Here’s a shocker;
When it comes to changing your body, doing anything less than 100% of what you’re capable of leads to little to no positive changes.
How unfair is that?
You diligently put aside time for exercise, put in the effort and for what?
Sure, you feel better when you leave the gym, class or training session.
But after a few weeks you’re left wondering if it’s worth all the effort. Especially when you don’t seem to be noticing and differences in your body.
Essentially our bodies are lazy. They only maintain the amount of fitness, strength and muscle tone to be able to do tasks it’s exposed to regularly.
Therefore, your body has – over the years – adapted to the level of physical stress you’ve placed (or not placed) on it 🙂
If your body finds something hard it’ll first try to make you give up. Failing that, if you persist it will adapt by becoming stronger or fitter. It does this so you can expend fewer resources and exert less effort next time.
One of the major problems I see in people taking up exercise is they either go too hard too soon (and give up), or they get in a grove of doing the same thing week after week going through the motions (don’t see results, get bored and give up).
When starting exercise the first session or two is always going to be a bit of a shock to our otherwise sedentary bodies. No avoiding that. But after that if we keep doing the same level of activity our body no longer has a reason to continue changing our body shape and fitness in response.
That level of activity is now within our comfort-zone.
Stressing your muscles with weights is one of the most effective ways to get your body to adapt and change.
And using weights (or what’s know as resistance training) doesn’t just strengthen and shape your muscles. Your cardio-vascular system also has to adapt to support the muscular strength you develop (but so called ‘cardio’ is a topic for another time perhaps).
With resistance training you can gradually increase the intensity (weight lifted) over time as your body becomes stronger.
Progressing in this way means you don’t have to add more time to your exercise regime to continue seeing progress.
While increasing the intensity of an exercise is a great way to force positive adaptations from your body, it does come at a higher risk.
The higher the intensity (the heavier the weight) the higher the likelihood of picking up an injury.
So, as more and more of the population flock to using resistance based weight training as a means to stay fit and healthy we absolutely need to avoid getting carried away with just slapping the weights up thinking it’s the best thing to do.
The best way to incorporate resistance training into your routine is by starting small. Then gradually increasing the challenge of the exercise over the weeks and months.
I can’t tell you the number of people I’ve seen be put off resistance training – and exercise in general – because they jumped in at the deep end, went flat out for a workout or two only to collapse in a heap afterward, unable to move from muscle soreness and vowing never to do it again.
Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. Especially with all the conflicting and damn right confusing information out there.
At Diligent Fitness, regardless of the approach we’ve found that meeting clients where they’re at works best.
Having an experienced personal trainer on hand not only helps you get the posture and technique right – reducing the risk of injury. The right trainer will assess where you’re starting from, and develop a plan that’s right for your goals and current level of fitness.
When the time’s right you personal trainer will encourage you to push through the mental barriers that hold us back from achieving what we’re actually capable of.
But in a well thought out, progressive manor.
The result? A fitter, stronger, healthier looking body along with a sustainable approach to maintain and develop your fitness over the years to come!
Request a free fitness and nutrition strategy session and we’ll dive into your specific goals and outline a clear step-by-step action plan to get you back on track. Call on 07766 808553 or Click Here to Request a complimentary fitness and nutrition consultation (worth £75) and let’s chat 🙂
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