2927: Why 80% of Beginners Quit (And the 5 Things That Actually Fix It)

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1:38Adam Schafer:Wayfair, every style, every home. If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump. Mind Pump. with your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded health, fitness, and entertainment podcast in the history of the universe, approaching over half a billion downloads. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode, why most beginners quit their fitness and how to actually stick with it. By the way, with this episode, here's what we did to help people out. If this is you, if you're a beginner and you don't want to quit, here's what we have.

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4:07Adam Schafer:We have the solution. Today, we're going to talk about why most beginners quit and how to actually stick with fitness. Let's get to it. Whenever we talk about this, it always reminds me of the January rush.

4:19Sal Di Stefano:Best example. Yeah.

4:20Adam Schafer:Best example. Managing big box. All of us started in fitness in big box gyms. And if you've ever worked in a big box gym for over a year, you've seen the cycle. And the numbers are pretty consistent. You get about a 50 % to 60 % increase in traffic, meaning people coming in to work out. 50 % increase in revenue, people buying memberships, signing up. and that stays up till probably february march just a wave of motivation and then after march uh it's a very quick decline and by the time you get to like april may you're back to normal yeah so it's like three months of machines are free again it's wild um and it was super consistent This was predictable.

5:08Adam Schafer:This is so predictable. Gyms will organize their schedules and their budgets around the January wave and the inevitable drop-off.

5:19Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, January is what Black Friday is to the retail market. so what the retail market is familiar with in november and black friday and that whole month for retail sales that's what the gym industry experiences in january and february and all the way into march i'd say is when it starts to peak and then it starts and it's a pretty sharp decline it's such a sharp decline that it goes from january the highest by the time july hits it's at the lowest the lowest yeah so it's like so july july is always a rough month in fact july

5:59Adam Schafer:in gyms is similar to uh the end of the year which is the slowest time of the year in gyms where you have holidays and stuff yeah and this again if you look at the data um most people stop most people the vast majority like if you're listening to this you've probably done this uh where you get going you're motivated you're you're doing your workout you're consistent in the beginning. And then it declines and then you're done. And that happens within a year. That's what the data shows. In our experience, it's within months. And so what we want to talk about is how to fix that because here's the real problem.

6:33Adam Schafer:The real issue with fitness is consistency. That's what we're talking about. Consistently working out, even if your workout is not perfect, right? So long as you don't hurt yourself and super overdo it, you get great results over time. you get the benefits of fitness. You'll get the muscle, you'll get some fat loss. Now, of course, there's better ways to do it, but consistency is the problem to solve. Now, what's interesting about this data is when you look at the consistency of people who work out when they work out with, let's say, a trainer, how long they stick around, it's triple, quadruple.

7:11Adam Schafer:And with really good coaches, consistency is the norm, long-term consistency is the norm. So it's like, okay, what's going on here, why are people stopping? Why do they get so motivated? Why do they stop? And how do we remedy that?

7:25Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I think the part that's really interesting about that is that we're talking about millions of people across the country that typically fall off, right? They fall into that category of the 80, 90 % that lose consistency, typically fall in four or five buckets, or collectively, like a couple of those, right? Reasons for why. It's a multitude of factors. Yeah, super, super, super common to see this. I mean, there's always exceptions to the rule, but a vast majority of them fall into one of these four or five categories.

7:58Adam Schafer:Yeah, and so let's talk about those here for a little bit. Like, what is it that's getting people to lose their consistency? And then how do we remedy that? So the first thing I think that we'll cover is that the workout needs to work. Okay, so one of the reasons why, one reason, because there's many, but one reason why clients that work with a really good trainer stick around is because they actually see results. There's nothing more frustrating. One of the most frustrating things on earth is putting a ton of effort into something and getting what you perceive to be very little in return. That sucks.

8:36Adam Schafer:I don't care what you do. It's like, you could go work your butt off. You could put time into an effort into a relationship, or you could go to the gym, you know, three days a week or four days a week consistently, and you see some results and then it's stop. And then you're like, why am I doing this? Why am I doing so much sacrifice? And I have barely any results to show for the effort that I've put into. And that's the number one reason that people stop is they just don't get the results that they think that they should, especially for the effort that they put in. the solution to that is a good workout plan.

