(Part 1) How Training Can Change Your Life
Exploring the first step of the training process: setting your KPIs
If you’ve ever experienced a “lack of motivation” when trying to improve your physical self this topic is written to help and encourage you (I’m writing this one to myself as well).
This lack of motivation usually kicks in anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months after deciding you’re going to get back into an exercise routine. Once the excitement from the idea of progress and the novelty of the new routine wears off, motivation tends to dwindle.
One of the big missing links to combat the lack of motivation is to establish a plan and purpose to improve what YOU care about. This is what training offers.
At Sheer Training, we believe true (lasting) progress is made through training, and we view training as a consistent and progressive effort with purpose (utilizing a plan).
The idea of training could be applied to any type of progress you want to make; such as physical, nutritional, intellectual, career, or any other life skills you might want to develop.
For the sake of trying to keep our discussion concise, I will be writing on how to use the idea of training to improve your physical abilities. Just keep in mind, you could apply the training framework I layout to make progress in other areas of your life too.
Let me quickly clarify the Training Cycle and advocate how helpful it is living in the real world (where we are not paid for our physical excellence and supported daily by a facility and team of professionals to help keep us on the right track).
The Training Cycle can be broken down into these 3 key parts:
Why this is helpful:
More motivating
By following these 3 stages, we can clarify what progress we value and gauge if our actions are indeed helping us make that progress.
It’s naturally motivating to make progress. I personally love the feeling of improving, and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t.
Reduce Daily Decisions
Once we have a plan, we can then shift our focus and energy onto following that plan and recording helpful information.
With a plan in place we reduce the amount of daily decisions we need to make to remain consistent. This is great because we already have a ton of decisions we have to make every day. Decision fatigue is real.
We do still have to decide to show up, but then we can follow the plan (giving a good effort) and then move on with the rest of our day.
Better Use of Your Time
When you know what you are supposed to do and when you’re supposed to do it you are more inclined to complete it with less wasted time.
Partially this is due to less decisions needing to be made.
And the other part is that you know what is expected and how to complete it.
We can get better physical results with less time by being more targeted utilizing a training program and a plan of action for when and where we will complete it.
Understand when to make further changes and how to do it effectively
By knowing what we want to improve and having regular reflection in place to gauge if we are making progress, we can better understand how our plan and effort is connected to our results.
This can be motivating when we see how our effort and plan is directly contributing to improving what we care about.
This also gives us the power to focus on changing either our effort or our plan to continue making progress when we experience less progress than desired.
Here in Part 1 I will share how to get started with this idea of actually training.
I will also be using images from my Fit for Life Online Program to show real visual examples of each step (because it’s what I personally use and feel is the best way I can show these ideas being implemented).
Getting Started - Set Your KPIs (make it meaningful to you)
The first thing you’ll want to do when planning is to identify what you care about in your life that your physical training can impact for the better.
Here is an example list of some possible values:
Would like to feel better physically/mentally throughout the day
Would like to not hurt when being physically active
Enjoy the ability to play with kids or grandkids
Enjoy playing pickup [insert sports of your choosing]
Compete with more ability in [insert sports of your choosing]
Would like to feel more confident in my physical abilities and appearance
Value my physical freedom and health and desire to be active for my entire life
Then choose physical development metrics that best represent improvement toward those lifestyle values.
I call these our KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and I’d recommend identifying 3-10 specific metrics to track and reflect on to gauge relevant progress.
This doesn’t have to be perfect either. You can start with less and add more later if you think of further important ones. You could also change certain KPIs if you decide they aren’t as important to you or could be better represented by a different metric.
I generally don’t encourage more than 10 because the more you have the more time it will take to keep track of them (= less chance of sticking with the process) and often when we have to narrow our focus down we do a better job of thinking through what really matters most to us.
An example of a well-rounded basic template for setting 4 KPIs could look like this:
Body Change Metric (ex. BMI or Waist Circumference)
Endurance Metric you can do pain-free (ex. 12 min. Cooper Test on Foot or Bike)
Lower Strength Metric that needs work (ex. 4-8 Rep Deep Squat Strength)
Upper Strength Metric that needs work (ex. Full Range Pull Ups for Max Reps)
If you are seeing improvement in these areas above, I would bet life is getting easier and more enjoyable physically.
