on a jacket and go outside and go for a nice walk for an hour and go for a hike. You know what the irony of that is, Adam, is that you're without, and I know you know this, but for someone listening, the side effect of that is you end up looking better anyway, because you're just consistent, right? So because you're not all or nothing and you're doing something, the side effect of that is what you would want from being all in all the time, you know? So that's the irony of the whole thing. Hey, if you enjoyed that clip, you can find the full episode here, or you can find other clips over here. And be sure to subscribe.