Inquisitive.me

Most people don’t stop training because it’s too hard.

They stop because it stays too easy for too long.

Most of my work revolves around helping people start training.

Getting them moving at all. Building the habit. Making exercise part of their week instead of a once-in-a-while idea.

Some people do really well there. They show up. They’re consistent. They’ve mastered step one: habit formation.

But many never make the jump to the next phase of fitness: ease up training frequency or at least aren’t able to stick with it long term.

I’ve said this many times on my blog already: when you’re starting out, make it as easy as possible. One session a week. Make it enjoyable. Reward your brain. Don’t make it hard. The goal is simple—make your brain want to come back.

And that works.

Even training once a week will lead to progress. For a while.

But at some point, it flatlines.

Your brain gets bored because it’s too easy for too long. Your brain has no reason to make you continue because bored brains don’t stick to routines; they need a challenge.

And it’s not just your brain. It’s your muscles, too.

That’s where step two comes in: training frequency.

But many people never get to step two because they stay stuck on step one. As I said, your brain needs a reason to continue. Just increasing the frequency doesn’t do the trick. A goal does.

I can usually tell quite early whether I’ll see someone again in my practice a year from now. If a person can’t train without me, chances are high I’ll meet them again—back in my treatment room instead of the gym.

Ten weeks of therapy is a good start. You spend 45 minutes with me once a week. But let’s be honest: I’m not a wizard. I can’t undo 20 years of back pain in a few sessions. What I can do is help you build the habit. That’s what does the magic—not my competence, although some of us like to think that.

The real problem is that many people never develop a long-term goal that actually works. Being pain-free sounds good—but it’s a terrible goal. You don’t even have to be pain-free. If the pain is just a bit better than before you first walked into my practice, many people already call it a win.

And then they stop.

That’s how you get stuck forever at step one. Some move forward to step two, increasing training frequency to three sessions a week.

I recently had a patient who illustrates this perfectly. She started training a year ago—very motivated, very ambitious. Three sessions a week. She nailed consistency. Step one and step two checked.

But now she’s frustrated.

Why? Because she feels like she’s not making progress.

From my perspective, she achieved something most people never do: she trained three times a week for an entire year. That is progress. Huge progress.

But she expected to be much stronger by now.

She managed step one: habit formation. She also handled step two: regular training with moderate intensity. She came further than most. But she got stuck at step three: training hard.

Not because she couldn’t.

But because she was afraid.

Fear is the second most common thing I deal with as a physiotherapist. People are afraid to challenge their bodies—especially older people, and especially older women.

I understand where this fear comes from. Doctors have limited time. They see patients for five minutes. If they tell someone “You’ll be fine, just do what feels good” and that person gets hurt, they’ll be blamed for it. So they play it safe.

They tell people to avoid certain movements, to never do certain exercises. Better safe than sorry.

Even when it doesn’t really make sense.

One of my patients was told to avoid walking downhill. Uphill was fine. Downhill wasn’t. Try to spot the logic there.

Coaches aren’t much better off. They’re usually not trained in pain management or complex medical histories—and in Austria, they’re not healthcare professionals. They don’t want the responsibility either.

So instead of referring people to us, fear gets passed on.

That’s where I have a problem.

My patient didn’t increase her training load—not because she couldn’t, but because both her doctor and her coach told her not to lift heavy. And when I asked her why she believed that, the answer was simple:

Because they told her so.

I’ve done Romanian deadlifts with a 12-kg barbell with a 79-year-old woman who had shoulder problems. Nothing bad happened. What did happen was that she felt proud—and more confident in her body than she had in years.

I’ve done goblet squats with a 10-kg kettlebell with another 79-year-old woman who had hip problems. I planned to test 8 kg. She insisted on trying 10. Who was I, to stop her?

Did we do that on the first session? Of course not.

Did we build it up slowly, with control and intention? Absolutely.

That’s the difference.

Training hard without thinking can be dangerous. But progressively increasing load, with good technique and enough time to adapt, is not.

And that’s exactly what I’ll do with the patient who feels stuck and afraid. We’ll look at what she can already do—and where she’s holding back out of fear. Then we’ll build from there.

Training is hard—but being weak is harder.

I don’t remember where I first read that quote, but it fits perfectly.

The human body is incredibly good at adapting. It can tolerate load. It needs load to change. Stress is not the enemy—unprepared stress is.

So if you’ve built the habit, you train multiple times a week, and progress has stalled, there’s a good chance the problem isn’t consistency.

It’s that you’re not training hard enough anymore.

🧪 Let’s Experiment

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Progress stalls not because you don’t show up—it stalls because you’re not challenging yourself enough.

Showing up is only half the battle. The other half? Convincing your body—and your brain—that it’s ready for more. That’s where progress hides, and that’s where your next wins are waiting.

🎯 Try This:

Let’s call it “The Habit-to-Hard Framework”:

1. Step one: Habit formation – This is the foundation. Without showing up consistently, nothing else matters. Keep your first sessions simple: one session a week is enough to start. Celebrate consistency, not intensity. The goal is to make your brain want to come back.
2. Step two: Training frequency – Once your habit is solid, increase your sessions. To keep your brain engaged and your muscles growing, schedule two to three sessions per week like appointments you can’t skip. Consistency builds the platform for real progress.
3. Step three: Training intensity – Now it’s time to push yourself. Gradually increase the challenge—add weight, reps, or more complex exercises, but always in controlled steps. Push beyond comfort without risking injury. Small, consistent increases over time are what really move the needle.

🧠 Final Thought:

Step one gets you started. Step two keeps you going. Step three makes you stronger. Master the Habit-to-Hard Framework, trust the process, and your brain and body will do the rest.

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Keep it simple, stay curious, and keep learning—you’ve got this.

Take care,

Carina 🦊