Everybody is always raring to go come the beginning of Day 1 of any workout routine. All that anticipation, all that desire for challenge, for hardship, for extreme results. Yet four weeks later everybody has invariably quit their routine, quit their goals and stated objectives and are back on the couch, listless and bitter. What happened? Why is it that the third week of any workout is so incredibly tough? Let’s take a look and see how you can ensure that a similar fate doesn’t happen to you.
The problem lies with expectations. When people sign up for a workout, they are often expecting to dominate forever, but their goals are actually quite short term. The very intensity of their commitment is akin to a flash fire–very fierce, very hot, but also very temporary. They want to do the most extreme workout like Insanity or Turbo Fire because they want the most immediate results. Thus they kill themselves for two weeks, and when they hit week 3 they look in the mirror, fail to see the radical changes that need 3 months to happen, and quit.
A second problem lies with the lack of novelty. Often the greatest stimulus from getting off the couch and to start working out is the novelty of the change. It’s fresh, it’s fun, it’s something to look forward to. At least for the first few weeks. But once you begin to workout frequently, once you hit week 3, you will no doubt begin to repeat certain workouts. It will go from being a novelty to being a chore. It will feel like work. And since nobody likes to do work that they can avoid, most people quit.
Finally, week 3 is when you are liable to feel your worst. You will now have two week’s worth of aches and pains, will no doubt have failed to sleep as much as you should have and not eaten the right amount of calories either. So not only will you not have realized your gains, not only will the novelty be gone, but you will also be feeling lethargic, exhausted and in pain.
Is it any wonder people quit during week 3? Check in soon for our next post where we tell you how to avoid these troubles!
Thanks for the heads up! My fiance and I are about to head into our second week and although hurting 🙂 we still want to do this. What you say about the third week makes sense, so now we have a warning and will keep this in mind. Thanks!
I just had someone say this same thing to me today about every workout program she’s ever tried. It would be nice to know your ideas on how to motivate people into the 4th week and beyond! Im going to have to think about this myself!
You’re so right about lack of novelty
Week three is what separates people with true heart from the weak, humanity is divided into two types, predator & prey, I no longer believe it’s even possible to choose between, while sum prey are forced into becoming stronger, self pride is essential to success, some of us take week three just as serious as life or death because it truly is, streth =saftey, a lions going to chase & eat a weaker slower animal every time, humans are foolish to forget were just another type of animal in the great food chain of life
I just did day one of Week two. Its kicking my butt but its a ggod kick. I don’t expect it to get any easier. Im going to just continue to give everything Ive got for the 40 minutes a day that Shaun T puts me through and keep it moving!