5 components of a fitness lifestyle

Fitness can be defined in many different ways, but most people define being fit or in shape in a similar way. Most people get into fitness to improve their appearance, how they feel in everyday life and about themselves, and their overall health. To achieve this goal, the vast majority of people will need to lose body fat and build some muscle, as well as improve their cardiovascular fitness.

To achieve this goal, the process is a relatively simple one, assuming an individual has access to good information and is focusing on the things that really matter, and applying the principles they have learned consistently over time. With that said, the process of getting in great shape (better than 90% of the people you see in the gym) is not an easy one. Discipline and hard work are required, and this is what separates people with truly outstanding physiques from the majority of the people you see training in the gym and, of course, the average man and woman on the street who, by and large, are in terrible shape!

The people who have built outstanding physiques and have achieved their health and fitness goals have made fitness a part of their lifestyle. Their lifestyle is also supportive of their fitness goals; it is not separate from them. The hours they spend in the gym each week are not the only factor that produced the results they have achieved. The way they live their life as a whole, the decisions they make, and the habits they have built are equally as important.

Here are five vital components to building a sustainable fitness lifestyle that delivers results. If any of these are missing, you will likely not maximise the results you are capable of achieving, and you will not see the best version of yourself! Gaining mastery over these is key.

Health

It goes without saying that health is of vital importance if we want to maximise the results we see in the gym. The healthier we are in general, the more energy we will have to train, and the easier we will be able to build muscle, recover from our gym sessions, and lose body fat. We will also be able to keep the body fat off and maintain a lean physique, while eating a decent amount of food to fuel our training and build muscle.

Things such as metabolic and hormonal health are of vital importance, as well as factors such as gut health. Testing for things such as food intolerances can be a game changer for how you feel in general, your energy levels, your motivation to train hard in the gym and your gym performance. Addressing any potential issues by working with a health professional (not necessarily your doctor) if needed should be a priority.

Blood work can also be a great idea for both men and women. Checking if your hormones are balanced and are in a good place is important, especially for men. The modern lifestyle is causing an epidemic of low or less than optimum levels of testosterone in men. Checking for any nutritional deficiencies and addressing them will put you in a much better starting place to build muscle and lose body fat.

Placing more stress on an already stressed system may not be the best idea, and at the very least will severely limit the results you are likely to see. By getting our health in check, we are essentially priming our bodies for the hard training that lies ahead, which will be necessary to truly change the way we look, feel, and perform In the gym and in life.

mindset

Your body is a physical manifestation of your mindset. It is the result of the actions you take daily and the habits you have built or have not built. If you are in poor shape and are carrying a significant amount of body fat, this is the result of the poor habits you have built. This is likely based around your food choices and your daily activity level or lack thereof. The habits you have built have resulted in you being the person you are today and to change this new habits will need to be built.

The good news is that healthy lifestyle habits that take us towards our health and fitness goals can be build and maintained just as the unhealthy ones were. Once these are in place you will just do the things you need to do without having to make a conscious effort to do them. They will just come naturally to you, its just what you do, or more importantly who you are. You have rewritten the programs that are running in your mind.

If you have a faulty belief system that tells you that you cannot get in great shape, build that muscle and lose the body fat, then you will struggle to achieve the results you are looking for because you will be self-sabotaging yourself. Addressing a faulty belief system, which often includes limiting beliefs, and creating a new version of yourself is essential. If you identify as someone who is overweight and is not in good shape, you will live in accordance with this belief and you will do the things that people who are overweight do.

It is impossible to be the person that is outside of your self-image. How you see yourself matters, as this will dictate your actions and how you live your life. If you want to become that person who is in great shape, you will need to become that person right now, by acting how they would act, and doing the things they would do. Over time, this will bring you closer to your health and fitness goals

Training

Exercise, or the training you perform in the gym, is where most people place their focus when their goal is building muscle and losing body fat. Strength Training is the stimulus which is required for our body to adapt, grow stronger, and build muscle. In terms of aesthetics or how we look, the strength training we perform in the gym is our number one tool in our toolbox. Nothing will change the way you look more than building muscle. Building muscle is also great for our overall health.

