Chapter 4: Choose The Path of Least Resistance. 🏃

“I coached someone who hated running, refused to do it,” Saladino says. “But the person liked basketball. So I built him a three-day-per-week program where each session was under 30 minutes, included mobility work, and featured basketball and other cardio activities the client liked rather than standard cardio.”

Each type of training has its own drawbacks. The key to picking the right one for you is to find the one that takes the least activation energy, and to go from there. 

• Pro: You can build strength and improve mobility and flexibility on your own time without having to pay for an app, equipment, or gym membership. 

• Con: If you want to add size, you’ll need to hit the weights to include resistance training into your routine. 

Group Fitness

• Pro: Group classes can be great for beginners when the atmosphere is positive and the people training alongside you pushes you to work harder. In fact, the Köhler effect is when an inferior team member (aka the weakest link) levels up his or her game because the team’s efforts elevate the group as a whole. 

• Con: A group fitness is only as good as the instructor. If you’re not being coached on form or educated on the benefits of a specific exercise or protocol, consider looking elsewhere 

Bodybuilding

• Pro: One of the best ways to build size quickly. Most commercial gym memberships will give you all you need. The practice of building great technique can be satisfying.

• Con: Depending on your goal, this training style can be very demanding both physically and mentally. 

Digital

• Pro: Yes, the market is saturated with digital fitness coaching and workouts. The good news is most also offer a few trial periods ranging anywhere from a week to a month. This should offer plenty of opportunities to test out various personalities, protocols, and apps to see which fits best for things like education, entertainment, and user-friendly features. 

• Con: The downside is that nobody’s watching you train. So if you’re not at a specific fitness level you might push yourself too hard, get injured, and find yourself on the sidelines. It can also be tough to get feedback or reach the coach since they’re often personalities that are catering to a large audience.

It’s good to consider your options, but don’t allow yourself to get caught in analysis paralysis. What’s most important is you get moving – doing anything at all is better than nothing.