7 Skills You Need to Learn to Get in Shape

Is your effort wasted?

You want to get in shape and you are trying hard, but still not getting anywhere?

Let’s change that. Let’s go through 7 skills you can learn that will help you to get in better shape.

1. Patience

If you ask some really experienced fitness trainer what is the biggest challenge of people who want to get in shape, then the answer should definitely be a mental one. Everyone can learn the mechanics, but the psychological challenges are always the hardest to overcome.

In fitness, the one skill that most people lack is definitely patience.

People are naturally impatient and want quick fixes and instant results, which only plays in hand for the supplements companies who basically sell magic pills promising overnight success.

Well, the thing is that if you were overeating for the past 10 years or so and haven’t been at the gym since high school, then it will take a while till you undo all those “negative years”. You can’t expect overnight success, despite what you hear on TV.

You gotta stop looking for the easiest and quickest path and you have to start doing what is really necessary to succeed, you have to make the commitment and then be patient. If it would takes days or weeks and taking a few supplements to get in shape, everybody would be ripped by now.

2. Without Planning You Get Nowhere

You gotta have a goal and plan on how you are going to get there. Again this is true in almost any area of life, but let’s see how this applies to fitness specifically.

Let’s say you are bit overweight and haven’t been hitting the gym very regularly in the past years. Well, in that case here is an example of your goal and plan.

GOAL: Lose 20 pounds of fat in the next 12 weeks and build some solid muscle foundation and hypertrophy.

PLAN:

• Calculate how much calories you should eat to lose those pounds
• Structure your diet plan around your lifestyle (ex.: lunch with coworkers or dinner with family)
• Get a gym membership, start going to the gym
• Invest in a quality program (Fitness Model Workout is always a good choice)
• Get a coach to show you the exercises from the workout program (or at least watch some good YouTube videos here)
• Take action today!

Let’s go through a different scenario.

If you are pretty lean and you have been training for a few years, but you are still not ripped and you are stuck, here’s how your goal and your plan could look like:

GOAL: Get into single digit bodyfat (measured by DEXA or at least BodPod), get closer to your genetic potential, focus on improving your V-taper and optimizing your Shoulder-to-Waist ratio.

PLAN:

• Get an advanced muscle building protocol (the Advanced IXP Muscle Building Protocol would be a great choice)
• Train shoulders every day, then train either back or chest and end your workout with training your arms or legs
• Make sure you give yourself permission to lift light to fully focus on contraction and muscle tension
• Stop putting money into supplements, just keep the Protein and Creatine and dump the rest
• Start creating caloric deficit by exercise to get leaner than you are now

There is a saying that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. It’s true. So, don’t skip this step.

Most people just wonder around and go through life without any goal, plan or structure, no wonder they never get anywhere.

Once you succeed with those basic goals and build a better looking body, you will be able to use this same approach and succeed in almost any other are of your life.

Why?

Because you will have a blueprint for yourself that works for you.

3. Dedication Is Necessary for Success

Every guy wants to get in shape, but most guys go to the gym to lift or sort of work out. Not really willing to put the effort into it, and that’s how they treat everything in their life.

Guys that get results, go to the gym to do some serious strength training and they put 100% into everything they do in life.

End of story.

Decide on whether you really want to achieve something or if you are okay with being like everyone else – just going to the gym to working out on your ego not training your muscles.

It’s your choice.

There are no results without effort first.

And outstanding results will take 100% of your effort.

If you think that you can go to the gym two times a week, chat with the staff for half an hour and then do a few sets on the bench and some curls and look like a fitness model, then please don’t even bother going to that gym, you are just taking up space and equipment that guys who are really serious about this need.

ALWAYS put 100% into everything you do including especially workouts and you will get the above average results you strive for.

4. Consistency Means Progress

You have to put effort into your action, but you also have to repeat it over and over again.

Going to the gym once and giving it all you can is great, but not enough.

You have to go to the gym regularly AND always give it your all, only then you will move ahead.

Most people expect to diet and train for 12 weeks and get it over with. Well you certainly can make a big transformation in three months, but you will still have to watch your diet and train afterwards even though it will not require as much effort to stay in shape as it did to get there.

If fitness is not a part of your lifestyle then you don’t have to bother, because it’s really about consistent effort, not one time burst of it.

If you want to get (good) results, either more fit body or anything else, you have to repeatedly put effort into your actions, period.

5. Focus Means Quicker Results

To get solid results and build a killer physique you need to learn how to focus on one thing at a time. Today’s society promotes multitasking and doing several tasks at once, well if you ever study successful people you will notice that they will set various goals and divide them into weekly and daily tasks, but will always focus on one thing at a time, never more.

You achieve your goals when you fully direct your attention in one way. Splitting your attention and trying to focus on too many things at once will get you stuck and frustrated.

What you focus on expands, remember that.

If you can learn how to focus on the movement of the lift, contract the muscle fully during that movement and feel it working, and do this for an hour and then get out of the gym, you will build a great physique.

6. Taking Action Is Key to Getting in Shape

Most people love to talk, but no one likes to do stuff.

Well, you can read anything you want, you can be dedicated, you can have every skill necessary to succeed, but if you don’t do anything with it, what’s the point?

Well, people that get results are always people that do and try the most of the approaches.

You have to go out there and do it.

You have to get the workout plan and follow it for 12 weeks or 20 as it’s written to get the promised results. Thinking about whether it will work for you or not, will not get you anywhere, yet that’s exactly what most people do.

Want to build a great physique and get in shape?

You have to take action!

7. If You Don’t Belief in Yourself, Then Don’t Even Bother Trying

This one speaks for itself. If you think you can’t do something, then you are right, you can’t and nothing you do will change that.

Just like the previous six skills, believing in yourself is a skill too and anyone can learn it.

Learn to believe in yourself, in what you do and never give up.

You can achieve what you want and you will achieve it if you apply what you have just learnt and put your mind into it and take action today.

Summary:

1. Patience is one of the biggest challenges you will face, but also a necessary skill to get in shape
2. Without planning you get nowhere – Set goals and create a plan on getting there
3. Dedication is necessary for success – You really have to want to achieve your goal and then give it 100% of your effort
4. Consistency means progress – You need to work on yourself regularly and often to move ahead
5. Focus means quicker results – Concentrate on one thing at a time
6. Taking action is key – Most people just read about fitness, talk about with their friends and make up excuses why certain programs wouldn’t work for them, be the different, be the guy that tries the programs and gets results
7. If you don’t belief in yourself, then don’t even bother trying – You need to have a strong belief system to get through the inner and outer challenges you will face

Now it’s your turn. Are you stuck with your physique goals? What is your current fitness goal and do you have a plan to get there? Let us know, the Muscle Pyramid community wants to hear from you.