In this simple guide we discuss the health and fitness progress post - a micro-blog on recent health and fitness activity and your current stats. We explain why you should share your health and fitness successes and give best practice on how best to write your own posts on Fitstream.
Why You Should Share Your Progress
Sharing your personal story not only helps others but yourself too. It was ZigZiglar who said "You can have everything you want if you will just help other people get what they want.” Here are some of the other reasons why we think it's a good idea to share your progress stories;
Progress posts will...
- Inspire and motivate others to take action and improve their health
- Educate people on what's possible and how to achieve it
- Help create a community of like minded and supportive people
- Create a personal sense of pride and accomplishment, making you step back and take note of just how far you've come
- Create an opportunity for positive feedback, reinforcement and advice from others
- Increase your chances of success (Sharing goals publicly has been shown to improve success rate (1))
How to Share Progress
Whether you're writing progress posts on Facebook, Fitstream or the Fridge Door, we've compiled these best practice guidelines to make them more effective and useful.
Step One - Start with the Basics
Where possible, try to include;
- Motivation / goals (e.g. weight loss, muscle gain, increase squat to 2x bodyweight)
- Age
- Sex
- Height
- Start weight (assuming weight change was a significant part of your progress story)
- Ending Weight
- Body Fat % (see our guide on how to measure body fat)
Now that you've set the scene with body metrics, it's time to explain how you achieved it. This should be broken down by training and diet. The more detail you include the better.
Step Two - Outline Your Training
- Information about any program followed
- What was your routine
- Your starting position
- If weight training include amount of weight and reps
- If bodyweight training include starting movements / level
- If cardio include frequency and intensity
- Your finishing position (e.g. Barbell Squat increased from 170lbs to 220lbs, Progressed from 10 push-ups to 5 handstand push-ups)
Step Three - Describe Your Diet
- General overview of any particular diet followed
- Daily protein, fat and carbohydrate intake
- Daily caloric intake
- Any supplements taken
- General approach or miscellaneous points (e.g. increased calories on training days by 15%)
Now, the internet is home to a very cynical bunch so let's see some proof...
Step Four - Show Progress Pics
- Before pictures
- After pictures
Consistency is key for body photos, read our guide on how to take effective body progress pics.
Step Five - The Wrap-up
Now it's time to summarize your progress post and finish things off with...
- Anything learned from the process
- Things that you would do differently if you could do it all over again
- Your new goals or direction
- Any questions for the community? (e.g. where is good to go from here? Can anyone recommend a good beginners muscle building program?)
Start Publishing!
At Fitstream we've built the ultimate Fitness journal platform. You can download our free app and track your progress pics, write journal entries or notes, and record those body measurements to see how you're changing over time.
Check out the Live Stream to see the progress posts that our community are logging today!
References
- M. Deutsch and H. B. Gerard (1955). ‘A Study of Normative and Information Social Influences Upon Individual Judgement’. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 51, pages 629-36.
