Making positive changes to your life is really really difficult. Especially if you’re starting from a point that’s far away from your goal.

You’ve also got to look at all the other factors… environment, time, addressing knowledge gaps. Even then you’ve got to be able to get the job done on the days when it’s the last thing you want to do.

I’ve spent a really good chunk of time now (over 10 years) building a coaching service that helps people make changes that they need. Even then I am learning all the time, tweaking things and trying to meet people where they’re at.

I’ve always had a much softer style and have tried to be compassionate and patient with people. Sure, at times I am willing to have a difficult conversation and give people a nudge when necessary but I’ve found that better results come when people are given the space to make progress at their own pace.

When I help create plans with my clients, there is always an element of flexibility baked into the plan and I tend to use range targets rather than selecting specific targets that are impossible to hit.

I don’t expect my clients to be perfect all the time, I mean who is.

I also don’t think this sets people up for the best results long term either, reinforcing to people that the only way to get results is by being 100% ‘on it’ all the time - this just isn’t true.

I don’t set my clients up to fail, but I try to talk about failure in a positive light. Using these mini challenges as learning opportunities to ultimately find the approach that is going to work for them. I make mistakes all the time, but I am really really good at learning from them.

I’ve heard some quite bizarre stories online of coaches firing clients because they’re not adhering to the plan or just flat out bullying them to try make them change.

I am absolutely against this and this will never be part of my practice.

People need trust and support to make the lifestyle changes they want and I want to be there throughout their journey. Especially during the really difficult times.

If you’re reading this and you would like some help getting stronger, feeling better and you respond well to having someone patient in your corner.

Then please feel free to apply to work with me:- https://tr.ee/id_J8JXEM0

“I’m just not disciplined enough, that’s why I don’t get results”

People hedge their bets on unsustainable approaches.
They go from doing nothing for years to training every day, or they completely cut out whatever food group the latest TikTok influencer has decided to demonise.
Their entire progress depends on becoming a completely different person overnight.

Now, of course, changing any habit requires some discipline, which means going against what’s normal for you.

But here’s the truth: most people are already disciplined. Just not in the way they think.

People already show up to work every day, look after their family and pay their bills on time. This requires discipline in itself.

Fitness culture loves to glorify “discipline.”

“Wake up at 5am.”
“No pain, no gain.”
“The set begins when it starts to hurt.”
“Train every day.”

For most people, that’s complete nonsense. It turns fitness into punishment and makes progress feel unattainable.

There is also no point in being disciplined with actions that aren’t moving you in the direction that you want. That’s where having an experienced coach is so useful and a massive time saver.

So maybe it isn’t more discipline that you actually need, perhaps you need a better plan that makes sense for your actual life.

People struggle to make changes in their lives for multiple reasons. One being, it’s actually bloody difficult.

It’s rarely in my experience because of a lack of discipline, and more often than not because the plan they’re using is built for someone else’s life.

Picture a 45-year-old father of two who also runs an accountancy business, using a plan written for a 20-year-old student with zero responsibilities outside of waking up on time for their lectures.

If that same person had a plan that was built around his work hours, family commitments, stress levels and social life, he would 100% have a much better time of making significant progress.

Hey, he might even end up enjoying the process too.

Nothing breeds motivation and consistency like having clarity around a plan that is really working for you. Also, having a plan that you actually enjoy doing is much easier to be disciplined with.

So is it a lack of discipline that is holding you back from achieving the results you want?

There might be an element of that in there, but before you beat yourself up about falling off plan this time. Think about whether the strategy you’re following is actually something you can realistically do.

I want to give you something to take away and use today.

If you’re someone who is struggling for consistency with their current plan, have a go at this.

1. Audit your week. Where do you actually have time and energy? Build a sensible training routine around those times.

2. Make it easy to win. Shorter sessions done really well are an excellent place to start. Far better than the 90-minute session from your Instagram bodybuilder that you can do once a month.

3. Don’t try to change everything at once. Start with just a couple low hanging fruits that will get you on the right path. See if you can put 30 days together before trying something else.

Discipline isn’t something that you just buy from Amazon. It’s something that grows naturally when you have a plan and strategy that really fits your life.

Start taking some simple actions today, and I can assure you that you will begin to feel more motivated and finally give yourself a chance at those long term benefits you desire.

If you would like some help building a plan that you can actually follow, then click here and send me a DM. You can also email me at joshuapeterspt@gmail.com

I know, as a business owner, how incredibly important it is to talk to your audience and highlight the problems that you help solve.

