Foundations: Turning Up and Seeing Progress

Most people don't make a conscious decision to stop exercising.

We don't sit down one evening and announce, "Right. That's enough being fit. I'm going to concentrate on becoming increasingly breathless on the stairs." It happens more gradually: we postpone a session. Work runs late. Someone needs collecting...oh, but it's Celebrity Traitors on the TV.

One missed class becomes two. A busy week becomes a busy month. Eventually, getting back to the gym starts to feel daunting, requiring a clear diary and renewed motivation.

It happens easily. And it is why our Foundations Month starts with something much simpler than lifting technique or the perfect training programme: all we are asking you to do is make room for fitness in an inconveniently busy life.

A routine that survives a normal week

This month, we are focusing on two habits:

1. Building the routine of booking and attending.
2. Recording what you do when you get here.

There is plenty we could discuss under the heading of foundations. Moving well. Building strength. Developing the fitness to do different things, rather than becoming exceptionally good at one thing and hoping life never asks for anything else.

All of that matters, of course, and so does food, sleep and recovery. But a beautifully designed programme cannot do much if the gym door does not get opened.

Give the habit time

When our training routine slips, we often berate ourselves about a lack of willpower. We should be more motivated, more disciplined, better at getting on with it. We might imagine that people who train consistently must have access to some superior grade of determination, while ours appears to have been supplied with the batteries missing.

Yet that explanation overlooks how much of everyday life runs on habits. We don't usually have a lengthy debate about whether to brush our teeth. We do it because it belongs at that point in the day.

A 2023 study analysing more than 12 million gym attendance observations found that building a gym habit typically took months. That is worth remembering if you are still having to talk yourself into coming.

At Beyond Walls we can also observe this. We are very fortunate to have a low cancellation rate (thanks to having the best members!!!) but, 50% of the member cancellations that do happen occur within the first 3 months, and 84% happen within the first 6 months...the habit just did not stick.

Research by psychologists Wendy Wood, David Neal and Aimee Drolet in 2013 found something that should shift how we think about this: when people are under pressure and low on mental energy, they tend to fall back on established routines, including helpful ones. A familiar routine can help carry us through when motivation is low.

Reframe the question

Which changes the question worth asking. Instead of asking how to stay motivated every day, we can ask: how do I make coming to the gym a familiar, manageable part of the week, the thing I just do, rather than the thing I decide to do?

At the beginning, that takes some deliberate planning. Pick a regular moment to look at your diary and book your sessions, choosing times that fit the life you actually have. Have your kit ready and an alternative in mind for the session most likely to get squeezed.

If you train after work, going straight to the gym might be easier than going home first. Once you have sat down, taken your shoes off and been accepted by the dog as part of the furniture, leaving again becomes a considerably bigger undertaking.

It also takes patience. Give your new routine a chance to become established. Having familiar faces to look forward to, a coach to guide you and sessions already in the diary can all be part of making that routine feel more manageable.

The October Challenge

Whether you are aiming for your first Committed Club sticker or adding to your collection, our October challenge gives that first habit a clear focus. We want more than 120 members to complete at least 13 sessions during the calendar month and beat our all-time record. Each person who reaches 13 adds another name to the total. It is a shared challenge built from the ordinary decisions each of us makes about our week: booking a class, making time for it and coming back for the next one.

The aim is to carry that rhythm into November and beyond. October gives us somewhere to start.

Your next habit

Turning up, though, brings us to a quieter challenge. Fitness usually changes gradually, and gradual change can be surprisingly difficult to notice when you are living inside it. Something that used to feel hard becomes normal, and we promptly focus on the next thing we cannot do.

After months of training, it is quite possible to feel as though you are standing still because you have forgotten where you started. That is where our second habit comes in: logging your scores and the details of your workouts.

A score can look like an invitation to compare yourself with everyone else, particularly when it appears on a leaderboard (you can select for it not to appear, by the way). The reason we want you to record your training is to give you a useful history of your own progress.

The Benchmark of all benchmarks "Fran"

Take the benchmark workout "Fran" that we completed on 5th October. Fran is 21, 15 and 9 repetitions of thrusters and pull-ups. 67 people took part in Fran this time and 35 logged a score.

When we did Fran last year, Bea completed it with two 7kg dumbbells and ring rows. This time, she used a 30kg barbell and jumping pull-ups.

That is something worth celebrating. Bea has kept making time to train even when life has thrown hurdles at her, and her hard work shows. Because she recorded the earlier workout, she can look back and see how much has changed. The training created the progress; the record helps her recognise it and take a well-earned sense of achievement from it.

Her training record gives her context and helps her to see the progress she is making.

If you did Fran and didn't log your score, take a moment to record what you did. If you scaled the workout, write down how; that is part of the information you will want later. If you cannot remember an exact time, keep the details you do know rather than guessing. The purpose is to leave yourself a useful record, not to produce something impressive for everyone else to look at.

Our Mission

This is why the word 'measurably' matters in our mission to improve the health and wellbeing of our community. We want you to be able to recognise what is changing.

These two habits will support each other over time:

1. The habit of regular attendance gives you opportunities to practise, learn and improve.
2. The habit of recording what you do helps you recognise those changes.

There will still be frustrating sessions and weeks that go wrong. That is part of fitting fitness around real life. When it happens, start with your next class rather than waiting for the perfect week. And when you finish, record what you did. Give yourself the chance to make progress, and your future self the chance to see it.

Jamie