You do not need to have a PhD in sports science to know how to train effectively; however, having a basic understanding of volume, intensity, and frequency will allow you to establish if your training is likely to be productive or not. You should also have a basic understanding of exercise selection so that you can choose the most effective exercises to build muscle.

The training you perform in the gym needs to be productive. Simply going through the motions will not produce the results in terms of muscle growth that most people are looking for. Building muscle takes time and consistency. It also requires a significant amount of hard work. Pushing yourself week after week, month after month, and year after year is required. Developing the mindset of progression is key and is an important skill to master.

The things that matter most when training to build muscle should be prioritised and applied. Mastering the basics is what matters most. Focusing on or stressing over the things that are of lesser importance is not going to serve you well. The training you perform to build muscle will also help you maintain muscle during a fat loss phase.

Things you should focus on most include:

quality over quantity

Performing high-quality training sessions is crucial for building muscle. You should have the mindset of training, rather than just exercising. In regards to building muscle, you are in the gym to stimulate a muscle group or multiple muscle groups so that the body adapts and builds new muscle tissue. This means your training must be performed at a high level of intensity.

Another way to think about this is simply training hard, and we can only perform so much of this training. Sets need to be taken to a close proximity to muscular failure to be stimulative for muscle growth, and we can only perform so many of these sets within each training session and throughout the week. If we try to do too much, the quality of our sets and therefore our training session will be reduced. This is why quality over quantity matters

exercise form

The exercises you perform and the way you perform them will dictate how much tension you are placing on the target muscle (the muscle group you want to work). The better you are able to perform an exercise, the more you will get out of it, and since a training session is made up of a number of exercises, this will dictate the quality of a training session. The focus should be on performing every set of an exercise with good form, maximum focus, and intensity with the intent to work hard. The outcome of this is high-quality training sessions. Performing high-quality training sessions multiple times per week, over multiple weeks, months, and years will result in muscle growth

exercise selection

You must also choose the most effective exercises to target specific muscle groups. There are not an unlimited number of effective exercises to build muscle, and many of the well-known ones have stood the test of time and have a track record of building muscle. Focusing on these will serve you well, rather than looking for or trying out the latest fad exercises which may currently be popular online or on social media. You must also choose exercises that are a good fit for you.

We are all built slightly differently, and some otherwise great exercises may not be a great fit for your unique body structure. Finding the ones that work well for you, allow you to place tension on the muscle you are actually trying to train, and the ones that you are able to progress well with, without any joint discomfort or pain, is key

progression

Progression is the key to long-term muscle growth. Progressive overload is a principle in strength training, and in terms of training to build muscle, this means lifting more weight over time, working within a set repetition range. Once you have a selection of good exercises that work well for you and you are performing high-quality sets and training sessions, progressive overload will occur. This will result in you being able to perform more repetitions at a given weight or lift a heavier weight for the same number of repetitions. This may happen from session to session or over a number of weeks, depending on your level of advancement.

what to Focus on

We were all beginners at one time. Making the decision to improve yourself and potentially your whole life is the first step. You may feel apprehensive about using a gym and especially the weights section when you first join a gym; however, you will soon realise that no one cares or is paying any attention to what you are doing or the weights you are lifting.

As a beginner, your main focus should be learning good exercise form or technique. This will not be perfect, of course, and improving exercise form so that you can get the most out of each exercise is an ongoing process and will continue past the beginner stage. Progress will come fairly quickly as a beginner, assuming you are doing most things at least somewhat well. This is because training is a new stimulus for the body, and it will adapt quickly, first by making neurological adaptations (your nervous system learning a movement pattern and learning to send a stronger signal to the muscles so that they can contract harder, a lift more weight) and then by building new muscle tissue.

As a beginner, you do not need to perform your sets at such a high intensity close to muscular failure because the novel stimulus of lifting a new weight will be sufficient for the body to adapt and become stronger. Beginners will also struggle to maintain form when working closer to muscular failure, so it is a good idea to stop a set a little sooner before there is a breakdown in exercise form.

