A System For Guaranteed Results
I am fascinated by systems.
I often think of systems in the context of a Business.
Perhaps the most systemised business in the world is McDonalds.
(Strange example to use in a fitness context, but bare with me)
If you want to open a McDonalds Franchise…. You get handed an ‘operations manual’.
Inside, it will detail all of the systems necessary to successfully operate the business.
How to make the food items.
How to Structure job roles and manage employees
How to market and brand effectively.
Everything is totally systemised to ensure a similar customer experience to all McDonalds customers.
Systems exist all around us… some of them good! Some not so good!
The goal of any system is to efficiently deliver a consistent result.
For anyone who wants to look, move and feel better… consistent results is exactly what we’re trying to achieve.
So let’s discuss how we can best systemise our health & fitness for consistent results.
I believe there are 4 components of a good system.
1. Results Driven (data capture)
A good system thrives on data.
Keeping with our business illustration.
Imagine you’re running a business, but never once checked the bank account.
It’s not going to do very well.
Without a clear idea of the numbers, it’s impossible to assess how successful the business is.
… and more importantly it’s impossible to plan the next move to take the business in the right direction.
For a system to be effective, we have to be assessing whether or not it works.
To do that, we have to track some key performance indicators.
It’s the same with our health & fitness.
There are countless things we can check to monitor our health and our progress.
The KPI’s are going to vary from person to person depending on their goal.
But let’s say that your goal is to tone up.
You could monitor:
Calorie intake
Resistance Training, Strength Targets
Sleep Quality
Daily movement, perhaps step count
Water intake
Body fat percentage (fat / muscle ratio)
… just to name a few things.
A word of caution: It’s easy to go down the rabbit hole with tracking.
We don’t want to track every metric possible.
Just some key ones, that will keep us informed on our progress and help us plan our next move.
2. Simple … Not confusing
In the same way that we don’t want to confuse ourselves with our key performance indicators…
We don’t want the system as a whole to be confusing either.
In my experience, the more confusing something is made to be, the less likely someone is going to do it.
Consider the example of teaching somebody to deadlfit.
It’s one of the most technically scrutinised movements in the gym.
I know dozens of coaching cues that could be used for a deadlift.
It’s tempting to throw out all of these nuanced cues at once.
“Engage your lats. Glide the hips back. Create more leverage. Drive through the floor. Maintain your foot arch. Lock the glutes out at the top”
Over complicated the deadlift is a sure-fire way to put somebody into a bad position.
They say that a confused customer never buys.
… In my experience a confused client never tries.
In it’s simplest form, a deadlift is literally “picking something up off the ground”.
My approach has always been to give the least amount of cues possible, in order to put a person into a safe position… then fine tune as they become more competent.
This is the concept of ‘minimum effective dose’.
Giving just enough to make it viable… without giving so much it becomes an overdose.
3. Repeatable
Simple systems are not only more appealing to try in the first place.
Simplicity makes it far more likely to be repeatable.
One of my favourite quotes is by Aristotle, who said:
"We are what we repeatedly do, excellence therefore is not an act it’s a habit”
It’s the habitual repetition of our system that leads to a result.
This is something I stress a lot to our clients at Fitness Studio 46.
You can’t come for 1 workout and walk out with your dream body.
… But if you make training a regular fixture in your week, then as the weeks and months go by you’ll start to get the results you’re looking for.
When creating a good system, you have to ask yourself:
“Am I able to be consistent with at least 90% of the time?”
If the answer is yes, then you’re onto a winner!
4. Accountable
No matter how good our systems are, they will never be perfectly executed 100% of the time.
Returning to our example of McDonalds, one of the most systemised businesses in the world…
They still get complaints.
It’s sometimes slow food, not fast food.
They get your order wrong.
Or the milkshake machine is broken!
This is where accountability comes into play.
To minimise mistakes and keep consistency at a high level, they employ managers, they have checklists and they may even be audited by secret shoppers.
All of these act as layers of accountability.
When we meet with new members of Fitness studio 46, one of the things we ask is:
“How do you feel working alongside a coach will help you reach your goal”
And the most common answer we get is, by keeping someone accountable.
Accountability is an essential part of an effective system.
You could create accountability using: an accountability tool (app, journal), yourself or someone else (coach / training partner)
Often, multiple layers of accountability is the most effective.
Toning Up Example
Now we’ve assessed the 4 qualities of a great system, let’s put it into practice using an example:
Let’s say my current goal is to tone up.
… so I want to lose some body fat and feel better about how my clothes fit.
1. Firstly I need to look at the numbers.
The initial data I’ll collect is:
Body fat percentage
Scale weight
Progress photo
This will allow me to monitor progress and tell if my new regime is actually working.
I know that to lose body fat, I need to make improvements to my:
Nutrition
Training
Sleep & Stress
So every day:
I’ll log my food on myfitnesspal, to monitor my nutrition.
Log my workouts on an app or in a journal.
Wear my fit bit or apple watch to monitor my activity levels and sleep.
Monitoring this data will give me feedback on whether my plan is working.
2. Keep it simple
My approach to training, nutrition, sleep and stress is going to be simple.
Training = x3 full-body workouts per week, each of them only 40 mins long and movements that I am comfortable with.
Nutrition = Breakfast I’ll make a protein shake. Lunches I’ll purchase from a food preparation company and dinner will be prepared with the family at home. All logged on my fitness pal and within my calorie targets.
Sleep = I’ll aim to sleep for 8 hours, by going to bed at 10pm and waking up at 6am.
Keeping my focus on just these 3 main areas, will stop me from getting distracted by more nuanced elements of health and fitness such as meal timings.
3. Repeatable.
This is repeatable because it fits my lifestyle both at work and at home.
I’m not over stretching or doing that will drastically alter my routine.
4. Accountable.
I’m going to create a WhatsApp group of friends and family who have a similar goal and let them know that I’ll report into it at the end of every week to share how I’m getting on and for them to keep me accountable to that promise.
…. and just like that, we’ve systemised our fat loss!
Summary
If we can learn to create a good system, we will get guaranteed results!
Results don’t happen accidentally.
… In the same way that Mcdonalds didn’t open over 37,000 restaurants accidentally
The reason Mcdonalds has stood the test of time is because they’re always improving their systems.
If you want to see growth and results with your health & fitness and keep those results for a long time.
A great action step is to create your own ‘operations manual’
Write down how you’ll approach your training, nutrition and other lifestyle factors in the most efficient, simple and consistent way possible.
Then stick to the plan and enjoy the amazing results!
An epic quote to summarise this article is from James Clear…
“We don’t rise to the level of our goal… we fall to the level of our systems!”