Are you wondering why it takes sooo long to see results from your exercise routine? OR did you notice results when you first started at the gym but you seemed to have stopped progressing? Do you feel like if you could just fit in one more exercise class each week then you would surely be able to get into that old pair of jeans, shirt, dress, whatever it may be? How do you know that more classes is going to do it for you? Is it because your skinny friend does 8 classes a week, so what works for her will work for you? Or was it that 5-10 years ago that’s what you did too and it worked?
These are common beliefs amongst gym goers so you are not alone but I’m here to rock your world so to speak. Do you know that the best way to NOT get results is to do things the way your body is used to doing them? By this I mean if you train using the same methods that worked for you years ago, then guess what!? Its not going to work the same for you anymore, because your amazing body has adapted to it.. that’s right, it knows how to do what you are doing, back the front and with your eyes closed and therefore finds it far too easy. So what do you do? Do it differently. What do I mean exactly? I mean turn your exercise world upside down and get double the results in half the time.
What you need to do or should have done is to get properly assessed and become accountable to someone – this can be as simple as enrolling a friend or acquaintance to exercise with, unless regular training with a trainer is within your budget and then at a minimum get a trainer to assess you and write you a program. Below is what I believe should be included in an assessment which would take place when you first start training with a trainer or if you are going to just get assessed to get a program.
1. Exercise History – why? Not just so we can have a laugh about what you have or haven’t done and how coordinated you may be but so we know what your body is capable of and what you are good at doing (because guess what – if you are good at using your aerobic energy system, eg… staying at 60-80% of your max heart rate, similar to that which happens in most aerobics classes then to get results you are going to need to shock your body by doing something different to that Eg. Lifting heavy weights with larger rest periods, for example.)
2. Measurements must be taken, with a tape measure and preferably not the scales as you may not lose weight but you will lose fat and gain muscle (which weighs much more than fat). I prefer not to use scales at all as I find it de-motivates people and I would prefer clients not use scales as another form of punishment, lets face it most people don’t have a happy morning if the scales tell them they are heavier.
These measurements should be done at a minimum every 4 weeks, like it or not, sorry but if you are not held accountable (as well as the advice from your trainer helping you) then what are you paying someone for? You can always measure yourself, but trust me the best of the best in any industry (in my limited life experience) are being held accountable by a bunch of mentors/friends who they look up to. I personally pay different people to measure, assess and train me too.
3. Injuries/Posture/Muscle Imbalances (Strengths and Weaknesses) and how does the trainer intend upon addressing them for you. They may not necessarily know about every injury, joint problem or disease conditions but they should admit this and be willing to either do the research for you or find another person who may be better suited to help or refer to.. eg Physiotherapist, Osteopath, Chiropractor or another specialist in the field. As there’s nothing more annoying than being injured from your gym sessions. Injury is preventable, if assessment guidelines are followed.
4. Change your program minimum every 4 weeks. Get re-assessed, usually this is a lot quicker the second time around and after having your measurements taken and looking at the way your body is getting results from the last program the trainer should be able to change your routine based upon this to continually shock your body. You need to constantly be changing the way you do things. By this I mean the variable numbers in your routine as well as the exercises. The rest periods, the number of sets of each exercise, the tempo of the movements are all things that go into creating a good program and your trainer should be varying all of these as well as the exercises to address your strengths and weaknesses, as well as your levels of boredom and co-ordination.
Why bother with all of this?
If you are not measuring your results, then good luck being able to maintain motivation. There are some people that can do it, however the stats from gyms are that 2% of the population is able to maintain motivation to attend gym regularly by themselves over a 2 year period, simply because it makes them feel good. I’m sorry if this is you but you understand where I’m going with this one, gyms are usually happy to take your money and happy to not have you attend regularly. This is why being accountable to someone becomes important.
And remember.. If you are not assessing, you are guessing.
Happy training 🙂
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