Hey Reader,
First things first: I hope you had a wonderful holiday season!
I don't know about you, but the past few weeks for have been super hectic one gathering after another (as it normally does every December).
To be honest, I had to take a brief step back from training myself.
If you did the same thing, don't worry:
This is FINE.
We're the product of our habits, NOT the occasions.
The holidays is the time we actually get to hang out with the people we love and care about.
And regardless of what some fitness chucklef*ck would like you to believe, it's totally okay to take some time off every now and then.
But now that the party season is over?
It's time to get to work.
Now, I've been lifting weights for probably about 8 or 9 years now.
And as someone who's taken plenty of breaks over the years, I can confidently there's really just one thing that matters after:
👉 The law of inertia
In case you forgot your high school physics, here's a reminder:
Objects at rest stay at rest.
Objects in motion stay at motion.
If you've only been away from the gym for a week after 6 months of consistent training, it'll be pretty easy to pick yourself back up.
But if you haven't trained for months (or even years), starting again is going to be haaaaard.
So what's the solution?
Momentum.
Starting is incredibly difficult, but continuing is easy.
So if you're brand new to training or coming from a layoff, here's my advice:
Start with something so small that it almost feels too easy.
Here's what I mean:
❌ Don't say you're going to work out 5 times this week.
✅ Just go to the gym and do 2 or 3 exercises for 1-2 sets each.
❌ Forget about hitting 10,000 steps on day 1.
✅ Just take your daily average from December and add 1,000 more steps to it.
❌ Don't even think about giving up sugar for good.
✅ Just replace your midnight snack with either fruits or salads.
You get the picture.
Trying to go from level 0 to level 10 overnight is how people fall off from their fitness resolutions by February.
But you don't have to completely change your entire life today.
All you have to do is break inertia and build up momentum.
So for this week, just go ahead and take that first step.
Hit the gym, do a quick workout, and call it a day.
No, it won't feel like a lot — in fact, it might even feel like you didn't do anything at all.
But an inch forward is a mile of progress for someone who hasn't moved before.
Keep on keeping on,
Carlo
PS.
I recently added a Momentum Score feature in the app to help you with this:
Basically, you'll get momentum points for every completed workout.
You don't have to work out every single day (or hit rigid weekly workout targets, for that matter) but it'll start going down if the algorithm senses you've been on a break for too long.
If you're completely brand new to training, I suggest scheduling a freestyle workout and just adding exercises on the fly.
Remember: all you have to do right now is break inertia. 🫡