#36. How to pick the right health & fitness program or challenge.

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Yes, welcome back, everybody. In today's episode, we're talking all about health and fitness challenges. The main takeaway we want you to get from this is to be able to tell the difference whether the person running the challenge is either trying to make money from you or actually get your results this time of the year. Everybody is running fitness challenges. I feel like every gym, personal trainer, everybody is doing them, so we just want you to have the tools and the knowledge actually to choose the right one. And get results. As always, if you get something out of this episode, please share it on your social media. Tag us. You'll find me on Instagram @jack_insitu and @mack_insitu. I feel like everybody you might know it might be looking at a fitness challenge or something like that, so share this episode with them, help them out, help you out, and you can both get results together. Alright, I hope you enjoy the show.

Fitness challenges. Have you ever done a fitness challenge? I don't think I have. I have, and I've also worked at a gym where all they did was fitness challenges. Oh, really, so I can't remember. It was like 6-week challenges or 12 weeks, but it was just like every six weeks, so it'll be challenged for six weeks, and then that'd end six weeks off and then another challenge for six weeks, and it just kept repeating all through the year. It must have been 12 weeks. Because that's a quick turnaround. Yeah? What did you do in between? Like everyone still went to the gym and. Just didn't try as hard, or everybody just drops off, burns out because it's a challenge. Yeah, which will get into in a minute, but everybody burns out. Then all of a sudden, you know the challenges up, so everybody gets excited again, or you get more people, and it definitely wasn't a name to get people results. It was just to get people in the door, and it only lasted 6 to 8 months at that gym because I burn myself out like it's a high burnout rate for the clients. Plus the. Trainers, yeah? The gym owner is fine because, generally, they're not doing as much. Yeah, they're just yelling at everybody, but it's hard. And again, in this episode, we just want everybody listening just to have the tools and the resources and the knowledge just to tell the difference between a gym doing that or actually somebody trying to get your results, yeah? For those that don't know, I had a gym for three or so years myself, and I never ran a challenge in that gym. And the reason is that the main thing I don't like about challenges is it puts a time frame on your health and fitness. It's like let's focus on your health and fitness for six weeks, and then after that, you're done. You're suitable for life. Whereas if you've been listening to our podcast, you know that it is a lifelong journey. You're never. It's a journey that never stops. You just keep improving. You keep. Working on things and you just try to try to be the best person you can, and you can't do that in six weeks or 12 weeks. So that's my main thing for not running fitness challenges like even with our business now, yeah, we've done one, but it's more to do with. We've been just staying active and more of a positive habit challenge rather than changing your whole life in six weeks. Yes, just building one habit for six months, 6-weeks, no one month, one month. So just working on one habit every single day for a month. And that's pretty much the only challenges we run.

So I guess like. The biggest thing people want to sort of take and, you know, think about when looking at challenges is how long does it actually go for? Yeah, because, as we've said it, you can't get results in six weeks. You can, but are they going to last after that? And what do you have to do in those six weeks to get the results? Like do you have to eat 1200 calories like exercise seven days a week? Do all this extracurricular running walking cardio like what do you have to do for that six weeks? And then what happens once? You stopped doing all of that like. Obviously, you can't continue to the idea of the six-week challenges as an end date, so you can't sustain what you've been doing for the past six weeks. I feel like there's like a graph, so. The shorter the challenge is, the more high risk of injuries. Burnouts, you know, serious health complications, where the longer it is. You know, the less risk of injuries, health complications, and probably the more like, the longer it is, the more chance you've got of actually keeping those the results. Yeah, I guess you always bring up that. The concept that how long did it take you to get into the unhealthy shape you are now, and then it's going to take you to double the amount of time right to get close to where you ideally want to be. Yeah, and you didn't get to where you are now in six weeks, so it didn't guarantee. Yes, so if you've been unhealthy, sitting forgot about your health and Wellness for the last ten years, it's not going to take you six weeks to undo that. Yeah, and you probably can do it, but again, it's probably going to affect your health negatively.

You probably get some results like that, loss, weight loss, all that sort of stuff, but. The native results sort of doesn't pay off in the long run because as soon as you stop, you're going to go back to your old habits. Yeah, so again, longer is probably better, I guess. Just going off you saying you're probably going to get some results. That is right. It's not like we're saying that we never, ever do a challenge. I guess if you need that. Sort of structure of we have six weeks to do it to get you started. Then it's better than not starting at all. Yeah as well, I suppose. Yeah, and that's sort of. That's a good point to bring up. So like what happens after, yeah, so again, like I was talking about the gym I worked at, it was just a six-week challenge. That's it. See you later. It just ends. You get your scan, and that's it. And then nothing happens for another six weeks because of another one. So the good question is to ask the person that he's running. The challenge, or whatever it is, is to say what happens afterwards. Like do I get continually coached? Do you have something that you know continues on after that step kind of generally most will, and it's sort of a good? Indication on how good the. Challenge is going to be to see what you get offered after it. Yeah, so if the after the offer is quite good, then obviously the challenge is going to be good because it's a good leading into what is coming up. So always sort of look at the bigger picture, not just the six-week challenge. And again, I just want to bring him back to sort of injuries as well, so. I don't like there are plenty of studies to show this just on human behaviour. As soon as you get injured, and you stop. It's very unlikely you're going to start back again, so that's why injury and, you know, doing all these challenges in such a short time is so risky because of the injuries.

