You're doing it wrong!

          Welcome to afitnewyou!  Today I want to specifically help those out there who are hitting the gym but not seeing the results that they are trying to achieve.  There are many people who overcome the obstacles of finding the time and energy of getting to the gym, or even using home equipment or being active in some other way, but still do not reach their fitness goals.  And I am not trying to sound harsh when I say this, but, one of the  primary reasons that there are people and situations like this is simply because they are doing it wrong.  Although it isn't "rocket science", exercise and training is a science.  Personal trainers, athletic trainers, strength coaches and all the like need at minimum to pass some certification course, and most of the good ones will have studied exercise as part of an undergraduate, graduate or even post graduate curriculum.  Trainers are paid to help people attain their fitness goals not only because of their motivational techniques, but because simply put...they know what they are doing.  Most people will go to a mechanic when they have a problem with their car...they seek out professional help.  There are plenty of other examples like this and it is encouraged to do the same with your health and fitness.  But, there are some general rules to follow that can help most everyone.  So read some of the common problems of people I see that are doing it wrong at the gym.

          You don't see change - As I started this post, one of the number one ways you can tell that you are doing it wrong at the gym is if you are putting in the effort, but not seeing the body changes you are striving for.  Whether you are not seeing the body change you are looking for and/or you aren't seeing any gains in strength, chances are you are not following a proper exercise prescription.  Again, with exercise being a science, there are proven exercise prescriptions that will help you get to your goals.  You shouldn't go to the gym to just move weight and/or spend countless minutes on a cardio machine.  Doing it the correct way means following the proper exercise prescription suited to your individual goals.

         You aren't sweating - If you are at the gym and you are not sweating at some point, chances are you aren't working out at a high enough intensity level.  While I do know that there are people who need to be working out an extremely high intensity level in order to start sweating, and you may be one of them, if you are also someone who is not hitting their goals, there is a good possibility that you are not training intensely enough.  I often say that it is called "working" out for a reason...you need to be putting in the effort to get something out of it.  If you are not challenged enough, your body will not change.

         You can talk while training - If you can have a conversation while you are actually performing a movement, then you are definitely not training hard enough to see a body change.  If you can carry out a full conversation with the person on the cardio machine next to you, you are doing it wrong.  If you can talk to your trainer throughout the weight training set, both of you are doing it wrong.  There is even a partially subjective assessment used by trainers called the Talk Test to determine exercise intensity level.  If you are able to have a conversation with the trainer while working, you are doing it wrong.

         You are in pain while exercising - This one might not apply to everyone, but it is certainly one that everyone should avoid.  The saying "No pain, no gain" should not be taken literally.  Figuratively, it refers to training the correct way, by training at an appropriately high intensity level...see the first three above.  But if you are in actual pain while training, and/or you are making an injured part of your body feel worse than when you walked into the gym, you are doing it wrong.  with many of my clients there is an ailment at some point that I need to consider.  With my clients I always tell them that there are thousands of potential exercises that can be performed, and if one is causing them pain, we stop it, and choose another one that does not illicit pain.

         You are not using the correct muscles - Another common problem that I see many inexperienced exercisers have is that they do not use the muscles that they are trying to target.  This happens typically for one of two reasons.  One reason is that people will use momentum to move weight instead of engaging the muscles required for the movement.  This is troublesome for many reasons including the fact that using momentum over muscle activation can lead to injury very easily.  Another reason is that by just moving weight and not actually focusing on the muscle contracting and relaxing during the movement, you are wasting your time and energy.

          If you are finding the time and energy to get to the gym you deserve to make it count.  If you are one of the people who are performing the exercises but not getting the results, you most likely need to make some changes to your routine.  Did you fit into any of the categories I mentioned above?  If so, it isn't too late.  You can still make the changes and you certainly deserve to.  Seeking professional advice, just as you would if you had a car problem, is recommended.  Making the most of your time in your physical activities is the proper way to reach a fit new you!

