No Pain No Gain

Welcome to afitnewyou!  Today I would like to talk to you about the old fitness cliché “No pain, no gain.”  Although this is a classic saying to remind you that hard work and sweat are needed to see results in the gym, I would like to add a slightly different perspective to help you stay motivated.  For a large number of people who have a hard time reaching their fitness goals, it’s the staying committed part that is the pain.  Most people struggle with other time commitments due to school, work and family responsibilities.  They find it hard to find the time to get to the gym, or prepare healthy meals.  Sticking to a commitment and maintaining the responsibility of working on your own health is the “pain” for so many people.  But if you want to see the “gain” in the form of increased strength, decreased body fat, improved body image, and an overall better sense of being, then you have to put that time in.

Teddy is a Jr. High wrestler who I have trained over the last couple of years.  Last year was his junior year of high school and was an important one for college recruitment.  Starting in the summer prior to the school year, Teddy trained with me once a week at best to prepare for the season.  When I told him he should be training more often, he said he had other commitments such as playing on the school soccer team during the fall season, and attending wrestling clinics during the week, and maintaining his social life.  Although Teddy said wrestling was his number one commitment, he didn’t sacrifice enough to be in the gym.  He didn’t have enough “pain.”  He wound up having a moderately successful season, placing in the county tournament, but failed to make the state tournament.  Being disappointed with the result, Teddy now has committed fully to preparing for next year’s season now.  He trains with me at least twice a week, and works out at another gym a few more times a week.  His goal is to wrestle at a heavier weight class next season so he doesn’t have to “drop” as much weight.  Since he made this new commitment, he has increased his maximum bench press by 25lbs. and has gained several pounds of muscle mass in a few short months.  Making the “painful” sacrifice of choosing one sport over another and giving up some of his social engagements to make time for his workouts has allowed him to see some early and significant gains.

Although Teddy didn’t have to sacrifice time from work or family obligations that many of us face when trying to find time for the gym, the sacrifices that he did make were significant to him.  He still had to have a pain in order to see a gain.  The commitment to improve your health can seem painful, but in order to see the gains you are striving for, you must make that commitment.  Maybe you have to start making your cup of coffee at home in the morning and sacrifice the store-bought cup in order to afford your monthly gym membership or personal training session.  You might have to give up an hour of television to find the time to go to the gym.  Could you sacrifice a half hour of sleep and wake up a little earlier to go out for a jog in the morning?  Results don’t come easy.  True, it may seem that some people see gains much faster than others, but you have to ask yourself if you are doing what you can to reach your goals.  What can you sacrifice to help you see the results you seek?

            I have told many clients that it’s called “working” out for a reason.  It is not called lounging out.  There needs to be some pain in order to see the gain.  For most of us, the pain might be more of a sacrifice to maintain that commitment.  Dedication to your goals, even at a painful cost, is what is needed to see the results that allow you to be a fit new you!

One at a Time

Welcome to afitnewyou!  This week I would like to simplify your path towards your fitness goals.  Sometimes when we look too far ahead and start focusing on all of the things we must do to reach our fitness goals, it can seem daunting and become overwhelming.  And then, if that mindset takes hold it becomes easier to never get started or not progress from where you are currently at.  What I suggest is to simply live in the moment, and focus on one thing at a time.  After all, you can only do one thing at a time anyway, so it is best to put your intention and focus on that one thing.  Furthermore, a simple way to proceed along your path is to progress by adding just one more at a time.  This could mean simply adding one more rep to your sets, one more minute to your cardio, one more day to your routine, and one more glass of water to your diet…

No matter how big or small a task you have in life, it cannot be accomplished without doing one small aspect first.  Think about it; if you want to read a book, you can only do so by reading one page at a time.  If you want to cook something, you have to follow the recipe step by step.  Traveling somewhere?  You have to following the directions one by one.  If you wanted to complete the book without going page by page, or to eat the meal without following the directions, or get somewhere without the journey it would not happen.  And the same is true with your fitness goals.  To reach your goals, you do need a plan; but that plan needs to be followed step by step, one at a time.  Don’t let the reaching the big picture intimidate you, rather focus on the individual step at hand.

