Why “Doing Less” Might Be the Smartest Thing You Do for Your Fitness This Year

In fitness, more is often sold as better.
More sessions. More intensity. More sweat. More exhaustion.

But in reality, doing less, done well, is often what leads to the best long-term results.

At Real Good Fitness, we see this play out year after year.

The Problem With Doing Too Much

Most people don’t struggle because they’re not trying hard enough. They struggle because they’re trying to do everything at once.

That usually looks like:

  • Jumping from zero to five sessions a week

  • Training hard without time to recover

  • Chasing fatigue instead of progress

It works briefly. Then energy drops, aches creep in, motivation fades, and consistency disappears.

Not because you’re weak. Because the plan wasn’t realistic.

What “Doing Less” Actually Means

Doing less doesn’t mean doing nothing.
It means being more selective with where your effort goes.

At RGF, that often looks like:

  • Fewer sessions, but higher quality coaching and focus

  • Prioritising technique before adding load or speed

  • Leaving sessions feeling challenged, not wrecked

The goal isn’t to survive the session. It’s to be able to come back next week and build on it.

Why Less Often Leads to More Progress

When you strip things back, a few important things happen.

You recover better
Recovery is where progress actually happens. If you’re constantly exhausted, your body never gets the chance to adapt.

You move better
Slowing things down and focusing on technique builds confidence and efficiency. That’s what allows strength and performance to increase safely.

You stay consistent
Two or three sessions a week that you can maintain for months will always beat short bursts of high effort followed by long gaps.

Real World Examples

Doing less might look like:

  • Training twice a week consistently instead of pushing for five and burning out

  • Reducing load to improve form, then building back up steadily

  • Swapping a hard session for a lighter one when life stress is high

None of that is flashy. All of it works.

The RGF Approach

We program in structured blocks that build over time. We track progress through performance and confidence, not just how tired you feel. And we coach sessions so they’re scalable, meaning you can adjust without stopping altogether.

That’s how people make progress year after year, not just in January.

Final Thought

If this year you did slightly less, but did it consistently, with good coaching and intention, you’d probably get better results than you ever have before.

Less chaos. More clarity. Better outcomes.

Previous
Previous

You Don’t Need More Motivation, You Need Better Systems

Next
Next

How to Build a New Year’s Resolution That Actually Sticks (The RGF way)