Healthy begets Healthy

Welcome to afitnewyou!  This week I would like to point out a bit of common sense that should motivate you to start and/or remain living a healthy lifestyle.  Sometimes common sense isn't so common, but I am pretty sure that we all know that doing things that are considered to be healthy for us are, well, good for us.  And while this is pretty much common knowledge, people in general have a knack for coming up with incredible (and many not so credible) excuses of why they aren't living a healthy lifestyle.  But, if you are a reader of this blog, you know I try to motivate you as often as I can to start reaching a fitter new you.  Furthermore, I often point out that getting started is sometimes the hardest hurdle to overcome.  So today I want to give you a simple tip to either get you started, or to keep up with the work that you are already doing.  And the tip I offer you today is a simple one; in order to be healthy, all you need to do is be healthy!

Maybe you read that last sentence with an eye roll, however it really is true.  Simple and common sense, but I feel it still needs to be pointed out.  This idea came to mind the other day when I got to work and I noticed a coworker who is "carrying a few extra pounds" on a set of crutches and had his ankle in a brace.  Being the compassionate coworker I am, I asked him what had happened and he said that he didn't do anything remarkable, in fact just the opposite; he had hurt it while walking down a step in his home.  No big deal.  But then coincidentally, another coworker that week, who is also not in the best shape was complaining about how much his knee was hurting.  He had explained that he was going back and forth to the doctor to figure out what was going on with it, but he knew it was bothersome for a significant amount of time.  In this second case it wasn't such an acute injury that could have happened to anyone, but the optic of these two did make me think...maybe there was a connection about both of their injuries to their current level of fitness.  Although it wasn't a 100% direct cause of either, you could bet that carrying around the extra weight without a doubt contributed to it.  Their unhealthy weight led to their unhealthy ailments.

A more concrete illustration with this is how arthritis is felt and managed.  Anyone who suffers from some form of arthritis will tell you that it is at its worst after remaining in a non-moving position for an extended amount of time.  Whether it is struggling to get out of bed in the morning after laying down for several hours, or when someone has to exert a good amount of effort after sitting in a car for an extended amount of time, it is after the inactivity that causes the most pain.  Conversely, it is with movement that the pain is alleviated!

So the moral of the story is get active and be active to remain active!  It is easiest to maintain a high level of health if you are simply trying to remain in a high level of health.  Many gym goers will tell you that its hardest to get to the gym following a layoff for whatever reason.  But once going is the routine, going becomes routine.  You also have to think about how remaining active creates this easier scenario.  Maintaining a healthy amount of physical activity and healthy diet will directly cause you to be at a healthy weight for you.  In the very least, not carrying around extra fat will decrease the stress on your joints and dramatically decrease the chance of suffering from the conditions that my coworkers are enduring.  A healthy diet will also cause you to have more energy and not feel sluggish, which in turn again will make it easier to maintain that healthy lifestyle.

In sounds like common sense, but if you want to be healthy, you have to live healthy.  Getting that ball rolling is key to keeping it going.  Most of us want to reach a healthier state of living, and we can all get to that next level.  It isn't as easy as just wanting it, you also have to act on it.  But the good news is that once you start being healthy, your health will dramatically improve, and it will be that much easier to keep at it.  Being healthy is the fresh way to start and maintain a fit new you!

Start Strong, Finish Strong

Welcome to afitnewyou!  Today I want to help you get your workout started, because starting out is usually the hardest thing to do.  For the majority of people, Monday is the start of the work week, with Saturday and Sunday being the weekend, and is usually when we say our training schedules start.  Although we should be active every single day, its Monday when we try to get ourselves going.  Even from the religious perspective, God rested on the 7th day, which we observe on Sunday.  Unlike Him, I'm usually too busy on Sundays to rest, catching up with all that needs to be done around the house, so even I start my training week on a Monday.  But even though this is the day that most people plan on starting their routines, its often one of the hardest to get to the gym.  There are plenty of posters and memes, that emphasize how much we all sarcastically love Monday mornings when we have to get "back to the grind."  So after struggling in the morning, and then getting through the day, getting the extra energy to be physically active is often tough to do.  A way to help your overcome the doldrum of a Monday is to plan on doing something you really want to do.  Being excited about what you plan on doing is the greatest way to ensure you actually do it!