And along the journey, to reach your goals efficiently, you need to constantly progress.  But the progression could and should come with small individual steps or increments.  For example, if someone had a goal of being able to do 50 push-ups, one way that they could reach their goal is by doing as many as they could but then strive for just one more rep every one week.  Similarly, if your goal is to increase your cardio performance, find out what your current level is, and then simply add one more minute (or level of elevation, or increase in speed) to what you are currently doing on a week to week basis. 

If you’re trying to clean up your diet, you can add similar types of “ones.”  It is easier to simply add drinking one more bottle of water a day, or clean up one meal of the day as opposed to making a complete overhaul of your diet.  The key to adding these ones is make them small enough that you can focus on just that one, as well as keeping up with it.  Then, you also need to progress by one more in a week to week, or month by month basis.  The cumulative effect will be noticeable, rewarding and sustainable as it will be due to a gradual change I your lifestyle.

Don’t let your final fitness goals seem daunting or discouraging as they are a ways away.  There is a road to get there.  But the same way you shouldn’t worry about the last 10 miles of a 100 mile journey just as you are setting out, you cant do so with your fitness goals either.  You can only deal with what is at hand.  Focusing on the here and now is the best way to accomplish that individual part.  And progressing by a one at a time approach will eventually get you there.  It will be more attainable to lose 12 pounds of fat, if you focus on losing only one pound a month.  Similarly, adding 30 minutes of cardio work will be more easily accomplished if you add just one minute a week.  Do you think you can add 30 minutes of cardio to your workout today?  Probably not, but how about adding one minute, just sixty seconds each week?  As long as you continue to progress by adding just one at a time, you will eventually get there, and do so in a very manageable way.  You can’t get to the top of a flight of stairs without taking one step at a time as it comes.  By approaching your fitness goals in a step by step basis, you will in a very sustainable way reach a fit new you!

Routine But NOT Stale

Welcome to afitnewyou!  Today I would like to talk to you about the importance of keeping your exercise routine fresh.  The hardest part about getting into a regular fitness routine is taking that first step.  People know they should exercise, but too often life gets in the way.  I stress to people that you need to make exercise as important as brushing your teeth.  We brush our teeth because of the need to maintain our health.  The same is true for exercise, and I tell people to treat exercise like brushing your teeth; make it a habit that you need to do in order to maintain your health.  I explain that this is where the term “routine” from.  You need to make exercise your routine.  However, things that are routine can at times become boring and stale.  And, exercise that remains the same for an extended period of time can lose much of its benefit.  In order for muscle to change, it has to be stressed.  This is why you need to keep your exercise routines fresh.

When I first started my personal training career I worked at a training studio where I met Mavis.  At the time, Mavis was in his mid-60’s, had typical aches and pains, but had an otherwise relatively unremarkable health history.  When the head trainer of the studio gave me Mavis’ file, he told me to follow his exercise regiment to a “T”.  Being a new trainer I had little issue with that instruction at first; it was a simple and safe routine.  While working with Mavis, he was plenty comfortable with the routine, but he seemed to be going through it just because he had to.  After a couple of these same sessions I asked Mavis how long he had been following this same routine.  He said for most of the years that he was training there.  This blew my mind, because there were no changes to the routine whatsoever.  He did the same weight, the same reps every single workout.  It wasn’t his fault, but the fault of the head trainer and training studio for prescribing this same routine for so long.  I explained to Mavis that doing the same thing all of the time eventually becomes ineffective for seeing improvement.  I explained to him the principles and needs of progression and overload for effective exercise routines.  He and I compromised by keeping the same exercises to make the studio happy, but increasing either the weights or repetitions each month.  With the fresh changes, Mavis increased the number of push ups he could do from the 15 he was doing for years, to 45 within one year!  He had also decreased his body fat percentage and reported less aches in pains in just a few short months.  It was great that he had an exercise routine, however he needed to freshen it up in order to continue seeing fitness gains.

