Good morning! Hope everyone had a safe and fun Labor Day Weekend. Whether you labored (read: partied) hard or took the time to chillax, I hope you got some movement in!

Thanks to the holiday weekend, we’re keeping it a little shorter this week. Let’s dive in. 🩲 

(If this email was forwarded to you and you'd like to receive this weekly newsletter, sign up below!)

⏳ Don’t wait ‘til January!

We’re two-thirds of the way through 2024. There are two ways to look at dealing with your health and fitness goals for the rest of the year:

1. Ehh, I’ll wait till January. We’re already close enough to the holiday season at this point that it’s pointless to start now. Plus it’s about to be a busy time of year. Let me just coast through the next few months and start strong and fresh in the new year.

2. Let’s go! Four months (17 weeks) is a perfect amount of time to set a fitness goal and achieve it. I can do so much over these next four months that will put me in great health by the holidays and the turn of the new year. I’m feeling energized and excited about all I’m about to accomplish!

Do you see how different those two mentalities are? I’m not necessarily saying one is bad and one is good; we all have our own priorities. But I hope you see the merit in adopting the latter mindset.

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times: consistency is key. The single most important part of long-term health and fitness is not taking long, month- to multi-month periods off of doing anything. If you can maintain any baseline level of consistency—even once a week—that’s going to serve you infinitely better in the long run than going months without being active. 

Fit for life

Most of us here at Move to Improve are in it for decades to come. We care about more than just what’s right in front of us. We want to age well. That means showing up every week—even if it’s just a little bit—to do something. This is basically the biggest “marathon, not a sprint” analogy possible: a lifetime of fitness.

We talked last week about periodization and how a 2- to 4-month period is pretty ideal for setting a goal, getting consistent with something, and progressively overloading it to make progress and achieve new outcomes. 

The amount of progress you can make with targeted effort in four months is actually pretty incredible. You’ve got over 100 days. Think about all you did (or could have) accomplish(ed) from January through April and from May through now. A lot has happened! Or imagine where you could have been if you decided in early May to dedicate yourself to reaching a goal by September. 

You get the point. Here are some ideas of goals you can attain by the end of this year if you put your mind and body to work toward them over the next four months:

• Couch to 5k

• Run a half marathon (if you can already run a little bit)

• Add 1–5 pounds of muscle, depending on your current build and experience

• Trim 2–8% off your body fat percentage

• Shave 5-15% off your mile time

• Increase a weightlifting one-rep max by 5–10% 

• Add a few reps to your max pull-ups, push-ups, etc.

• Log 12 weeks where you hit cardio 3x per week and lift 2x per week

There are numerous other goals you could set for this time period, but hopefully these give you some ideas and inspiration. 

Your resolutions haven’t forgotten you!

Four months to go. Plenty of time to set new goals, refine your habits, and lock in till the holidays are upon us.

Don’t waste these next ~120 days. Even if you haven’t been doing much lately, you don’t want to hit the new year in worse shape than you are now.

You can use the ‘ber months to build a strong foundation and find yourself feeling spry, motivated, and encouraged when we ring in 2025.

✅ Take Action

Every newsletter's Take Action section will invite you to take small steps to improve your health. Recognizing that we all have different capabilities, I'll offer three different levels of action you can choose to take.

Level 1: Just don’t wait until January to do anything active. The worst thing you can do is nothing. The best thing you can do is anything. Once a week!

Level 2: Take a look at the past eight months. How have they gone in the health and fitness realm? Set or refine a goal for the end of 2024 and make a plan to achieve it.

Level 3: Challenge yourself to achieve a personal best or try something totally new these next four months. If you need help finding a plan or inspiration, reply to this email and let me see if I can help you out!

This newsletter is brought to you by… me!

Interested in becoming a sponsor? Know someone else who might be? I’d love to get to know you and/or your business and see how we can partner together. Reply to this email!

✍️ Drew's Picks:

• Feast: The most important meal of the day can set you up to thrive or crash. Take Dr. Hyman’s advice on how to create an amazing breakfast.

• The title speaks for itself: “Exercise may be the single most potent medical intervention ever known.” I love when mainstream podcasts (in this case, Plain English by Derek Thompson) pick up on what we in the exercise community have been putting down!

Have a great rest of your week! Realizing I haven’t used the term “hump day” in probably years, so enjoy your hump day! 🐫 

Keep moving,

Drew

The content in Move to Improve is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. It is always a good idea to consult with a trusted health professional before making any major lifestyle changes that could have a significant impact on your health. This is not a medical resource, and any opinions and articles are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional. Please think critically and take what I say with a grain of salt (aka don’t sue me).