The theme for this article chose itself. For the last week, every single day — a client, a new assessment, a friend — mentioned some kind of event or stretch of time that threw them off kilter with their workout schedule. They stopped getting their exercise in.
I’ve watched this DISRUPTION EFFECT completely change the trajectory of someone’s health and fitness. Somehow the disruption becomes all-encompassing — it throws off your habits, your systems, your consistency, not just in the gym but across your whole lifestyle. It’s often sparked by a big life event: a death in the family, a personal health battle, a home disaster… the list goes on for days.
I’m guessing we’ve all lived through periods like this. The question is, how did you handle it? What spark got you back on track? How do we navigate getting back in the groove?
How do we notice we’re in a disrupted state?
The signs are usually obvious, but what I want to raise awareness to right now is what your little voice is saying when you’re under stress. That’s really what we’re talking about — stress is the result of disruption, and under stress we start saying some pretty rough things to ourselves.
The voice might start with “You don’t have time to work out today” or “You don’t have the energy for this.”
We start handing over our feel-good time to the stress and the demands the disruption creates. At least, we think it demands everything from us — and sometimes it does. But that’s usually only for a short period.
Disruption robs us of our chi — the life force that supports our energy, our organs, our overall health. This is why we need to stay aware of when our feel-good habit systems are weakening.
When you’re missing workouts, when you feel like you’ve stopped moving altogether, when meals get skipped, bedtime becomes random, you’re not making time for friends, or you just feel run down — the disruption is winning.
You can turn it around!
It starts with a thought. Maybe it sounds like: “Screw this! Time to dedicate time for myself. I want to FEEL GOOD.”
A MINDSET shift is what’s needed — the mindset that the more energy you have, the better you’ll be able to show up for yourself, your family, and your friends. Everyone wins when we take better care of ourselves. Breaking the disruption starts with one thought, then another, then another, with a little emotion behind it to power it forward.
At NIMBLE FITNESS, our one-on-one strength and conditioning studio in Union Square, we coach clients to start with one simple habit shift back into their healthier way of being. We don’t ask people to fix everything at once — we ask for one rep, one session, one small win that proves the disruption doesn’t get the final word.
That’s the whole game: not perfection, just the next honest step back toward yourself.
If you’re in a disrupted season right now, pick one thing — one workout, one walk, one full night’s sleep — and let that be the spark. The rest tends to follow.
If you’re not sure where that first step should be, that’s exactly what an assessment is for. Come see us — let’s figure out your one thing together.