Mavis is not a rare example.  I have seen many members come into the gym and do the same exact routine, day in and day out.  While that is better than doing nothing, and they should be commended for getting into the gym, they are also not reaching their fitness goals.  They do have the making the exercise routine part down; now they need to keep it fresh in order to see gains.  If you have been going to the gym for a long time, and do the same thing over and over again, but are not seeing the results you are shooting for, maybe its time to freshen up your routine.

A great way to keep a regular exercise routine is to treat it like other healthy habits such as brushing your teeth.  However, it is important to make the necessary changes to your exercise routine in order to continue to reach fitness goals.  Changing exercises, increasing weight, or adding reps is essential to not only eliminate boredom and burn out, but to effectively change your muscle.  Progression and overload are just two training principles that need to be met.  A personal trainer can help you know when the appropriate time is to make these changes to your routine.  Having a regular fitness routine is healthy, but keeping it fresh is the best way to create a fit new you!

Fighting Resistance

Welcome to afitnewyou!  Today I would like to start by asking you a question…what is holding you back from reaching your fitness goals?  You might have an answer right away, but I want you to ask yourself that same question again, but this time think about it before coming up with an answer.  What did you come up with?  How many did you come up with?  While it’s true everyone has different abilities and opportunities to live a healthier lifestyle, many people have come up with at least one reason or another that they are not reaching their fitness goals.  But here is the thing; no matter how valid your reason (or excuse) may be that you are not reaching your goal, the truth is, there is probably a way for you to overcome that reason.  All it really takes is the effort to do so.  Reasons that come up which keep us from reaching our top potential are forms of resistance.   And the best way to overcome any of these reasons/resistance is to make the changes you need and make a habit out of doing what is healthy.

I have written here before that a simple way to put you on the correct path to meeting your fitness goals is by making them habitual, like brushing your teeth.  But for some it might take a little more effort.  Because in order to start that habit, you have to overcome the resistance that has you not doing it in the first place.  What makes it so hard to start is that it’s a bit of an actual battle.  In my Jr. High Health Ed. classes, I teach the kids that once we learn what a healthy behavior is, there is still sometimes a divide between what we know we should do, and what we actually wind up doing.  I teach them that by gaining the content knowledge and developing life skills help making crossing that divide much simpler.

But no matter what age you are, or what fitness level you are currently at, you still probably know that you could be at an even higher level of fitness.  So, what is stopping you?  Think about it…what is it?  I have identified in an earlier post that we all have some limiting factor that we can overcome.  And in the same way, this persistent resistance that we all face can be overcome as well.  Sometimes the resistance is small things, like deciding to check your email before going on the treadmill, or taking care of a small chore that really could have waited instead of going for a quick walk after dinner.  These reasons pop up in our subconscious (and sometimes purposefully) and keep us from reaching our highest potential.  Take a moment and think about all of the times today and/or in the last 24 hours that a situation like this came up, where you wanted to make a healthy choice, but some small reason came along that made you resist doing the healthy thing.

It’s a battle that we face all of the time; trying to overcome the resistance to being in the best shape that we can be.  But as I have said before, the best way of overcoming this resistance is by starting healthy habits.  Maybe start out by making them rules.  For example, you can make it a rule for yourself that every time you are going to sit at your computer you must do 20 body squats first.  Or, every time you are going to turn the T.V. on you must do a set of push ups.  When you open your refrigerator, you need to do a set of back lunges.  Eventually these rules will become habits.  But more important than that, the fact that you are thinking about them before you do the other activity, you are focused on the healthy movement, and that combats the resistive one.

These small physical activities will take less than a minute’s worth of time to do.  But, by training your brain to think about them, that you have to do them, allows you to develop habits that lead to a healthier you.  Yes those extra calories burned will add up, but it’s more the intention that you had to do them in the first place that fights the resistance to be the unhealthier version of yourself.  I know it’s a struggle.  We all face it.  But just as people who are very successful in the business world adhere to daily rituals that help them get there, fighting the unhealthy resistance with health forming habits will get you to a fit new you!