Here are some recommendations for training as a beginner:

If you want to train 2-3 times per week use a full body split.
If you want to train 4 times per week use an upper body lower body split.
Focus on exercise form, moving the weight through a full range of motion, while controlling the eccentric phase or lowering part of the movement. A 3-4 second lowering phase works great for beginners as it allows them to control the weight better. The concentric phase or lifting part of the lift can be performed as quickly as possible.
For compound exercises, you can keep the repetitions fairly low. This will allow for good strength progression, and there is less of a risk of form breakdown using lower repetition ranges. For isolation exercises you can use a higher repetition range such as 8-12.
Repetition ranges such as 4-6 or 5-8, using the double progression model, work great for beginners when learning compound exercises. Using a single progression model and performing sets of 5 can also work great, especially when learning barbell-free weight exercises.
Add weight when you can hit the top of your repetition range with good form. Your last repetition should look the same as your first repetition, although it may be a little slower. If you are using a single repetition target such as 5 reps, you would add a small amount of weight the next time you perform the exercise when you can complete all of your sets for 5 reps. If you could only get 4 repetitions on the last set, then you would repeat the same weight in your next training session.
Choose one or two compound exercises for each muscle group. Performing fewer exercises gives you more time to practice the exact same exercise, which works great when learning a particular exercise or movement pattern. For example, performing the bench press two or three times per week would be a better option than performing it just once per week.

If you have been using the gym for some time and you are not seeing results in terms of strength progression or muscle growth there could be a number of things that are holding you back. Here are some common issues:

Your exercise form is not as good as you think it is. Make sure you are controlling the weight and the weight is not controlling you. This means a 2-3 second eccentric phase using a full range of motion. You should have the intent to move the weight as fast as possible on the concentric phase or the lifting part of the exercise. This should be done with the intent to move the weight quickly with maximum effort even if the weight is not moving quickly due to the weight.
Your exercise selection is not good. You are using exercises that are not a good fit for your unique body structure or you are simple choosing poor exercises. You should be feeling the tension on the target muscle (muscle group you are trying to grow).
You are not working at the correct intensity. Past the beginner stage, you will need to take your sets to a close proximity to muscular failure so that they are stimulative for hypertrophy or muscle growth. This means working at a 0-2 RIR, with a 0-1 RIR being best for most exercises. You may think you are training close to failure, but in reality, you are far from failure and you could have performed another 3-5 repetitions. You may need to learn how to push yourself harder in the gym.
You may be following a poorly designed programme or you may not be following one at all. You may also be programme hopping, constantly changing programmes because you think your current one is not working. The reason you are not getting results may have nothing to do with your current programme; it may be due to the points mentioned above.
You may only be hitting a muscle group once per week. This can work for more advanced lifters; however, hitting a muscle group at least twice per week is the best option for almost everyone.
You are not performing enough volume (sets per muscle group per week). If you feel you are nailing all of the points above, then you may need to perform more sets per week. This is unlikely because the amount of sets you will require will be fairly low at this stage, and most programs will have you somewhere in this range. As long as you are performing high-quality sets at a high level of intensity, you should be fine. With that said, you may need to perform a few more sets throughout the week than when you were a complete beginner. Around 8-12 sets per muscle group per week should be adequate.
A non-training-related issue could be holding you back, such as not eating enough in general, as well as specific macronutrient issues, such as inadequate protein to recover from your training sessions and build new muscle. You can get away with this somewhat if you are a beginner; however, to continue to make progress into the intermediate stage and beyond, these issues will need to be addressed.

To Learn more about how to build muscle check out our complete guide to building muscle:

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Nutrition

It goes without saying that nutrition will play a major role in whether you achieve your fitness goals and to which degree. If you pay no attention to this, you will likely not make much progress in the gym. The quality of the foods you consume will also determine how healthy you are, and without a good health, you will struggle to maximise the results you will see in the gym.

There are many different diets or nutrition philosophies, and people have had success with all of them to different degrees. The best ones are sustainable and also support our overall health while still allowing us to achieve fitness goals such as building muscle and losing body fat. Some may be highly effective for losing body fat but can be overly restrictive in terms of calories or food groups. These types of diets may work for some individuals initially; however, they can cause issues further down the line.