Then if you’d like to perform better in a sport you may want to add KPIs that represent your speed and power capabilities (just make sure you’re physically ready to test these first):
Jumping Metric (ex. Best Vertical Jump Height)
Short Distance (Acceleration) Speed Metric (ex. Best 10yd Dash Time)
Moderate Distance Speed Metric (ex. Best 30yd or 40yd Dash Time)
These are just ideas.
If you are having trouble thinking through what metrics to choose based on what you value answering this question may help:
What physical movements do I need to be able to do well to enjoy what I value?
If you have no idea how to answer this question, this is where the value of working with a coach or diving into some self-research (using trusted sources) can be very helpful to clarify what to focus on.
What I’ve done in Fit for Life to help with this process is created the My Training Bars Self-Reflection Sheet. This Google Sheet offers body-tailored (many based on weight or height) health and fitness markers provided in 5 key areas:
- Endurance
- Wellness/Lifestyle
- Essential Movement/Ability
- Strength & Stability
- Athleticism
Example from the Strength & Stability section
We can use this sheet as a database to pick out metrics that align with what we care about to build our KPIs and then we also have a reference for what level of ability we should be aiming to achieve for each movement (standards, further benchmarks, and excelling metrics are provided for each movement).
Helpful and Fun Thought Experiment:
One last way I want to pose this KPI pursuit is to share a thought experiment I like from Dr. Peter Attia. In his book Outlive he shares this idea of a Centenarian Decathlon. You could take this one of two ways.
(more literal) creating 10 physical events you would like to be able to perform when you turn 100 years old.
(more conceptual - how he mostly describes it) listing up to 10 activities of daily living and recreational activities you want to be doing at 100 years old.
In either case, by thinking in terms of what you’d like to be able to do near the end of your life it highlights physical qualities that matter to you.
It’s then important to realize that you will never be in a better time than right now (you’re only going to get older) to start elevating those physical qualities. Aging and the subsequent diminishing of our physical abilities is a real thing.
HOWEVER, we can drastically lessen the effect of aging by remaining active and continuing to train what we value.
Furthermore, right now you can train those aspects and try to improve them to a much higher level of ability than would be needed to accomplish the physical actions you want to be doing at 100. This way as you lose some of that ability due to aging, you still have a higher reserve to lose from, keeping you physically capable of doing the actions you value at older ages.
I’ll share a personal one for me at 100. One of my activities I want to still be able to do on my 100th birthday is kick a ball. I’d like to be able to pass, juggle, and take a finesse shot without physical repercussions (this might be a little overly ambitious…but time will tell!)
To do this I will have to have a certain level of strength, stability/balance, hip mobility, coordination, and power - especially in my lower body. So some of my KPIs could be:
Can I Pass, Juggle, and Shoot Pain Free? (yes or no)
ATG Split Squat Range and Strength
Reverse Step Up Balance and Strength
Leg Curl Strength (Nordic Curl or at least a Hip Bridge with Slider Leg Curl)
Supine Reverse Squat Strength
Pigeon Hip Push Up Range and Strength
Pancake Groin Stretch Range and Strength
Vertical Jump Height (lower body power)
By improving these physical qualities as much as I can right now I stand a better chance of holding on to the ability to kick until the day I die. Plus I will be able to enjoy a higher level of kicking ability at my current age.
When considering other physical activities I want to be doing at 100, I will consider if some of these KPIs would cover multiple activities I’ve listed.
Obviously, the amount of KPIs could quickly surpass 10. So for me I would narrow it down to the 10 (or less if I don’t want to track as much) metrics I believe reflect all my desired ability the best and stick with those until I’m convinced otherwise.
However you decide to come up with your KPIs, I hope you see the value in identifying metrics that reflect progress in something you care about improving.
Rather than just showing up to workout or exercise because you’re supposed to; you show up to train with the purpose of improving areas in your life that matter to you!
The actions to take away from today are to:
Identify meaningful activities, experiences, or specific abilities that your physical training can impact for the better.
Come up with 3-10 KPIs that you can track and reflect on to gauge relevant progress.
By being more aware of what you want to improve, you make the rest of the training cycle possible and more personally motivating.
Next week we will continue into the training cycle to help you plan for success!
Thanks for reading!
Brian