Punching The Clock For Fitness.

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Your phone alarm sounds.

You peek over to the dimly lit LED screen – 6:15AM.

You groan, roll out of bed, rub the sleep out of your eyes, slip on your slides, and trod over toward the bathroom to get your usual daily work-week routine started.

Reluctantly, you glance up into the mirror. You’re still holding on to a bit of muscle definition from the few months ago you were consistent in the gym. Years have come and gone since your days as an athlete in high-school and training nearly every day.

Nowadays? You’re lucky enough just to be able to make it to the gym once or twice during the week for a half-hearted weight training or cardio session.

As of lately, your routine looks more like THIS…

➢ Commuting to work in your car each morning (sitting, not moving)

➢ Working at the office all day from your desk (sitting, not moving)

➢ Coming home physically exhausted just wanting to relax (sitting, not moving)

The majority (nearly all) of the guys that make up my online coaching roster are guys that punch the clock each day. Guys who work hard in their careers and business life and have ambition and drive to excel in whatever it is that they do.

But, the 9-to-5 lifestyle isn’t exactly set up to keep you in top physical shape.

There are a number of things I’ve found to be effective strategies for guys on the grind. Below, I want to lay out THREE examples of what works with this type of individual.

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#1. Training first f*cking thing in the morning

Why do I recommend hitting the gym before the work day begins? Simple.

• It leaves less room for distractions or deterrents to completing your workouts
• The post-workout euphoria has a lasting effect on your productivity for the day
• You’re doing the hardest thing first, something I refer to as eating the frog

Eating the frog is an idea that means making the hardest task on your to-do list for the day the first thing (for most people who aren’t sadistic bodybuilders, that’s exercise). Getting the hard part out of the way first makes everything afterwards a cake-walk.

#2. Making meal prep the standard for office lunches

Staying away from the office vending machine or the cafeteria pizza and hamburger line is going to be beneficial to keep you on the high-ground in relation to your goals.

Eff this one up and no matter how consistently you train, your results won’t show it.

That’s because when it comes to exercise vs. nutrition for seeing distinct changes in your overall body composition… there is no contest. What you put into your body will be the largest contributor to how it physically manifests in your physique.

A basic meal prep (5 days of lunches for the week), along with several snack options such as ziploc bags of pre-cut vegetables and low-fat dressing or a protein bar can be clutch in ensuring that the work environment doesn’t counter-act your gym efforts.

#3. Stay moving throughout the day (5K steps minimum)

If you aren’t tracking your step-count already, start today.

You can hit all of your scheduled workouts and be consistent with your training, but it’s still not enough if you are sedentary throughout the day (to me sub <5,000 steps daily).

I use 5,000 daily steps as a barometer, but this number can be modified depending on what you currently average. Research shows that, essentially, more movement is better.

In managing your daily step-count, you will set a foundation of your metabolic rate to help you consistently stay at a level of daily energy/calorie expenditure to promote either: maintenance of your current bodyweight or a loss of bodyweight, i.e. fat loss.

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The bottom line is that although the average guy is putting the work in at the front-lines in the office, often times they are deeply neglecting the back-end work that goes into their other important job… putting the work in on themselves.

Because, let’s not get it mistaken, maintaining your fitness also is your job.

I have a lot of respect for all people who commit to showing up daily to advance within their chosen career-path. It takes a lot of discipline to be on time every day and be dedicating hours to projects and tasks to move their company or business forward.

I can see the parallels with the people that do this and know for a fact they can take that same level of dedication in showing up for the job of managing their fitness.

Punch in for work – but also, don’t forget to punch in for yourself.