What all of these diets have in common is that they are based around minimally processed, nutrient-dense, whole foods. These types of foods will supply the micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) that are vital for our overall health and will also allow us to train hard in the gym and recover from our training sessions. When our goal is to improve body composition over time (build muscle and lose body fat), the requirement for certain macronutrients will increase, and this is where we can look to the world of sports science as well as the decades of real-world experience of coaches and personal trainers working with people to build muscle and achieve decent or even advanced levels of leanness.

Some dietary principles that have good research behind them and have been shown to be effective for improving body composition over time include:

Eating enough protein, but not too much that it limits the amount of the other macronutrient you can consume. This will help you build muscle and recover from your training sessions. It is also vital to maintain muscle during a fat loss phase.
Eating enough carbohydrates to fuel your training sessions and support metabolic and hormonal health, such as healthy testosterone levels in men, and keep stress hormones such as cortisol in check.
Eating enough of the right types of dietary fat to support hormone production and overall health. This macronutrient is often reduced to base levels during a fat loss phase to reduce calories, along with carbohydrates to a lesser extent.

We recommend you avoid removing whole food groups such as carbohydrates. Most people do best when they maintain adequate amounts of carbohydrates in their diet when they are performing high-intensity activities such as strength training. It is also possible to maintain a decent amount of carbohydrates in your diet when your goal is to reduce body fat. In fact, this will support your fat loss goals and allow you to keep performance high in the gym, which will allow you to maintain or even build muscle during a fat loss phase. Carbohydrates are key.

A common trait you will see in almost everyone who gets into great shape and stays in great shape is that their diet is fairly simple. They eat mostly the same things every day. This removes decision fatigue and prevents the need to make multiple micro-decisions throughout the day, which can lead to poorer food choices. This is even more important during a fat loss phase when hunger levels are higher and poorer choices are more likely to be made.

The foods that make up your diet should work well for you. We recommend foods that are easily digested and do not cause you any digestive issues or bloating. The way you set up your diet should also be a good fit with your current lifestyle. This will improve adherence and make it sustainable in the long term. This is where things such as meal frequency come into play. You should also enjoy the foods you eat.

A macros-based approach to eating works great when our goals are building muscle and especially reducing body fat. Tracking our food accurately delivers predictable and measurable results as we can make adjustments to our macronutrients based on collecting real-world data such as trends in body weight.

You can also make great progress without tracking your macronutrients, although more experience is needed for this to be effective. Most people who do not track their food have still had some previous experience with food tracking, which allows them to have a fairly accurate idea of the amount of protein, carbohydrates, and fats they are consuming. We recommend you use macronutrient tracking at least for a period of time, as this will be a great learning tool for you, helping you to better understand the foods you are eating and the effect different amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and fats have on things such as gym performance, energy levels, how you feel in general, and your body composition

Lifestyle

The final component in achieving your health and fitness goals, and more importantly maintaining them, comes down to your lifestyle. If you want to look better, feel better, and perform better than 95% of the general population both in the gym and in life, how you live your life outside of the gym matters. This is everything you do outside of the gym and outside of your nutrition that either positively or negatively contributes to you achieving your health and fitness goals, your ideal physique, or your ideal self. The person you want to become.

daily activity

Keeping your daily activity levels high is a great idea and is one of the most powerful lifestyle strategies for achieving and maintaining your health and fitness goals. Cultivating the mindset of being an athlete and acting like one is a great mindset to adopt. The hard training you perform in the gym for 60-90 minutes, three to five times per week, will not compensate for living a sedentary lifestyle for the rest of the hours in the day and over the week.

Maintaining a decent level of conditioning or cardiovascular fitness will improve performance in the gym as well as our overall health, both physical and mental. Although it is possible to build muscle and achieve a low level of body fat without having a good level of conditioning, we believe it is best to be able to perform like an athlete (to a degree) rather than simply look like one.

One great benefit of living a lifestyle more like an athlete is that we can consume more food and therefore nutrients because we have a higher energy output. This is important for things such as metabolic and hormonal health. We can eat more food and perform at a higher level both in the gym and in life. This is a great situation to be in when we are maintaining a physique we have built and especially so when we are in a fat loss phase. We can diet on a higher amount of calories, which will allow energy output and performance in the gym to be maintained during a fat loss phase. This will help maintain or even build muscle as we lose body fat.

