“You are your routine”. If you are eating nutrient deficient food, chances are your brain does not function optimally. If you are not getting enough sleep at night, you likely have high cortisol levels and are sluggish throughout the day. If you are performing unchallenging exercises at the gym without sufficient resistance, you are certainly not strong and sturdy. So if you are not happy with your current physique, you need to figure out what it is you are avoiding to get the results you want.
When I go out on consults to meet with potential clients I ask: “What has held you back in the past from getting the results you are looking for ?” Most people don’t know why they are not progressing as they would like. My theory is that the majority of gym goers have the greatest of intentions. They just don’t know what to do. They work diligently on the treadmill for hours on end. They spend 2 hours lifting weights in the gym until they can barely move, have a shower and then go home and eat salad for dinner.The prevailing societal attitude is that ‘more is better’. If I can train for X amount of time, then doing even more must be to my benefit. This is clearly the not the case. There is a point of diminishing returns in everything that we do. That goes for inside and outside of the gym. Here are some of the top reasons you may not be getting results.
1. You are not getting enough nutrient dense food in your diet. Protein, fibre rich carbohydrates and healthy fats are essential to fueling and recovering from your workouts.
2. You are not getting enough high quality uninterrupted sleep. This is quite common. The majority of the population reports getting 6 hours of sleep on average per night. We need a minimum of 8 hours sleep to function optimally. At night is when our bodies recover physically and mentally from the stress of the day. Make it a priority to get into bed by 11pm if your wake up time is 7am. Even earlier if you have trouble falling asleep. Try and avoid excess light (computers, televisions) at bedtime.
3. You are spending too much time in the gym. If you are in the gym for more than an hour, you are not training, you are making friends. Peak testosterone levels hit at about 30 minutes into a training session and go down from there. After an hour the body starts to produce excess cortisol (stress hormone) which you need to avoid if your goals are to gain muscle and lose fat. You need to work hard and work fast. Keep your rest periods between sets at 60-90 seconds and get done in under an hour. If at the end of the hour you still have more energy, you are not working hard enough !!!
4. You are not performing a sufficient warm up. I am not talking about walking on the treadmill for a couple of minutes before you jump into your routine. I am referring to mobility drills. A bodyweight warm up. Squats, push ups, jumping jacks, skipping, duck unders, band pull aparts, etc. Muscles are like putty. They need to be warmed up and stretched before having heavy loads placed upon them. The primary concern I hear from clients is that the warm up will cause them to lift less once they start the meat of the session. The truth is the opposite. You will have better mobility, feel less stiff and be able to lift more weight as a result. It might take a few sessions to get used to, but in the long run you will be much better off.
5. You are performing way too much cardio !!!! Steady state cardio is the kiss of the death. If you are jumping on the cross-trainer or as I like to refer to it as the hamster wheel for hours on end, you are wasting your time. Start focussing more on intensity and less on duration. 20-30 minutes of hard work interspersed with brief periods of rest 2 to 3 times a week will do the trick (30 seconds on 30 seconds off). This is referred to as conditioning. I recommend doing this after your strength training sessions or on days where you are not lifting.