9:11Yeah. And like you mentioned, a trainer can really tailor that to an appropriate level of workout. I think a lot of times because of the nature of it being so hype driven and so much motivation going in, the intensity really ramps up and what they take on is usually too much. And so the workout itself isn't appropriate. And then they are working that hard they're working really hard and now they're burned out they're not seeing the results so it the frustration there is definitely a big driver that's a good point

9:42Sal Di Stefano:the the 24 had really good stats around this it was really fascinating to see um in fact it was so powerful that they they would give away personal training on the front end because they knew how much longer they would keep people on the back end uh they had a membership that was called the key fit plus where you basically prepaid a year, which was already the best deal. And then they would include at different times, depending on what decade you worked there was between four and six personal training sessions. Which is not a lot. It's not a lot, but it was enough. What they found was the average member that didn't get a personal trainer and they started would fall off after about three months.

10:24Sal Di Stefano:And then the average member that got a personal trainer for just four to six visits would last over three years. And so they would bet on, okay, we lose out on the money that we're spending on the personal trainer to train these people for four to six sessions up front. But the consistency that they will keep paying every single month for the next two to three years outpays it by quite a bit. And really what that speaks to, because obviously a personal trainer in five to six sessions is not taking a majority of people to their ultimate physique or goals. No, you can't, no. But what they are doing is putting them on a much better plan and path.

11:01Sal Di Stefano:And I think a lot of people don't know that they don't know. That's right. I think that exercise, as simple as it can be, it's also a bit complicated. Body composition change is a science. And I think sometimes we oversimplify. We can overcomplicate it too, but we also oversimplify it sometimes with, oh, just eat less and move more. And so people go in with this, okay, I'm going to stop eating those bad foods and I'm going to work my ass off. And like most other things in their life, the harder they work towards it, the more return they expect to get from it. And that just doesn't play out when you're doing this on your own is you're busting your ass, you're restricting like crazy and the results are minimal to none at all, which results in most of these people quitting?

11:52Adam Schafer:Well, the average person, I'm glad you said people don't know what they don't know. So what's the magic? What's happening here in this particular scenario? So here's the deal. The average person, when they think of a workout or an effective workout or what makes up an effective workout, there's two things that they think. Knowing exercises and hard. That's it. If I know exercises and I work hard and the way they determine if they're working hard is like how sore I get, how hard it is, how hard I'm breathing, then I should get phenomenal results. Now, here's the crazy part. That's not workout programming.

12:30Adam Schafer:Now, exercises done properly make up part of the workout programming. Intensity is part of the formula that makes up workout programming. But so are reps, sets, rest periods, and how the whole thing is organized on a weekly, monthly um and then quarterly and yearly basis there's actually a lot more that goes into workout program programming that people realize this is why there's a you know strength and conditioning science this is why workout programming this is why strength athletes matters you know athletes that compete in sports to see who can lift the most weights let's just say the difference between them is the programming and you'll have schools or clubs that become famous for producing champions.

13:17Adam Schafer:And it's not because they're attracting the most genetically gifted or they have some special drug that they're giving people. It's their workout programming. And they get so good at it that people start to learn what that programming is or what they're doing and start injecting and implementing it into other workout programs. So workout programming is a science. And here's what it looks like when you do it right. It feels like the results you get don't match the effort that you put in. And I mean that in a good way. I don't mean it in the bad way. So the bad way is I am putting so much effort into this and I'm getting so little in return.

13:53Adam Schafer:Oftentimes you'll hear people say, man, I'm working so hard. I even look like I work out. When workout programming is done well, the opposite is what people say. Man, I feel like I'm barely doing anything and I'm getting such crazy results. This is wild. What's going on? And the difference is you have a good workout. So one of the number one things you can do to help with your consistency is follow a good plan. One that is written and created by people who understand workout programming, one that actually has science behind it, and one that also has experience behind it. That makes such a big difference in terms of your consistency.

14:33Sal Di Stefano:Well, the truth is, I mean, this is what I meant by body composition is a science. If anybody just goes in and does exercises, right, that they've seen on TV or they downloaded from Google and they just perform those, there's a bit of return you'll get from those. You'll get better at those exercises, right? It's better than nothing. Yeah, and it's better than nothing. But most people come in to the gym because they want to make a change. They want to make a body composition change. or they got some bad news from the doctor that says, hey, there's these health indicators that your health is poor, cholesterol is high, whatever the thing is, we need to go fix this thing.

15:10Sal Di Stefano:And so most people come in to make change like that. And more often than not, it's physical and aesthetic change. And making physical and aesthetic change in the positive direction, there's science involved. There's a balance of the appropriate amount of macronutrients that your body needs. there's a certain amount of stress that you want to apply to the body related to how much recovery

15:33Adam Schafer:that you get there's a certain term in so much by your lifestyle right there's a there's a certain

15:37Sal Di Stefano:level at which you want to start and then slowly progress uh this like giving it all at once as much as you possibly can while also restricting from all these things that you think you shouldn't be eating approach is a failing strategy that most people go into the gym thinking is the best strategy. And the unfortunate part to the point you're making is if they only knew that it would take less effort to get more results, they would be more likely to stick around. But the reason why they don't is because, and I wouldn't either, it's like showing up to a job, you bust your ass off for eight hours a day and you get the paycheck and they didn't even pay you a minimum wage.