We can categorise our activity as the general everyday activity we perform each day, as well as activities such as cardio. In terms of everyday activity, the majority of this for most people will simply be walking and the number of daily steps they get in each day. This extremely low-intensity activity will make up a large percentage of the calories you burn throughout the day and over the week and is one of the best high-leverage, low-effort strategies you can perform. Walking has many other benefits which can help level up your life, especially as it is great for multitasking. Some other benefits of walking include:

Getting more sunlight, especially first thing in the morning. Sunlight and walking can also help boost dopamine levels, which helps with overall mood as well as things such as motivation and creativity.
Walking more is great for reducing stress and clearing your head. It is also a great time to think over problems and find potential solutions in all areas of life. Many people report that great insights and inspiration come to them when they are walking, even when they are not purposely seeking these.
Walking is great for personal development. You can listen to audiobooks and podcasts while getting in your daily steps.
Getting in more daily steps has been shown to be positively correlated with healthy testosterone levels in men.
Walking can help with digestion and insulin sensitivity after a meal. Taking a 10-minute walk after each meal is great for this.

Cardio

Performing some higher-intensity activities such as cardio will improve your overall cardiovascular fitness or conditioning rather than simply burning calories through walking. This will, of course, also contribute to your overall energy output and will also help with performance in the gym.

This is especially true for more challenging strength training exercises such as compound lower body movements like squats, which place a significant demand on your cardiovascular system. Having a good base of cardiovascular conditioning will likely also improve your recovery capacity and may improve nutrition partitioning.

Performing a mix of lower intensity and higher intensity cardio works well; however, the amount of cardio you perform should be dictated by your current goals. Higher intensity cardio will improve your fitness to a greater degree; however, it is more stressful on the body and will impact recovery far more than lower intensity cardio.

Lower intensity cardio can be performed more often as it is far less challenging and can be a better option to use during a fat loss phase when you are consuming fewer calories. The amount of cardio you perform can be increased to help assist in fat loss during a fat loss phase, and reduced somewhat when you are in a maintenance or building phase, as you can maintain cardiovascular fitness on a relatively low amount of weekly cardio.

sleep quality

Improving your sleep quality and duration is a life hack and will improve all areas of your life, from fitness to how you think and feel. Some strategies to help improve sleep quality include:

Maintaining a consistent sleep-wake cycle. Going to bed and getting up at the same time every day.
Reducing exposure to blue light in the evening from things such as modern LED lighting, TV’s, computers, and smartphone screens. Avoid these as much as possible for the last few hours before bed or wear blue light blocking glasses.
Using flicker free red lighting in your home after the sun has set.
Getting sunlight in your eyes first thing in the morning to help regulate your circadian rhythm.
Sleep in a cool dark room and do not have electronics such as TVs and computers in your bedroom. Use blackout blinds/curtains or wear a sleep mask if you need to. If you live in a noisy area you can also use earplugs or white noise such as a fan to block out background noise.
Avoid consuming caffeine too close to bedtime. Find out what your cut-off time is, everyone is different. For most people, we do not recommend consuming caffeine after 1 in the afternoon.
If possible try to avoid intense activities such as strength training, and high-intensity cardio later in the evening. This is not always possible and may not be a problem for everyone.
Have a work cut-off time, and turn off notifications for things such as emails and social media. Avoid social media for the last few hours before bed.
Do not consume large meals 2-3 hours before bed.

Stress

Stress can impact sleep, recovery, and overall health, which can affect fitness goals, such as building muscle and losing body fat. Chronically elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol make it harder to build or maintain muscle and lose body fat. Stress can also impact your metabolic and hormonal health.

Stress is not inherently bad, it is a normal part of life and can not be avoided altogether. Acute stress can be beneficial, such as the short bouts of stress from a training session in the gym. This stress is the mechanism behind how we adapt and grow stronger over time. Stress only becomes a problem when it is too great and exceeds the ability of our body to recover from it. This can be seen when people perform too much exercise combined with poor nutrition and/or overly restrictive diets.