A former employer of mine often used the phrase "You want to finish how you want to start."  What he meant by this was that even if you started off the year on the wrong foot, as long as you finished strong, you would start the next year strong.  And I agree with this for a number reasons.  For one, its how we finish that is the most important.  If you are weak or out of shape now, you want to get to the point, finish, where you are stronger and in better health.  It is said it is never to late to start, but with our health, being active usually is end goal orientated.  We start exercise routines to get into shape.  So finishing strong is important.  But without being contradictory, it is just as important to start strong, because you need to start to get you going. 

One way to start strong when you otherwise would be dragging is to do something you really enjoy.  I often joke that Mondays in most gyms are "International Chest Day" because so many people are hitting the bench press.  Why?  Because so many people prefer to do chest and biceps exercises because not only are they less demanding than leg exercises, but they also hit the areas of our bodies that are often most noticeable.  While I used to use that moniker for Mondays at the gym as a bit of a diss, I could also recognize that the gym was often most crowded at that time.  There are a few reasons for that, but I would argue one is that there are more people there because they are there to do the exercises that they most enjoy.  If you are having a hard time getting started with your weekly routing, choose exercises that you most enjoy.  Picking things that you enjoy doing will ensure that you actually do them.

On the other hand, another way to start strong is to get the parts of your routine that you most dread out of the way.  Hitting the dreaded "leg day" on a Monday might not sound like the most enticing way to start your week, but if you get it done and out of the way, it will make getting to the gym later in the week easier to do.  Furthermore, hitting your legs on a Monday is also preferable because, as I already mentioned, Monday is International Chest Day anyway, so the squat racks should be free.  Sometimes it is easiest to finish strong by getting what you desire least out of the way first.

No matter which mindset works for you, doing what you find easiest first, or doing what you dread the most first, starting the week of strong is extremely important.  While putting in the time at the gym is all about the ultimate payoff, we only get there once the ball gets rolling.  Its simple physics to understand that the ball wont get rolling until we push it, but once it gets going it will be much easier to keep it going.  So no matter what day your training routine starts, think about which tact you will take to get you going.  Whether you do what you enjoy the most, or what you find the hardest to do, just starting strong is what will let you finish strong.  Starting strong is a motivational way to finish at a fit new you!

Two Out of Three

Welcome to afitnewyou!  Today I would like to give you a few tips that will help to encourage you to reach your fitness goals.  It is one of my core beliefs that even if you have the strongest intentions, and the best written plan to get to where you are going, it will be easily compromised if the plans are too unrealistic to be maintained.  Fad diets only work for so long for this reason; they will help you cut calories initially, but they are too demanding to be maintained over the long haul, and not the way to achieve a healthy lifestyle.  And if you look at your starting point, or simply the place you are now, you want to get somewhere further down the path and you are looking for an edge. So that tells me that what you are currently doing isn’t quite getting you there.  I find that discouragement is often what keeps us from staying on the arduous trail to our fitness goals.  Often the discouragement comes from not meeting your own expectations…for example, people get discouraged when they aren’t getting to the gym as much as they would like, or even miss just one day.  The key to reaching your goals is to not focus on what you haven’t been able to do, but to zero on your successes.  Instead of being discouraged by what you haven’t been able to do, be encouraged by what you have done and can still do.

One of the harsh realities with obtaining fitness goals is that they can only be accomplished with hard work that needs to be done day in and day out.  This is why maintaining your health needs to become a lifestyle and not just something you do for a few weeks of the year.  Fitness achievement only comes after keeping up with a routine, and can only be maintained by sustaining what you have been doing already and most times having to do even more going forward.  We know it isn’t easy, but we also know the results are well worth it.  We can all dream about where we want to be, but we have to constantly work to get there.  The trick is to stay positive and encouraged along that demanding path.