For as long as I can remember, ‘progress pictures’ or photos of clients in underwear have been used to market coaching services, and this is something that I actively avoid doing.

I do not believe in using my clients’ bodies as a marketing tool; it’s not something that I’ve ever wanted to base my business on.

Health and fitness for me is so much more than just a before and after.

Sure, my clients do make amazing changes to their bodies when they work with me. Their bodies get stronger, fitter, more resilient, more flexible and in some cases, there is a reduction of body fat (if that is part of their goal).

A photo of someone’s body just doesn’t capture all of this. The increase in confidence, the increase in energy… being able to chase after your kids or have a kick about without the worry of not being able to move for a week.

I don’t have anything against PTs and coaches who use before and after pictures; it’s totally up to them, and it’s their business. I know that I am probably missing an opportunity to get more eyes on my work.

I want my clients to have more focus on how they feel, what their body can do and putting their energy into having a fulfilling and fantastic life.

That’s the message I also want to spread to my audience.

So the majority of the content I share on my socials is my clients hitting new personal bests in the gym, celebrating running their first 10k, doing their first chin up or finally feeling proud of themselves.

If you’re someone reading this who is also in love with that message, then don’t forget to give me a follow.

I first started training back in my mid to late teens, mainly because I wanted to ‘look better’ or at least how I thought that should look. But looking back now, I think deep down it was because I was pretty unhappy.

I had just come out of a very important relationship, I lacked confidence, and on the advice of a good friend of mine, I decided that I was going to spend this time reinventing myself.

What I learnt about strength training during this time was that most people think that it’s just about how much weight you can lift at the gym. It’s not, it’s actually about how it lifts every other aspect of your life too.

The Physical Side:- How strength literally makes life easier.

Let’s start with the obvious: being strong makes the physical things in life a lot easier.

Sometimes it can be very easy to notice, like when carrying big shopping bags, heaving your massive suitcase off the belt at Heathrow, or maybe lifting your previous Deadlift PR for 10 reps.

Although it can also sneak up on you in secret, like when you go striding up the escalators at Liverpool Street and everyone else doesn’t even try or thinks you’re absolutely bonkers.

Strength is like insurance… not against bad luck, but against fragility. You bounce back faster, you move with confidence, and you stop living in fear of what your body can’t do.

It doesn’t take 4 weeks for your legs to recover just because you got dragged in last minute to the parents’ race and your kids sports day or your mates decide to hire a pitch at Powerleague for a kick about.

You start saying ‘Yes’ more and get excited about the opportunities ahead. Rather than just worrying about how much you’re going to hurt tomorrow or whether you can actually do it.

That’s just the physical side; the real changes happen when you realise the same principles apply to everything else.

The mental side - What strength training teaches you beyond the physical

Building strength takes consistency, regularly showing up for yourself and putting in the work. It isn’t something that can be bought, hacked or magically appear from a magic tree.

You can’t cheat being strong. It teaches you to be disciplined, patient and is built upon slow - but honest progress. In a world where we expect everything to happen immediately, I feel that there is something beautiful and precious about that.

It teaches you a powerful message about failure and resilience. Not every training session is going to go to plan, and even sometimes you might feel like you’re regressing.

Yet still you have to persist, maybe with a slightly different plan or route.

In the gym, setbacks are part of the process, and the overcoming of them quietly builds resilience that seeps into other areas of your life. Setbacks are no longer signs to quit; they just become another piece of the puzzle.

I remember my own mindset shifting over time, reminding myself not to worry when I hit a bump in the road. It became only a matter of when, not if.

Lifting became a part of who I was. I was someone who was prepared to and even relished the battle of doing hard shit. I do it because it’s part of who I am, not because I feel like it.

Not all of my clients fall in love with training, and that is totally fine. But I have countless examples of where my clients have left unhappy relationships, changed careers or had the confidence to alter things in their lives that were no longer serving them. A lot of these changes happened because of a renewed confidence in themselves created by overcoming hard moments in the gym.

Some things are best learnt through challenging physical hardship. In 2025, how often are we asking questions of ourselves physically? I appreciate that things have changed and systems are in place now to make things ‘easier’. But are we really making things better for ourselves? The majority of people in the UK don’t meet basic physical activity guidelines. Google tells me 64.5% of people in the UK are estimated to be overweight or living with obesity.

It is a nuanced argument, I know. But it does make me wonder whether we’ve perhaps gone too far.

The emotional side - How strength changes how you see yourself

At some point, strength training stops being about the numbers. It’s no longer about how much you can lift or what you look like in the mirror. It becomes a bit deeper than that. It changes how you see yourself.

