A pre-pandemic resolution of mine was to do more yoga. I hoped it would alleviate neck pain I experience from my labor-intensive tech job where I mostly sit at a desk all day and get congratulated by my fitness tracker for walking fifty steps to a meeting.
I subscribed to ClassPass to gain access to yoga studios in the area. Unintentionally, I was also exposed to all the various boutique fitness experiences like Barry’s Bootcamp and Rumble.
I decided to try some of those too. Why not? There’d be a lot of cute girls at these classes. One might spontaneously hand me her number and whisper, “Call me” into my ear before walking away holding her $10 smoothie.
That never happened.
I also never became a full-time subscriber to any of those boutique fitness studios. Don’t get me wrong–the classes were excellent. I always felt like I got a good pump sesh and I loved working out in what felt like a club. But after a while, I disengaged.
Why?
Psychology enthusiasts say that a big driver for continuous engagement is perceived progress towards a goal. That’s why people get addicted to CrossFit. Long ago, a friend dragged me to a CrossFit class where I saw people twice my age doing “double unders”. This was jump rope where the rope passes below your feet twice per jump. I couldn’t do it, but I really wanted to.
I never became addicted, but I did suddenly find myself at the gym more than ever. I wanted to learn to do double unders and prove to myself that I still had some hint of athleticism. I slowly made progress towards the goal each time I practiced. I developed friends who held me accountable and, eventually, I got it. I still remember the excitement of achieving my goal while a few friends cheered me on.
Along the way, I happened to get in the best shape of my life. All because of a silly little goal to do a double under.
That is what the boutique fitness studios were missing.
With the pandemic, fitness platforms like Peloton have taken the place of the in-person boutique fitness studios. Despite the accessibility of this content, the lack of an overarching goal in the platforms has made it easy for me to make excuses and skip workouts. I found myself suffering from the same issue I experienced attending the boutique fitness classes. Without building towards some great goal, I’m left asking myself, “What’s the point? I’m not training for the Olympics.”
So how do we fix this?
The best example I saw recently is from a friend at work. He set a resolution at the beginning of the year to row one million meters this year. Sometimes he does more than the approximately three thousand meters required each day, sometimes he does less. It seems like a ridiculous goal, but that continued progress towards 1 million meters keeps him coming back to the erg regularly. And dang will it feel good if he hits his goal.
What is your one million meters of rowing? Try coming up with something so absurd it just might work and track your progress towards it. Some people run half marathons. Some climb mountains. Some enter competitions. Come up with a goal that you want to hit, even if it feels embarrassing to share it with others, and track your progress towards it.
You might accidentally find yourself in the best shape of your life.
