Why it's so hard to stick to your workout routine

in this video we're gonna be answering the question of why it's so hard to stick to a workout routine over the long term and this is a problem that i've actually struggled with for most of my life i've always been a pretty active guy but when it comes to actually sticking to a workout routine and seeing progress over the long term i've always had a problem with it however back in 2020 i actually did start a routine that i've stuck to for the past two years and that has come with some results i've gained about 30 pounds of mostly lean mass in that time going from around 185 pounds to 215. i've achieved a 300 pound bench press a 350 pound squat and a 440 pound deadlift and i've managed to improve my cardio at the same time mostly thanks to picking up tennis which is now my favorite sport so today i'm going to share what i've learned with you including sharing some of my actual workout routines within a notion template of course because hey it's me and along with that i also want to share some of the tricks that i've learned for making sticking to that routine a lot easier and i want to start by first breaking down the problem because as i see it they're really four main sub problems that make it so hard to stick to a workout routine for a lot of people and those problems are number one you don't know what to do or where to start number two you aren't seeing any results when you do stick to the routine number three there's too much friction involved and number four you're making it too easy to fail so let's tackle these one by one starting fittingly with not knowing where to start now there is more fitness advice on the internet than there are grains of sand on a beach and no matter what routine you pick it seems like athlean x is going to be out there telling you that it's killing your gains and part of the problem part of what causes this is that it seems like people think there are these vastly different things you need to do depending on what you want like if you want to gain mass it requires following a much different routine than you'd follow if you wanted to get stronger or lose weight and while that is true at a certain level the fact is that most people and that included me especially at the start of 2020 aren't at that level yet and that means a basic strength training routine with some added cardio is likely going to help you improve in nearly every area you want strength lean body mass cardio even weight loss which to be honest is more a function of diet anyway and if you are at that more advanced level already where specialization truly is important you're probably not watching this video you're probably off watching jeff nippert instead so for the rest of us i want to make this as easy as possible and to do that i'm going to actually share a couple of the routines that i have been following over the past couple of years including my current routine which does require some gym equipment at least a power rack and a bench along with my original lockdown quarantine workout which needed nothing more than a single kettlebell like this one right here and one of those door frame pull-up bars that costs around 20 or 30 dollars and what i've actually done is put these into a notion page that you can find over at thomasjfrank. com workoutdb and there i've got each workout with its exercises it's sets and it's reps the ones that i actually followed there are also some sample weights that i have used so you'll probably want to adjust these so they're right for you and lastly i've included both a video tutorial from strength coach along with a clip from my own recordings for every exercise so you have multiple references for how to do these and i wanted to share my actual routines because while there are a ton of different routines out there tons of fitness advice literally thousands of people on the internet giving it out these are what i have actually done which is why i feel most comfortable putting them out there they're what have actually given me the results that i've seen and they were also programmed by my coach who is an expert strength coach our second sub problem is that a lot of us deal with not seeing any results and if you're not seeing any positive changes then what's the point of putting in all this effort right well one of the biggest reasons that a lot of people don't see any progress is that they're not recording it see in strength training and in pretty much every other skill area as well you make progress by using a technique called progressive overload and this is just a fancy way of saying you push yourself to near your limit so your body is forced to get stronger it's an adaptive response but the problem is a lot of people don't actually commit to progressive overload a lot of people just show up at the gym and decide on the fly what they're gonna do and for those that actually do show up with a predetermined routine a lot of them get stuck following the same routine with the same numbers for months without seeing any real gains and the reason for this is that they're not recording their progress when they don't do this if you don't record your progress then you don't really know what you're doing or how you're doing and you can't make intelligent decisions that are going to help you get stronger so if you want to see results start recording your progress now since i work with a coach i actually use their app the barbell logic app to do it through my phone but you can also do it with an old school trusty notebook as well just record your sets your reps and your weight for each exercise maybe time and distance for things like cardio and then use that data to push yourself for example here's my journal for a workout where i hit three sets of five reps at 275 on the squat so on the next workout i or actually my coach in this case bumped that up to 280 pounds for a 3x5 and then 285 on the next one and i will also note that recording my progress in this way has caused me to be more excited to get into the gym because while changes in my overall body composition are really slow and take a