Like me, most people start training because they want to fix something. They want to lose body fat, tone up, have impressive arms or feel confident when they take their top off during their summer holiday.

However, certainly for me, I remember a time when that focus started to shift. Rather than seeing myself as something that needed to be fixed, I saw myself as something that I wanted to build. My body wasn’t just something that I judged by how it looked; it was something that was going to carry me through life and needed care. Through training, eating well, and sleeping properly, my body handled life better.

Making this shift, though, requires proof. Evidence that you’re someone who continues to show up for yourself, who can handle discomfort and ultimately follow through. I wasn’t just trying to be someone who was strong and valued themselves; I had been that person already for some time, and it was just the norm now.

Training has always been a real anchor for me when everything else is very uncertain and can feel out of control. This is something that a lot of my clients have also acknowledged. I think this is why many long term lifters have referred to training as their ‘therapy’ or safe place.

Strength gives you back ownership of your body, and with it comes a kind of peace. You start training for a stronger body. You end up with a stronger sense of self.

The Payoff - Why life is better when you’re strong

My clients don’t approach me for coaching because they want to lift heavy weights; what they actually want is the opportunities that being strong provides.

Strength gives you the capacity to do things; it gives you options. You can decide to say yes to that hiking holiday that you’ve been wanting to do. Carry your own bags, move your own furniture, and still have enough energy to play with your kids or meet friends later.

You no longer have to second-guess whether you’re physically capable of doing these tasks; you just start looking forward and making plans.

So many people’s lives shrink as they get older, options dwindle. You start to accept that what is happening to you is just the norm, and that this is just what happens when you age.

When you’re strong, and you regularly resistance train and challenge your muscles, bones and joints, life expands a little. All of those activities that you love doing and that help you to feel fulfilled, you can continue to do.

You stop thinking about what your physical limits are and start thinking about how much of your life you’ve still got to live and how you want to spend it.

As mentioned earlier, it’s not just a physical thing. Strength changes your relationship with the challenge itself. You stop avoiding hard stuff in training, work and life. You’ve already proven to yourself that you can handle it. You’re someone who relishes the hard stuff.

Strength gives you the quiet kind of confidence that doesn’t need to be loud.

If you’re someone who has drifted away from training, come back to it. If you’re someone who is thinking about getting started, then get started immediately. It is never too late to make an investment in yourself.

Life is not just about living for a long time, its about getting the most out of the time that you have.

Life is better when you’re strong.

Most of the fitness industry talks about getting lean, getting strong, or getting abs. But almost no one talks about the biggest benefit of training. Staying alive longer, and living better while you’re at it.

Sure, there are huge benefits for building muscle mass, strength and having a healthy level of body fat. The industry has been talking about these forever. I have been prescribing resistance training to my clients for years, and this will always play a major part in the work that I do.

So what does the research actually say about exercise and its impact on how long we live? Let’s have a little chat about it today, and hopefully you’ll take some practical things away too.

Thankfully, there are a lot of studies and analyses about this exact topic, involving a large number of people over a significant amount of time.

If you’re interested in giving a few of them a read yourself. Then here are a couple of links below:-

Resistance Training and Mortality Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov…

Recommended physical activity and all cause and cause specific mortality

bmj.com/content/370/bmj…

Physical activity trajectories and accumulation over adulthood

bjsm.bmj.com/content/ea…

It is clear from the body of evidence that people meeting basic activity (around 150 minutes of brisk walking or 75 minutes of running a week) guidelines have about 20–30% lower all-cause mortality.

Those doing even more see slightly higher benefits, but you do start to see some diminishing returns. Meaning more is better up until a certain point, but a large amount of the benefits come from getting started.

What about strength training?

You don’t need hours of lifting to get the longevity benefit. Around 1–2 short strength sessions per week (≈30–60 min total) is where the data show the biggest drop in risk.

Some of the reasons why:-

1. Preservation and/or increase of Muscle Mass

   • Improves the way your body uses and stores energy

   • Lower risk of type 2 diabetes and other syndromes.

   • Reduces sarcopenia (muscle loss), which is linked to frailty, insulin resistance and high mortality.

2. Maintaining Function & Independence

   • Stronger people fall less, recover faster and remain mobile for longer.

   • Muscular strength is a powerful predictor of longevity.

   • Loss of strength correlates strongly with a higher risk of hospitalisation and death, especially in older adults.

   • Preservation of bone strength.

3. Improves Body Composition

   • Strength training helps preserve muscle mass whilst losing body fat (in a deficit).