As I started to say in the introduction, one way to stay encouraged along your fitness quest is to commend yourself for your successes and focus on your achievements rather than knocking yourself for succumbing to bumps along the way.  I always go back to the analogy of the dentist.  Every dentist tells you to floss every single day and some say to do it every time you brush your teeth.  While I am sure there are some people out there who actually keep up with that, I am just as sure that they are in the minority of the population.  This is similar to a trainer telling you to get to the gym every single day and to make every single meal clean and healthy.  Again, I am sure there are some people out there who actually keep up with that, I am just as sure that they are in the minority of the population.  What I want you to keep in mind is that just as you wouldn’t stop brushing your teeth because you are not flossing as much as recommended, you shouldn’t stop trying to reach your fitness goals because you can’t get to the gym and/or aren’t eating as healthy as you should.  Anything you do positive for your health is just that…a positive!

A simple way to both get started and keep you going by focusing on your positive steps is to make a list of three daily goals that you want to keep.  Instead of having a long list of everything you should and could be doing better, focus on just a few.  For example, you might have drink more water, be active during a work break, and get to the gym.  It could be any three things that you know would make you healthier.  Having them laid out will help you focus on them.  Then, be happy that you have done any or all of them.  There is a song that goes “Two out of three aint bad” and it applies here as well.  In baseball if someone even goes one for three all of the time they would have a Hall of Fame career.  Yes, you should want to and try to meet all of your goals.  However, if you have done any of them, you have acted with your health in mind.  And let what you have done encourage you to be healthy.

There are enough haters out there to sling stones and try and knock you down.  No one needs any more discouragement, and it certainly shouldn’t be self-imposed.  So don’t get yourself down when you are trying to lift yourself up.  Look at all of the positive things you have done to improve your current level of health and be proud of that.  Let that pride in what you have accomplished be the fuel to encourage you to do even more.  Improving your health one small step at a time, and being happy about it, is the positive way of reaching a fit new you!

Law of Diminishing Returns

Welcome to afitnewyou!  Today I would like to help you push through the point in your fitness quest where you feel that you have “hit the wall.”  No matter what point we are at on our fitness journey, beginners and veterans alike will eventually get to a place where they feel like they have hit their limit.  But what you need to realize is that although you may have come up against a wall, that wall isn’t attached to a ceiling that you cannot over come, rather it is simply the face of the cliff that leads to higher ground.  It can be even more discouraging when hitting that wall comes after a lot of hard work.  There is a Law of Diminishing Returns, which basically states that you eventually get smaller and smaller returns for your continued efforts.  However, in physics, there is also the Law of Conservation of Energy, which says energy cannot be destroyed.  So this is one of those times where you need to remember that you do get out what you put in…and the harder it is to get past that wall, the greater the view will be at the top.

D.J. is a soccer player that I have trained throughout his high school career.  He was a smaller than the average player his age, but that just meant he had to work harder to achieve his goals of making the team.  And when he decided to go to a prestigious private school with very competitive team, he had to work harder than ever to make that team.  As hard as he had to work to make the freshmen team, he had to work even harder to make the Jr. Varsity team.  The same was true for him when he tried out for the varsity team, he knew going in he would have to train even harder than ever.  But, when he made the team, it was his greatest triumph!

No matter what your fitness goals are, you will eventually come up against that proverbial wall; the point where you feel you have reached your limit.  However, the body doesn’t work like that, the body is designed to adapt and evolve to challenge.  As long as you keep putting in the effort, you will eventually reach a higher ground.  A great visual of this is the winners’ podiums at the Olympics.  Notice how the gold, silver, and bronze medal winners are staged on podiums of differing heights with the best being on the tallest podium.  The best effort is the one that has attained the highest ground.  So when it comes to your own training be encouraged, not discouraged, that you have to work harder to see additional results after hitting your plateau. 

The Law of Diminishing Returns can be a bit discouraging if you think that you will get less reward for more effort.  This simply isn’t true though.  The extra effort that you put it will take you to the next level with greater reward.  When it comes to fitness you get out what you put in.  Those higher walls lead to greater heights as is the case with the winner’s podium.

Whatever point you are at along your fitness journey know that you will encounter walls that will have to be overcome.  The further along you get, the harder they may seem to overcome.  But remember that as you move upward, the results attained will be higher and higher.  And if you are only just starting out, be encouraged that those first few walls are the easiest to overcome.  You will reach new heights with your health and state of fitness if you continue to increase your efforts.  Continuing to push for higher ground is the winners’ way to achieve a fit new you!