How to Go From 0-60 (And Beyond)
No car goes from a dead stop to a spontaneous 60 miles per hour. It ramps up. Quicker or slower, but first, the car hits 5 miles per hour, then 10, then 30, and so on. One of the biggest mistakes we see people make when they’re new to fitness, is they try to start at 60mph. Here’s how you can ramp up.
Start with 2-3 workouts per week
If you can do 3, do 3. But if you’re only going to get 3 workouts per week in one week out of every month, drop that down to two. The key here is consistency. If your goal is 2 workouts per week, make sure you’re hitting at least 7 workouts every 4 weeks. It doesn’t have to be perfect and the workouts don’t have to be good, but step 1 is consistency in showing up.
Make the workouts good
Follow a program where you can start to see that you’re getting stronger, faster, and more mobile. Any good coach can set you up with a program like this, but honestly, ChatGPT does a pretty good job too. Try a prompt like, “I’m a [SEX] who is [X YEARS OLD], have exercised for [TIME] and currently exercise [FREQUENCY]. I have access to [EQUIPMENT LIST]. Please write me a 4-week work out program to help me with [MY GOALS]. Keep workout sessions to [DESIRED SESSION LENGTH]. Give me 3 metrics that I can test monthly to keep tabs on my progress.”
Tackle your nutrition
This doesn’t have to be complicated. My favorite nutrition advice of all time is: eat real food, not too much, include lots of plants. Beyond that, almost everything works, but not everything works for every person and for every goal. The questions I use to guide whether or not a nutrition plan is working are: 1) are you happy with your body composition, or is it moving in the direction you want? 2) are you happy with your energy levels, or are they moving in the direction you want? 3) are you happy with your blood chemistry, or is it moving in the direction you want? 4) are you happy with your approach… does it feel sustainable long-term? If the answers to those 4 questions are yes, then keep doing it.
Focus on your sleep
6 cumulative hours of quality sleep out of every 24 hours at an absolute bare minimum. 7-9 tends to be better for most people. Sleep is absolutely one of the most underrated levers for health that there is. It’s arguably as important as nutrition.
Manage your stress
All these things work together. If you’re exercising regularly, eating well, and sleeping well, chances are good your stress will decrease. Rate your average stress on a scale of 1-10 (10 being high). If it’s at a 6, try to bring it down to a 5. Outdoor time, meditation, massage, reading, laughter, quality time with friends and family, are all good ways to do that.
And just like that!
There are lots of ways to skin a cat. But this approach, done in order, is a great way to get rolling. If you start from nothing, and take a month on each step, in less than 6 months, you’ll have a system that will keep you healthy, happy and strong for a lifetime. Once the system is in place, then it’s easy to start sliding levers up and down to control intensity and fine-tuning. After all, 60mph is great… but what if you want to hit 75mph? Or 100?
Next steps:
- Increase workout intensity. Look for a few moments in each training session of all-out effort. This could be a sprint, or a heavy lift, or one more rep in an endurance movement.
- Add lower-intensity work: Zone 2 cardio, joint training/mobility/flexibility. Aim to have this volume meet the volume of your high-intensity work.
- Fine-tune your nutrition. Higher-intensity training has different fuel demands than lower-intensity training. Specific goals often need specific approaches (instead of general).
- Get a coach who can monitor and adjust your plan.
It would be wrong to say there are no limits to this stuff. But the limits tend to be a lot higher than most folks think. Anything is better than nothing. Master the basics, and then just keep doing them as long as possible!