   • This helps maintain a higher resting metabolic rate, supporting energy balance and reducing obesity-related risk factors.

4. Mental Resilience

   • Strength training has documented benefits for mental health, sleep and stress regulation - all linked to lower mortality risk.

   • People who strength train are more likely to stay active overall and reinforce other healthy habits.

While strength work keeps your muscles and bones healthy, cardiovascular exercise keeps the engine itself running smoothly.

What about cardiovascular health?

Across huge population studies, often tracking tons of people over decades, regular physical activity is linked with:

• 25–35% lower risk of cardiovascular mortality

• 20–30% lower risk of coronary heart disease

• 20–27% lower risk of stroke

These findings hold after adjusting for smoking, BMI, alcohol, and diet.

Both aerobic and resistance exercise improve blood pressure regulation. Meta-analyses show:

• Systolic BP drops by about 5–7 mm Hg in people with hypertension after consistent exercise.

• Diastolic BP drops by 3–5 mm Hg.

That might sound small, but population-wide, a small drop in systolic BP is linked to roughly 10–15% fewer heart attacks and strokes.

Regular aerobic training increases stroke volume (the heart pumps more blood per beat) and VO₂ max, which are two of the strongest predictors of longevity.

What does activity actually mean?

So what actually counts as exercise? What did the studies actually put into that category?

Most of these studies count everyday movement such as walking briskly, cycling, swimming, gym work, or sports.

In research terms, that’s about 600 MET-minutes per week, roughly the same as 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise.

I think this is really empowering because these are all activities that normal people are generally able to engage with, and there is something for everyone.

I’m interested in hitting the recommended amount. How can I do that practically?

Most of the large studies seem to talk about a ‘sweet spot’ for longevity, and it typically looks like this:-

• At least 150 minutes of moderate activity per week (brisk walking, cycling, light jog, anything that raises your heart rate but still lets you talk)

or

• 75mins of vigorous activity per week (running, HIIT, hard cycling, sports that make talking tough)

Plus, ideally 1-2 strength sessions per week, which can be between 30-60 minutes in length.

Here is some practical advice that you can use to help you get there:-

1. Break things down into smaller chunks. You don’t need to tick all of the boxes in one go.

Think about the small habits you can do that will add up over the week.

• That brisk walk to work or at lunch time (25mins)

• A home or gym based strength training circuit, either bodyweight or with dumbbells. (25mins)

• 30min run or spin class

• 45min park walk with the kids

That very rough weekly plan would get you very close to 150 minutes of exercise per week, plus the added benefits of some strength training.

1. Commit to some ‘movement anchors’ everyday

If you would rather think about little daily tasks vs weekly:

• Walk 10mins after lunch and dinner (100+ mins per week)

• Stand or walk during your business calls when possible.

• Take the stairs when possible

• Look for a slightly longer route to the office rather than just using the quickest one all of the time.

1. Lift something one or twice per week.

It doesn’t have to be a barbell or even be in the gym, although I do encourage people to get comfortable in that environment.

Resistance bands, dumbbells or even bodyweight exercises are a great way to tick the boxes, especially when it comes to the mortality benefit.

• Focus on 4-5 compound movements (2-3 sets). Think presses, rows, squats, lunges and deadlifts.

1. Stack movement onto existing routines.

Before you worry about trying to find extra time, are you currently leveraging the time that you have?

• Commute? Can you walk part of it.

• Kids play sports? Can you walk around the pitch whilst they’re playing

• Work from home? Get out for a walk before or after work, or consider getting yourself a walking pad.

All of the above will work and make a big difference to your life, but having the right mindset is really important. Things are never going to be perfect, and you will have periods where things seem to be easy and some not so.

Think about building consistent habits over the long term, rather than chasing perfection. This is where the magic happens.

Closing Reflections

Longevity isn’t just about adding years to life; it’s about improving the quality of those years, too.

The unfortunate truth is that in 2025, if you just follow the norm, you’re more likely to have poor outcomes than positive.

In a world where sitting all day has become the default, staying active is no longer just ‘good for you’, it’s absolutely essential. The research is clear: movement protects almost every system in your body and gives you a much better chance of having a longer, healthier life.

The good news is, you probably don’t need as much as you might think to start making a difference today.

Sure, some things can happen that are outside of our control. But I certainly want to try stacking things in my favour as best as I can, and I encourage my clients to do the same.

If you enjoyed this, please consider subscribing and reach out to me if you would like to have a chat about how you can start making changes today.