Consistency is the single most important factor in any physical transformation, and on this Physical Friday I share the five simple rules I’ve used to stay consistent for more than thirty years. Consistency beats intensity and everything else, because the people who reach a fitness goal are the ones who keep showing up long after motivation fades. In this episode I walk through exactly how I eliminate the roadblocks that derail most New Year’s resolutions before February.
Listen now: press play in the player above and follow along.
Consistency is the most important factor in any physical transformation or behavior change, and in my experience it trumps everything else, including intensity. It is one thing to get started and another thing entirely to keep going. Most people lose momentum and progress because they cannot sustain the habit, not because they picked the wrong program. Over thirty years my fitness interests have changed many times, but consistency has stayed constant, and that is what has produced results.
My number one rule is to never miss two days in a row. If life throws you a curveball and you miss a workout, that is fine, do not be too hard on yourself. Two missed days in a row, though, is where the backsliding starts, and it becomes easy to miss three, four, or seven. The next thing you know it is February and you are wondering what happened to all that January motivation. Protect against that by never letting it slip two days back to back.
I never guess at what I am going to do tomorrow. Either I have a program, a plan, or something I am following, but I always know exactly what the workout is. If I am running, I know I am running four miles at a particular pace. I also know where I am going to do it, especially when traveling, so I scout the route or the hotel fitness center the night before. Knowing the what and the where removes two big roadblocks before they ever appear.
My go-to quick alternative is 100 burpees. I can knock those out in just a few minutes in a hotel room, a parking lot, or anywhere else, with no equipment. When life gets in the way and I only have ten minutes, that workout keeps me on track for the day and protects my streak. Having a fast, do-anywhere fallback means there is almost never a legitimate reason to miss entirely, which is the whole point of staying consistent.
If you are planning a real change in behavior or a physical goal, it pays to start early rather than waiting for January 1. Building the habit ahead of time means you carry momentum into the new year instead of starting cold with everyone else. Big physical goals like running a marathon or losing fifty pounds are built on small, repeated actions, and the earlier you begin stacking those, the stronger your foundation when the calendar turns over.
Yes. In my opinion consistency trumps intensity every time. A hard workout you only do occasionally cannot compete with a moderate workout you do reliably for years. The compounding effect of showing up day after day is what changes your body and your habits. Intensity has its place, but if you have to choose, choose the program you can actually stick to, because the work you keep doing is the work that pays off.
I have been remarkably consistent for thirty years, through biking, swimming, marathons, CrossFit, and everything in between, and people often ask how I do it. I am no expert, but these five rules are the exact things that have worked for me, and they came together as I was thinking about New Year’s resolutions and how most of them fall apart by February. I break down each one in the episode, so press play in the player above.
Here is the five-rule system I walk through in this Physical Friday. I cover the stories and details behind each one in the episode.
I unpack each of these in the episode. Press play in the player above.
People obsess over the perfect program or the hardest workout, but the real differentiator is whether you keep showing up. Over thirty years my interests changed completely, yet the constant has always been consistency, and that is what produced the results. The work you do occasionally cannot compete with the work you do reliably. I explain how I think about this trade-off in the episode, so press play in the player above.
If I had to give you one rule, it would be never miss two days in a row. That single guardrail has kept me on track through every travel schedule and life change for three decades. Miss one and you reset; miss two and the slide begins. It is simple, but the impact is profound, and most failed resolutions trace back to that second missed day. I dig into why it works in the episode, so press play in the player above.
This Physical Friday came at the perfect time as we lead up to the new year. The five rules are not complicated, but they remove the mental friction that stops most people before they ever start. When you know what you’re doing, where you’re doing it, and your gear is ready, there’s no decision left to make. You just execute.
If you take nothing else from this one, remember to never miss two days in a row. That rule has saved me more times than I can count, and it’s the difference between a motivation burst and a lasting change. Press play in the player above.
Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen — the training, nutrition, and mindset to stay in the game for life. Watch and listen to every Physical Friday episode from Tom Rowland.
Tom Rowland · consistency · New Year’s resolutions · burpees · marathons · CrossFit · Physical Friday · Saltwater Experience
I’m Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series where I share the training, nutrition, and mindset that keep fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen strong and in the game for life. I’ve trained consistently for more than thirty years across biking, swimming, marathons, and CrossFit, and I bring those lessons to every episode.
Tom Rowland Podcast — Episode 833: Staying Consistent is the KEY to Success (Physical Friday)
In this episode: why consistency trumps intensity in any physical transformation, the five rules that have kept me consistent for thirty years, laying out your gear the night before, keeping a quick 100-burpee backup, and the one rule of never missing two days in a row.