16:17Sal Di Stefano:How long are you going to do that for? Just like, this is ridiculous. I work my tail. You're working for free. Yeah, no way. I don't want to do this. But what if you could work a fraction of the hours and get paid 10 times the money? I mean - No brainer. Yeah, no brainer. And so I think that's what happens to so many people.

16:36Adam Schafer:And I want to be clear, effectiveness does not mean hardest workout. No. It means best, most effective workout. Smart, smart workout. Our producer here at Mind Pump, Doug, who's been, we've all been doing this together, since the very beginning. I met Doug when he hired me as a personal trainer and Doug had an extensive fitness history. He was not some guy that never worked out before. He'd worked out many, many times before. He'd followed many routines before. He'd done bodybuilding routines and fitness routines. He'd run, he'd play tennis. And I remember when he came to hire me, it took me a second to convince him that we were only going to work out twice a week.

17:15Adam Schafer:He actually kind of didn't believe me. And thankfully I'm very convincing. So I got a little trust from him to try it. By week three, there was no convincing required because Doug was seeing and feeling results by week three that were blowing him away. I remember him telling me like, this is weird. How am I progressing the way I am with just two days a week? And the difference was the programming. That was all the difference in the world. There was nothing else that was different. He was doing everything else the same as he'd always done. The difference was we're working out in an effective way, which takes us to the second point.

17:45Adam Schafer:And when you look at polls as to why people stop their workouts. One of the top reasons, one of the top five reasons is it's taking up too much time or I don't have the time, which actually kind of communicates what we just talked about, which is when you're doing something so ineffectively, it takes a lot of time to see a little bit of movement. And so when you're going to the gym and you're working out four days a week consistently or three days a week consistently, which by the way, I gotta be clear here because we tend to get a little distorted here. When people talk about working out, right out the gates in the conversations every day for some reason.

18:20Adam Schafer:We got to work out every day. That's not true. You should be active every day, but working out, no, very few people, very, very few people need to work out every single day. The vast majority of people, if you were working out three days a week, you're working out a lot. That's a lot of scheduled, consistent workouts. Most people, less than that would be perfectly fine. So the problem is I don't have the time to do this ineffective, crappy workout. I'm putting so much time in. I'm getting so little. I got a family. I got a job. I got these things. I'm not going to, this just isn't worth it. So the second point at helping you with consistency is the workout itself should not take a ton of time, period, end of story.

19:01Adam Schafer:You can be super motivated getting into something, making your decisions based off of that motivated state of mind, but eventually that motivated state of mind will fade because it does. Nobody can stay motivated all the time. that just doesn't happen. And now you've committed yourself to, I don't know how many days a week. You're not motivated and going to the gym four days a week, five days a week, six days a week. It's like, oh, I'm not a fitness fanatic. I don't love this. I don't want to live in the gym. This sucks. I'm going to stop. It's overwhelming. I mean, it has to be effective. It has to be efficient.

19:31And I mean, that's the number one barrier for a lot of people. It's that time, you know, being able to, yeah, commitment, being able to fit that in. Everybody's busy. Everybody has something they can fill their day with and their time. And so the biggest hurdle is to really like condense that and make that time itself like as effective as possible. And to do that, you really have to structure it in a way where you're selecting, you know, the best exercise. You're, you know, applying the best, you know, methods for you to actually see some substantial gain.

20:05Sal Di Stefano:This is also how you can tell when you're talking to like an experienced trainer. because many times when the client comes in and they're either one just getting started in the gym or they're speaking to a personal trainer for the first time, they're highly motivated and ready to go. And when you ask the question of, you know, how many days a week can you commit to working out, almost always they commit to an amount that's not realistic. And a really seasoned personal trainer knows this. And no matter what the number they say to them. They talk them down. They talk them down.

20:35Adam Schafer:Every time.

20:35Sal Di Stefano:It's like, I don't care if the person says six, five, three, it doesn't matter whatever they say, why don't we just start with this? And that's when you know you've got somebody who's probably been doing this for a really long time because they know if they were doing nothing before and I get you started making better decisions around your eating, better decisions around your sleep and stress management and getting you working out just one day a week, I can make positive change right away. Start moving you in the right direction. And then I've got plenty more levers and time to play with, especially if you told me you could do three or four days a week.