The real problem, especially in the modern world is chronic stress. This is where stress is elevated all the time and the body is in the ‘fight or flight’ mode. This is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system which prepares the body for strenuous physical activity. This is a vital survival mechanism and helps us survive dangerous situations, however, it is not good for us to remain in this state, as over time the body will begin to break down.

Whenever our bodies do not have adequate resources such as when we are restricting calories or carbohydrates, stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline increase to make up for the shortfall. This is a perfectly normal and important process however these stress hormones do this by breaking down the body to make energy. If these are elevated long term this is not healthy. You can think of this as an emergency backup system, fine for short durations but not good for prolonged periods.

The healthier you are the better you will be able to deal with stress. When you have a healthy metabolism and good hormonal health, with adequate supplies of energy to respond to stress, your body will be able to return to a more parasympathetic state. This is the ‘rest and digest’ part of your nervous system. The more unhealthy you are, the more stress can affect you and the longer it will take to deal with the stress and return to baseline.

Stress is not simply a mental thing. The bio-energetic model of health defines stress as anything where the energy demands of the stressor exceed the energy the body has available to be able to respond to the stressor and then recover.

Some common stressors include:

Over-exercising, particularly endurance-type exercise.
Nutritional deficiencies caused by poor diet.
Overly restrictive diets that exclude or limit whole food groups, particularly carbohydrates.
Excessive fasting and low blood sugar.
Excessive calorie restriction particularly long-term.
Eating foods that irritate the gut.
Poor quality sleep.
Mental stress, and the overconsumption of negative content such as the news.
Social media addiction.
Toxic relationships, and being around negative people.
Lack of sunlight.
Environmental toxins such as heavy metals, plastics, and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

Here are some useful strategies for reducing stress:

Practice deep breathing. Performing diaphragmatic breathing has been shown to reduce stress and bring down cortisol. There are many different methods for this, in general as long as your exhales are slightly longer than your inhales you’re good to go. Breathe deeply and slowly through the nose.
You can also try the double breathe method. To do this, inhale about 90%, then take a short pause, followed by a quick inhale to 110%. Then exhale, always focusing on nose breathing.
Take a walk, in nature if possible, to take your mind off the stress. Simply putting yourself in any relaxing environment can help. Many people feel better after taking a walk, a great way to clear your head.
Get more sunlight. Sunlight releases dopamine, which can decrease stress. Any amount of sunlight is better than none, and the more the better, as long as you do not burn.
Choose who you spend time with. You are the average of the people you spend most of your time with. Hang out with positive people, who do not drain you of energy and bring you down. If you need to ditch old friends who are not on the same path as you, then you may need to.
Avoid too much social media, and stop comparing yourself to other people. Avoid consuming negative information from news and social media.
Supplement magnesium. Stress depletes magnesium. Magnesium helps keep cortisol in check. A low-sodium diet can also make it difficult for the body to hold onto magnesium. Use a quality sea salt. Magnesium glycinate is a good form of magnesium to supplement with.
Do something relaxing, especially at the end of the day. Take magnesium flake or Epsom salt baths. Read or listen to an audiobook. Watch something funny, laughter is one of the best ways to relieve stress quickly.
Try journaling. Writing things down is a good way to get things off your mind and clear your head, especially before bed. Write down things you need to do and things that are bothering you.
Practice meditation or mindfulness. You do not have to sit in the lotus position. Try walking meditation.

daily Weigh in’s

One low effort high leverage activity is weighing yourself every day and taking a seven-day average. This will allow you to determine whether you are losing weight at the correct rate during a fat loss phase. What gets measured gets managed. You can also see if you are gaining weight at the correct rate during a gaining phase. This will prevent you from gaining more body fat than you need to.

environment

Cultivate a positive attitude and try to be in a positive environment. If you are in a negative environment, try to remove yourself from it. If you cannot, making a plan to escape it in the future can be helpful. Avoid a victim mentality and blaming other people for your situation. Your current situation is a direct result of your previous mindset and the actions you took. You may need to ditch negative people and old friends. Surround yourself with people who you aspire to be like.