If you injure your foot or your arm or anything like that, you can't really move as well as you could. Your motivation is going to drop. You're going to drop out of the challenge, and that's it. You're done until the next challenge pops up, and you might enjoy yourself again because you haven't actually recovered from the first injury, so again. Injury, especially for newbies. I feel like this is if you're coming off, you know, a long time out of health and fitness, and you're jumping straight into a challenge. It's good just to ask a question or talk to the trainer coach, whoever is running it just about injury prevention, and you're going to find out if it's a good coach or not. Straight away with their response. Yeah, if there are no, don't worry. We just modify everything. Just join in and just where you should just get a result that an answer that you're happy with. And confident to do the challenge with. With injury prevention, yeah, yeah, definitely. I feel like that sort of also highlights how you should question how individual challenges. So are you just going to be given or are you just like just everyone is going to do these exercises and eat this meal plan for six weeks? Yeah, or is it like a six-week challenge? That's more personalized, and everyone gets a semi personalized coaching experience over six weeks. Yeah, because I feel like that makes a huge difference. Yeah, that's a very good point. Yeah, like I don't know how many people just get lumped into the same category, and this is the thing. Again, with challenges, you get people to do a challenge. And they all get given the same program, same meal plans. You might have ten people to do it. That's only the success rate, but then you can use those photos. Yeah, they're results—all that sort of stuff for the next challenge. Then people do it, and then you get 20 people to get good results. So it is good to sort of try and do one that is semi personalized towards you, like group challenges are never going to be very personalized just because that's how it is.

But then I said you should be looking at what comes after. After should be more personalized to what you're getting. Yeah, so if you're just getting lumped into a group challenge, and then you go from a group challenge into all group stuff, and you're not getting a personalized experience, you might not get the results you want. Yeah, which I feel also brings up another problem around the food when it is just like a lump group challenge. Everyone has different nutrition requirements. Calorie requirements, like the person that's just giving out the meal plan or the calories for the challenge. I don't know what you do outside of the gym either. Like do you have a physical job? Do you sit at a desk all day like? Say everyone is being told to eat 1600 calories for six weeks if they want to lose weight. If that's the aim of the challenge. That's going to be like massively undereating for a lot of people, and then they'll burn out even faster and probably end up with a really **** relationship with food and then. After that, they won't want to diet or try and improve their health because they think that improving your health involves starving yourself. Yep, and then it just creates a bad relationship with the whole. Dieting fitness I don't know what the word is. I'm trying culture, the culture around it, and then people just quit, and they'll never try to be healthy. Yeah, because one meal plan or one set of calories definitely doesn't suit everyone. And even one set of calories doesn't suit someone every day of the week. Sometimes. Like depending on what their requirements are and what they're doing. I don't know how many people have you spoken to, and they feel like they have to starve themselves to get any kind of results. Yeah, because they've done a fitness challenge, yeah? And that's just their association with health, and fitness is just overtraining under-eating, and that's how you need what you need to do to get results.

Yeah, where you can actually do the opposite, eat the right amount, exercise the right amount, which isn't that much and get results. Yeah, it's just again. What what you're trying to achieve, and how long? Well, there's one more thing I was going to say on that. Oh yeah, and you said that with like you don't know how many calories somebody should be eating. Yeah, so everybody gets lumped into the same one, and this is especially dangerous for tradies and. People that have manual jobs that are moving all day. Yeah, so. Already you're moving all day, you're burning twice as many calories as somebody just sitting at a desk, and then you throw in exercise. And then you're not replacing those calories. You're not eating enough to fuel yourself just to operate during the day. And you do that for several weeks. You're going to give yourself very severe health issues. Yeah, little mess up your hormones, your metabolism, your ability to function, your ability to sleep properly, your ability to work, exercise, everything. And again. Injury the risk injury goes up even more for those people, and then like if you haven't got a manual job and you hurt your ankle, and you can't work anymore, then you run into even more issues.

Should we cover the positive side? Do you think we feel like we've been very negative about it? Yeah, like what to look for if you do want to do a challenge, yeah. What should people look for? I guess other than something that follows on after the challenge. From a nutrition perspective, the things that you should look for like is calorie based. Is it individual calorie based or just a number given to you? Is it a meal plan based? Does the person giving it to you have the authority to have made a meal plan? Because not everybody can create meal plans, and I feel like a lot of. Gyms and influences just make a meal plan of what they eat in the week and give it out. So you also want to look at that. And I guess does it focus on behaviour? Or does it just focus on? A number that's the biggest thing because I did run a four week. I wouldn't call it a challenge. What did we end up calling it fundamentals at a local gym? But it definitely wasn't. Meal plan or calorie based. It was all building habits like education and education. Yeah, so like we said, without in situ team, we do a habit challenge for four weeks, which is definitely what we did and that just allows it to be more individual. You can still have like the umbrella of it being a challenge, but everyone can pick their own habits, their own goal, how much food they want to eat, but they you can come together. I guess in the sense that everyone is trying to work towards. Something doesn't have to be the same thing, which is super important, and I feel like education sometimes is the best type of challenge because how often do you discipline yourself to learn something every day or every week?

