What’s your fitness level?
Are you Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced? Find it out!
BEGINNER
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I want to introduce Janine to you.
Janine is a 54 years old housewife with 2 children and embodies each one of us at the very beginning of our fitness journey. She wants to get started and reach her goals. However, often she gets ineffective and lacks the motivation to step into her ‘new fitness adventure’.
She likes spending time outdoor and taking long walks, but she is not consistent enough to make a routine of it. After having given birth to her children, Janine became completely sedentary, split among so many daily chores not to have enough time to take care of herself. She has always postponed to the future the time when she will properly look after her nutrition and physical activity.
She likes playing with her grandchildren and it is not far from the truth to say that this is the only movement she does! She takes the car for going more or less everywhere, no matter if it is just around the corner. She regularly takes the elevator, further limiting her physical activity. When asked about the reason why she does it this way, Janine naively replies that ‘it is merely out of force of habit’.
Janine doesn’t pay so much attention to nutrition. While during the day she manages to be enough nutritionally conscious, in the evening, and especially after dinner, she indulges in treats. Per se, that wouldn’t be such a big problem except for the fact that Janine does it more or less every single night. To her, food, and especially sweets, has a deep emotional meaning, so that she uses it as a reward and a mean to relax. Janine has been trying countless times to start a diet, but with very poor success. After so many failed attempts she feels quite discouraged and thinks she cannot get back in shape anymore. It looks like age and genetics play against her best intentions and that her goals are out of reach.
Even though Janine has a few big goals and challenges to go for, such as losing weight, reawakening a sluggish metabolism and re-gaining flexibility, she is not very committed to start doing something for achieving it, on a regular basis. She complains about not having yet succeeded in finding a method to break through this vicious circle. However, the other side of the coin is that Janine longs for immediate and tangible results. She wants “to do as little as possible and in the easiest way” expecting, at the same time, to get instant success otherwise she gets discouraged and frustrated and she gives up.
Janine knows that something has to change in her life and habits. However, she feels confused by so many advices, “dos” and “don’ts”, “should” and “shouldn’t” and more and more indecisive about what to do. She keeps procrastinating and feels stuck: not happy with where she is, but unmotivated to start taking any direction with consistency.
She wants to move to the next level, but she doesn’t know how and what to do. She needs an easy to follow and gradual structure that takes her step-by-step along the way. She needs encouragement to take her first move, clarity on the journey ahead and guidance. She wants to feel comfortable and safe. She does not have to feel like she is alone. She needs someone to account for, too.
Janine is Beginner.
INTERMEDIATE
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Now, let’s meet up with Luc.
Luc is a 38 years old financial broker with a very busy and hectic lifestyle. “It is difficult for me to plan anything. I know when I start working, but I hardly know when I can call it a day”, he says. He likes its job very much and puts a lot of passion and energy in it. However, on the flip side, he does not have so much spare time. For this reason Luc prefers engaging in activities that allow flexibility and enjoyment, while keeping the time commitment as low as possible. It wouldn’t be feasible for him to exercise every day or for a very long time. “My workout must be short, enjoyable and flexible”, he states, “otherwise I won’t be able to keep my commitment up”.
Luc desires a blend of pragmatism, freedom and fun. Since he is so busy and under pressure all day long, he looks for fun and lightness the rest of the time. “My ideal workout must not be boring and too serious! I want to enjoy my time while I exercise”, he says. He also wants to achieve concrete and measurable results, improve his physical condition and get back in shape.
Because of his frenzied life, Luc doesn’t always succeed in looking after himself properly and eating healthily and regularly. Sometimes it skips both breakfast and lunch, being busy with back-to-back meetings. Not to mention, then, any chance to have a decent break and a snack. He has a lot of coffee and “a wonderful relationship with the vending machine“, he admits. So, he gets his own back in the evening when he eats anything he can find. As a consequence, often he goes to sleep on a full stomach and doesn’t always sleep well. Conversely, there are other weeks where Luc travels all the time and has an endless stream of business lunches and dinners. It is not difficult to imagine how such a lifestyle can hinder even the best intentions!
Luc doesn’t feel like he is at his best. He is looking for a training program that helps him get back in shape. He wants to lose fat and gain lean mass, improve aerobic capacity and regulate a bit his blood pressure levels, but with no string attached! He wants to be free to choose when, where and with whom go training.
Over the last year Luc used to go running a couple of times a week. At the beginning he enjoyed the freedom that came with it, because he could decide to go on the spot, either in the morning or late in the evening, and choose which day suited him best. However, with time, he noticed that the training was no longer very effective and got also a bit bored of playing the very same routine all the time. So, he started missing a few sessions until he gave up altogether.
Luc doesn’t lack neither determination nor motivation. He is well-organised and used to planning activities. However, he doesn’t always succeed in being consistent in what he does, especially when it comes to introducing new tasks in his very busy agenda. Luc usually starts with the best intentions but, after a little while, loses interest and loosens his grip. Sometimes he holds onto excuses and is inclined to postpone because he feels tired and wants to release the pressure.
Luc wants to be free to decide when taking actions and must be drawn to the program thanks to the results he gets and the fun he has.
Luc is Intermediate.
ADVANCED
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And finally, let’s meet up with Bella.
Bella is a 45 years old artist. After a long career in the corporate world she decided to go her own way to discover what she is capable of doing and achieving in life. She likes very much trying and experimenting new things as well as embarking on new journeys and adventures.
Bella has always been sporty and very active. She has sparking personality, contagious zest for life and, apparently, endless supply of energy. She moves around all the time and exercises regularly 3-4 times a week. Bella barely tolerates feeling stuck, doing the very same routine all the time and sticking to predefined rules or instructions she doesn’t fully understand the meaning of. She is also a bit intolerant to obligations and wants to do stuff her own way.
Bella is very goal driven. Whenever she has something in mind, she becomes unstoppable: she doesn’t pay so much attention to the required effort, instead she is all taken by her vision of the goal ahead. Her ultimate goal is simply to improve herself, which is what she is working on each day. She has strong determination and willpower that she uses to constantly motivate and push herself out of her comfort zone. Once she masters something, she moves on to the next experience. She likes hard-hitting and effective actions over being comfortable.
Bella slides through life with confidence and a quite direct and straightforward approach to well-being. Bella’s motto is “whatever it takes” and she really means it! She is very nutritionally conscious even though she cares more about psyco-physical well-being than just physical shape, knowing that the last one is just a mere consequence of the first one. She is also very curious of trying and experimenting new foods and she values very much the meaning of traditions and culture surrounding the act of being at the table. She has a true love of conviviality and creates her own recipes. “Food, as well as all the good stuff in life, must be consciously enjoyed without fears or limits. Balance is what matters most”.
Bella is in a good psyco-physical shape. However, this doesn’t mean she hasn’t her own goals such as becoming physically and mentally stronger, stabilizing the hormonal balance and slowing down the aging process.
Sometimes she feels overwhelmed and she finds herself into a place where she loses a bit of clarity and purpose. She realises that perhaps she tries a bit too hard and questions herself whether such effort is really worth it. Then she becomes anxious, makes up excuses and seeks alibis to procrastinate.
Bella is looking for continuous improvement, new stimuli that keep her away from boredom and a structure that enables her to get results in the most effective way.
Bella is Advanced.
