Fitness Progress Begins With the Next Step, Not an All-or-Nothing Plan
Sam Sulek argues that people hoping to enter January with a fitness routine should start at their current level rather than wait for a dramatic reset. In a discussion with Chris Williamson, he says small steps—such as going to the gym once when you currently go not at all—are more useful than setting a demanding standard before a habit exists. Sulek also urges people to learn from someone whose starting point resembles their own.
Build from the level you are actually at
With roughly three months left in the year, Sam Sulek’s advice for entering January with momentum is to start now, at your actual baseline. If you currently go to the gym zero days a week, one day is already a change. After you have made that first visit, adding another may feel less daunting.
That runs against the appealing version of getting fit: decide to go all in, train hard every day, and never miss. Sulek’s advice is to ease in. If you are starting from zero, getting a membership or doing ten minutes of cardio counts. Committing to a demanding routine before you have established any habit can make the launch itself a point of failure.
Small steps can feel insignificant beside the standard you hope to reach. Sulek says people can get stuck on not wanting to be “the three day a week gym guy,” while overlooking that they are currently the zero-day-a-week person. His own bar now is to train at full effort consistently and not quit a difficult rep simply because it is hard. A beginner needs a different bar: the next step, not the standard of someone further along.
He remembers being self-conscious while shoulder-pressing 50-pound dumbbells at a YMCA in Florida, about two years into training. Even then, he wondered whether people were looking at him. “You can’t be above the small steps,” he says.
“I could do it” can conceal “I don’t want to”
The obstacle, Sulek argues, is often not a lack of ambition but a refusal to begin unless success seems guaranteed. People tell themselves they could get shredded if they dieted, or become a bodybuilder if they really wanted to. But if they are doing none of the work now, the claim that they could do it remains hypothetical.
Chris Williamson names what the hypothetical leaves out: skill, consistency, ability, hard work, and time. Sulek adds that it can feel easier to describe the goal as a preference—“I just don’t want to”—than to admit that the work is intimidating or that you do not want it enough to pursue it.
Williamson puts the evasion bluntly: “I could do it if” often means “I don’t do it.” Sulek agrees: “Every I could do it if is more of a I don’t want to do it because.” The point is not that everyone must pursue every goal. It is that imagining yourself capable while taking no steps toward a goal can keep that belief from being tested.
Find a model whose starting point resembles yours
When Williamson asks what to say to someone caught in a downward spiral, Sulek points to watching people who have already done what you want to do. Seeing a hard workout can make the next workout more exciting. Before doing squats, for instance, he might watch a Tom Platz leg-training edit and find himself more eager to train.
For a larger change, Sulek recommends looking for someone whose starting point resembles your own and who has documented the process. He uses substantial weight loss as an example: he can offer general advice about cardio and diet, but he has not lived that exact transformation. Someone who has may be able to speak to its particulars.
This is totally doable. This is also another guy. I’m a guy and he’s just some dude.
A vintage clip of Platz training intensely on a leg machine at Gold’s Gym makes the effort look extreme. Williamson and Sulek note that a passerby unfamiliar with gym culture might think the men are “totally nuts,” while someone who understands the setting might recognize a good set. For Sulek, watching someone do the thing he is about to attempt makes the effort concrete—and can make it motivating.