Simplify Your Goals

Brian Clough was right about football. It is a simple game.

“All you have to do is get that pig’s bladder into that onion bag” is something I always remember my dad telling me just before a game. Maybe he got it from Clough. It sounds like Clough. Or maybe he made it up himself. As a footballer who would often get the pig’s bladder into the onion bag, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was one of my dad’s original mantras before entering the field. He was one of the best football players I’ve ever seen live. He kept it simple. He scored goals and won football games.

In my profession, what I try to convey to 90% of my clients is to keep it simple. Now, if you are training for a particular sport, event or for aesthetic bodybuilding purposes who make up my 10%, then I have lots of great advice on training splits and various techniques in other articles but the principal should remain the same. Keep it simple.

Just like the footballer or the athlete, they have to turn up if they want to compete. They have to enter the football pitch or athletic field. So your priority, too, is to make sure that you turn up. Turn up to the gym when you have scheduled it. I see so many missed opportunities from people which, can I be truthful? It’s usually because they found an excuse to not go as they couldn’t be arsed that day.

And life gets in the way. I understand. But this is where we begin to overcomplicate the game. If completing an exercise routine is as engrained into your life as eating, sleeping and breathing then it remains simple. You just do it.

Here are the main culprits when it comes to overcomplicating your fitness goals and how to simplify it…

You don’t go to a gym. Either you don’t feel that you can afford a membership or there isn’t a local gym to you.

Simple. Exercise is free. Training in a gym can be good motivation and it has lots of equipment, but bodyweight exercises or a few weights that you can store away after use at home will suit most fitness goals. And for general fitness, walking is one of the best exercises you can do.

You don’t have time. You work long hours. You have meals to prepare, kids to sort out and by the time everything is done you have run out of time and energy for exercise.

Simple. An exercise routine doesn’t have to be some elaborate plan that takes over your life. The general advice is to complete 150 minutes of moderate intensity a week for aerobic fitness. That’s just over 20 minutes a day per week. For weight loss, increase the intensity by taking less rest periods or adding more difficult exercises over time. You’ll find that you have more energy for your work, social life and your home life by sticking to it.

You can’t stick to a diet plan to lose weight. Everything from 5:2 to the paleo diet has failed leaving you frustrated and demoralised.

Simple. Every diet plan needs to have one common criteria…they need to put you in a calorie deficit. That is consuming less calories than you burn. You don’t need an overhaul of your cupboards and fridge contents. You just need a sensible approach to what you eat. I would recommend a calorie counter app, log your food entries for a few weeks and see where you are going wrong and where you can put it right. It could be just cutting back on a bottle of wine each week, switching to wholegrain instead of white or reassessing your portion sizes. You don’t need to completely ban any food that you enjoy.

It hurts your knees when you squat. You are put off by exercise because certain exercises hurt.

Simple. Don’t do them. I would advise that you ask a professional about your pain and either they can correct your form (which is what is causing the pain) or they will find alternative exercises that don’t cause pain.

We often form some long elaborate web of plans to reach a fairly simple goal. Most of it is highly unnecessary, leading to over thinking and a target that becomes impossible to reach. We forget the simple things. You can’t lose two stone without losing your first kilogram. You can’t run a marathon without running your first mile and you can’t put the pig’s bladder in the onion bag without entering the field of play.

If you’re struggling with your fitness goals, have a think about how you might be able to bring it back to being simple.