I’ve got to start this off with a big, bold and honest statement. I’m bored of people self-prescribing their training to achieve goals they’ve been chasing their whole life. I can’t say how many times I have sat down for a consultation and asked why that person is here, then to receive a list of goals along with how they are going to achieve them. In some instances I’m sure this is great. If I employed that person then I would like the fact they’ve got an idea and a plan of how to get there. Unfortunately I’m not employing you. All you need to do is tell me what you want to achieve and I will tell you what to do. Think of me like a consultant.
Now the reason I’ve started this article rather heavy handed is because usually the self-prescribed path to success is complete nonsense. It has to stop. The biggest reason for anyone to stop training is because they feel they’re not making progress. Do not rely on your own knowledge to provide that progress. Also don’t expect many rays of positivity to shine through in this article.
So what do people usually try to achieve and what do they think will get them there? This is an endless list! The most common by far however is simply that someone wants to lose weight and tone up. They choose the route of eating hardly anything during the week and snacking on carrot and cucumber sticks then venturing to the gym for the sweatiest cardio session they can manage before throwing some light dumbbells and a kettlebell around for a bit. Oh and don’t forget the half an hour of core training at the end.
So why is that wrong? It’s not. That’s a beast of a session and you will lose weight and get some muscular adaptations. Except you probably won’t because what this is really a recipe for is a quick burn out and subsequent gym membership cancellation, a poor relationship with food and drink, a damaged metabolism and probably reduced immune function. There’s too much going on here aimed at a short term change and no real consideration for the most important aspect to training, diet and health: consistency.
Yes this layout will deliver some results. But something will break. If it isn’t the training pattern, style or amount then it will be the diet. Now I’m making assumptions again based on my own experiences with people that have done this in the past and you will know if you relate to it or not. But most people who take this approach are unwilling to let go of the weekend partying too. Monday to Friday the diet is brutal. Friday night onwards is time to drink and eat whatever because you’ve been good all week and deserve a break. Unfortunately it gets harder and harder to start again on Monday and eventually you either just settle for the results you’ve got so far or you give up because nothing seems to be changing. I suppose the last outcome might be that you then go on a holiday and decide that you have no reason to stay in shape now so you can go back to relaxing and enjoying yourself.
I won’t go into how wrong that mind-set is from a psychological point of view in this article. But I will quickly mention that diet and exercise isn’t a chore. It’s not hard. In this situation you’ve made it hard and unenjoyable.
So there are 2 big mistakes being made by a large bulk of gym goers. Telling your trainer what you’re going to do instead of listening to their advice, taking on too much too quickly and then burning out in one way or another. Now let’s hit the third. Lifting light weights. This is such a big topic I will have to do a few articles on it. There’s such a trend of training in a circuit format with light weights either trying to recreate the workouts from classes or keep the sweat going from the cardio completed prior to weight training.
Weights are not cardio! Weights should not follow the same format. The aim of weight training for 99% of gym users is to create stimulation and growth in different muscle fibres to those recruited by aerobic (cardio vascular) training. You’re trying to use a different energy system so you need to train in a non-continuous manner. The ultimate aim when training with resistance (excluding injury rehabilitation) is to improve strength. Strength will increase and improve only if stressed in a progressive manner. Picking up those 5kg dumbbells or shying away from the big bars when setting up for your squats is a bad start. Get some help from a trainer. Even if it’s just a session and let them show you what you are actually capable of when you test your strength properly.
There’s a lot more to be covered that I’ve lightly mentioned here. If I was to do it now this article would be ludicrously long. So stay tuned and I’ll talk more about why these mistakes are mistakes.