And then, on the fitness side of things, I guess I feel like the most significant positive to come from a fitness challenge is getting you moving. Yeah, right? It's better than nothing, and it is very motivating to have a whole group of people doing exactly the same as what you're doing. And you're all working towards the same goal. That is a big plus, and it does get a lot of people moving, and it does. You know, as I said, there are a few people that will continue on after and keep educating themselves and go down and very educational, well established positive Rd, but most don't. But again, if you are that person that is looking around for a fitness challenge, obviously you're listening to this podcast, and you want more. Just choose the one that appeals to you the most arcs. All these questions, and it is. Look, go into it with a positive mindset, but we have talked a bit negative about it. There is a lot at as coaches we see the bad, the bad side of it and all the bad things that do to people because we're trying to fix it. Yeah, but go into it with a good mindset in even just asking yourself the right questions. Am I going to get injured? Is this going to be good for me during this challenge and is it going to be good for me after the challenge and go into it? If a positive mindset of. Yes, this is going to help me change my life, change my habits and smash my goals. Yeah, so go into it with that mindset, and it is going to be a positive no matter what. Sometimes there can be harmful people within the challenge. Yeah, you can bring it down a little bit, and there's always going to be those people, but you just need to separate yourself from those people and just stay in the positive group and keep working through it and make it to the end.

But then don't stop and keep going. I feel like it's also very important to ask yourself what you want out of it, so why are you doing a challenge? Do you want to start moving? Do you want to learn how to move? Do you want to learn how to eat? Do you want to lose weight? Build muscle like? Because not all challenges. Probably going to be specifically for what you want out of it, and you're probably wasting your time doing a challenge that is for fat loss. If you're going to get stronger in the gym, yeah, so don't just join a challenge for the sake of it. A challenge, you know, like there should be some sort of end goal that you can get out of it. Yeah, and that's sort of one thing I sort of want to wrap up the podcast with is goals like actually setting goals. I feel like. You might say an ad on Instagram or at the gym, or added and added another gym, and it's just a very attractive ad. You're like, Oh yeah, that's what I want to do, but you haven't actually taken the time to sit down and think about the goals you want and what you actually want to achieve because it's sort of pointless. Sign up for a challenge for 12 weeks, and then you realize that this challenge isn't going in the direction of what your goals are. You've either got to stick it out and not enjoy it, or stop halfway through, lose motivation, and then try and find another challenge. So just sit down and have a good think about what your goals are. And again, we've spoken about this in many podcasts, and they will come up again in more podcasts to come, but the biggest difference is the difference between fat loss and weight loss. They are two different things, and generally. Gyms and trainers who are running weight loss challenges don't know the difference, and you might be trying to, you know, change your body composition. Look better as in fat loss, but you're doing a weight loss challenge. And yeah, you'll lose weight, but you won't look any better at the end, so understanding. The difference between the two and this, and again this comes down to

OK, this is my goal. This challenge looks like it suits my goal, but I actually ask the trainer or the gym or whoever will this achieve my goal. And again, depending on the answer you get is whether you're going to go for it. If it's just like, yeah, yeah, that'll be our challenge suits your goals no matter what. Yeah, it suits everybody. We can serve as everybody. Yeah, when again, that should sort of sending some. Red flags up, and you go. Well, OK, I don't think that's right, but if the coach Jim comes back and says well, look, this is our goal this week. We're going to do this and this, and then we do this next week. Then you know that it's a little bit more in-depth than just let's exercise and eat minimally. Yeah definitely. I was trying to find it. The email that I sent out last Friday because it was a perfect one. Just defining the difference between having a resolution, a goal and wanting to create a habit because keys are just. I guess they said in starting like I'm going to stop doing something like the six-week challenge, sort of has the same mentality as a resolution like you're going to be healthy for six weeks, as a resolution. It's like I'm going to be fit for the next 12 months, whereas a goal is like it's more flexible, and you can change it, and you have little steps towards the goal rather than just flicking a switch and being like I'm this person now, which is pretty much what a six-week challenge is. It's just like, oh, you no longer do that. This is what you do now. Yeah, and I guess that is good. Point sort of finish off is the challenge flexible? Yeah, but is it this and only this? And if you stray from that, you're not doing a challenge, or you know, do you have options within the challenge, yeah? That's a good question. Asks as well. Yeah, fantastic good luck, everybody. Yeah, if you have any more questions or want us to dive in a little more, obviously, just reach out.