long time to notice i can see changes in my numbers pretty quickly when i'm recording them and that gets me excited to see them improve now our third sub problem here is that there's often too much friction involved in getting into the gym or getting started with your routine and you probably have a lot of days where you feel like this or you feel like you're just too busy to work out or you just can't fit into your schedule i know i do and that's why it's crucial to do anything you can to reduce that friction this is actually why i built a garage gym recently it's at home so there's very little preventing me from just getting out there and getting my routine done the commute has been eliminated so it's not a potential source of an excuse now you don't have to build a home gym like i did just to reduce friction because smaller changes can help as well like for example laying out your gym clothes and packing your bag before you go to bed so it's already the moment you wake up also keep in mind the actual problem you're trying to solve here because in the beginning what you're really trying to do is build and stick to an exercise routine so if you're feeling like there's just too much friction right now because your routine is too long or too difficult just remember that doing something is better than doing nothing at all case in point my best friend martin doesn't like going to gyms and he wanted something dead simple to start with because he hadn't really exercised at all in quite a while so back in december he literally started just running in place in his apartment and to keep things a little bit exciting he put on these videos from a youtube channel called virtual run tv to make it a little bit less boring but that's it and crucially he started out running for just three minutes a day i got you for three minutes now that doesn't sound like a whole lot but it helped him build the habit and as of today he's been doing this for 45 days in a row and is up to running for about 23 minutes at a time so his endurance has improved quite a bit finally our last sub problem here is that it's probably too easy for you to fail ask yourself what happens if you decide to push a workout off until the next day or you skip it all together well if you're like most people the answer is probably nothing other than the fact that you don't make any progress from that workout and that's a problem if you want to more reliably stick to your routine you need to make it somewhat harder to fail which means that you need to introduce some accountability into the mix and this is actually probably the number one reason why i've been able to make so much progress over the last couple of years i have people in my life that hold me accountable to my workout routine now the primary source of that accountability is my lifting coach matt who actually coaches me remotely i've got to journal my sets and my reps and then i actually film the final set of each exercise and the next morning i get a forum critique on that video and updated programming for the next workout but the most important thing i get is the knowledge that he's actually expecting me to turn in my workout log now in addition to my coach i do have one other big source of accountability in my life and that is the activity sharing feature on my apple watch which i use to share my exercise data with a few different friends and who do the same with me and this actually brings in a different dimension of accountability and support as we typically don't hound each other when we don't do a workout but we do send each other emojis and other support when we do complete our workouts and that's something that i feel doesn't actually get talked about as much in the realms of habits and productivity it's useful to not only have accountability to know that somebody's going to hold your feet to the fire but also to have positive encouragement from people who care about you as well those positive messages can really keep you going so if you can find a way to get both of those by enlisting other people that's going to help you really stick to your routine you can work with a coach like i do but there are other methods as well like getting a workout partner using the apple watch thing or maybe even using the social features in an app like habitica to party up with other people and track habits together if you want to learn even more about how you can build strong habits in any area of your life i also have a full one hour class on habit formation over on skillshare who have sponsored this video this class will teach you how to take any goal you have to find it more clearly and then break it down into actionable habits that you can work on every single day you'll also learn how to stick to those habits over the long term by using external accountability systems by anticipating and dealing with pain points ahead of time and by gracefully dealing with failure so it doesn't completely derail you and because my class is on skillshare you're also going to get access to thousands of other classes that can help you learn new skills and really make 2022 a year of personal growth for yourself for instance one of my favorite creators mkbhd has a class on skillshare about how to craft great youtube videos from start to finish and you're also going to find classes on illustration personal finance and even how to grow your social media presence skillshare is completely ad free they've got new premium classes that are added every single week and the best part is that if you're one of the first 1 000 people to use mylink and sign up you're even going to get a free one month trial which means that you can take my class and all my other classes completely for free during that first month so to get started use that link in the description down below or click right there to sign up and start learning and support my channel you can also check out one of these videos right here and i will especially recommend this one on the five levels of self-discipline which is a great follow-up to this video thanks as always for watching hit that like button for yield algorithm and i will see you in the next one