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Tom Rowland: What's going on everybody? It is Physical Friday, and we have been leading up to the new year. Some of you might think that it's a little bit early to lead up to the new year, but if you are actually planning on making a change in your behavior, you have some sort of a goal that is a physical goal, man, it sure does pay to start early. And that's what we talked about in the last couple of weeks, is how you can set your New Year's resolution and stick to it.
Tom Rowland: But there is one thing that is the most important in any physical transformation, in any kind of behavior change, and that is consistency. It's one thing to get started. It's another thing to keep going. And consistency is king. In fact, in my opinion, it trumps everything else. It trumps intensity. It trumps everything else. If you can't start something and keep going, then you lose momentum. You lose progress, and most people do that with New Year's resolutions. So if you have any sort of a physical goal, you wanna run a marathon, you wanna lose 50 pounds, you want to, I don't know. Whatever it is. Whatever your goal is, it doesn't really matter. The one thing that's constant with all of these things is consistency.
Tom Rowland: Now over the last thirty years, my interests in fitness have changed from biking to swimming to running marathons to CrossFit to so many other things, but the one thing that has remained the same over the last thirty years is consistency. I've been remarkably consistent, and I figured out how to do that for myself. No expert, but these are the things that have worked for me.
Tom Rowland: Number five is to never guess at what you're going to do tomorrow. Either have a plan, have a program, have something that you're following, or set it up for yourself, but know what you're going to do. For example, if you're gonna run, know that you're gonna run four miles tomorrow at this particular pace. Okay? Great. That's all you need to know. Because when you wake up in the morning and you're getting ready to go and do your workout, it's really easy to just say, you know what? I don't even know what I'm gonna do today. But if you know that the night before, you're good to go. That's one roadblock eliminated.
Tom Rowland: Number four is to know where you're going to do it. So in the case of the run, what course are you gonna run? You don't wanna say, I'm gonna run four miles. Oh, man. I don't even know where I'm gonna go. So if you're at home and you're on your program and you're working out at your gym, this is easy. But if you're traveling, you can pull into a hotel, and you say, okay, well, I'm gonna do a deck of cards tomorrow, or I'm gonna run four miles. I need to know where I'm gonna do it. Ask them if it's a safe place to run. If it's not particularly a safe place to run, then let's go check out the fitness center. Go at least take a look. Know what floor it's on, know where it is, know how many treadmills they have, know whether they have weights, whatever, so that you know now what you're gonna do and where you're gonna do it.
Tom Rowland: Number three is, if you're a morning person and you're gonna do this workout in the morning, go ahead and lay out everything that you need the night before. Your shoes, your socks, your shorts, your t-shirt, everything. Everything. Eliminate another roadblock. Like, I don't even know where my workout clothes are. No. You know where they are. They're sitting on the floor or they're wherever you set them out. And if you're an afternoon person, go ahead and pack your gym bag the night before. Everything that you need so that you just pick that gym bag up and you're good to go.
Tom Rowland: Number two is to set the priority, that you have set the goal, that this is something that you wanna do. You're gonna make sure that you're gonna take the steps necessary to get there, and that is doing a workout every single day or five days a week or three days a week or whatever you set your schedule. But on that particular day, you will not lay your head down on the pillow until you have gotten in what you're supposed to do. Now lots of times, life gets in the way. Of course, understand. You've got kids events. You've got things that you wanna do. You've got things that get in the way, important meetings. Understood. It's really good to have some really quick alternatives. For me, it's a hundred burpees. I could do a hundred burpees in just a few minutes, and that is something I could do in a hotel room. I can do it anywhere, in the parking lot. So I know that if the worst case scenario happens and I only have ten minutes, I'm gonna be able to get in some sort of workout that is going to at least get me through that particular day and stay on track with my goals.
Tom Rowland: Now, number one, if life does get in the way and for whatever reason the priority that you have set, it doesn't happen. You don't make it. You don't do the workout. The number one thing that you can do for consistency is to never miss two days in a row. So if life does throw you a curveball and you're not able to get your workout in, that's fine. Don't be too hard on yourself, but do not miss two days in a row. That's where all of a sudden the backsliding happens. That's where it's really easy to miss three or four or seven. The next thing you know, you're like everybody else that set a New Year's resolution in January. And come February, you're like, man, whatever happened to that? I was so motivated. I was so ready to go. Never miss two days in a row.
Tom Rowland: Alright. That's Physical Friday. I hope those help you to get on with your New Year's resolution, your new goals. Alright. See you.
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