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4 Reasons You Aren’t Seeing Results With Your Workouts
…and what you can do about it!
By PJ and Risse, the Go Fit Gals.
When asked, in an online survey by the International Food Informational Council Foundation, women indicated that they would rather lose $1000 than gain 20 pounds.
In another questionnaire, 46% of both men and women surveyed said that they would be willing to give up a year of their life to avoid being obese. 15% were willing to give up 10 years.
These are fairly extreme sacrifices to make and to make all in the name of flatter abs and thinner thighs.
So, it baffles my grey matter when I see people in the gym making fatal mistakes in their training program that will cost them results. Results, that I now know they are willing to lose a thousand dollars over, or worse, a year or ten years of their life.
Too many reps.
I don’t know about you but I hate these plank a day challenges on Twitter, or the 300 push-ups a day, or the 500 sit-up challenge.
While I am sure that most people start these challenges with good intentions (to help them stay accountable to a daily fitness program), what they are doing, instead, is setting themselves up for injury.
And injury, in return, will stop that daily fitness program that they are so keen to keep doing.
Nobody, and I repeat nobody, can do 300 push-ups with good form. Nobody will also see improvements to their core by doing a 5-minute plank, and hopefully you all know what I think about sit-ups (click here if you are new to the blog and don’t).
To see results you need to stress the muscles with an external force, using a load just a little past what your body can handle. That means heavier loads need to be performed (not body weight since your body is already used to lugging your ol’ bod around), and for a rep count that is just enough that the body says, “Okay, I’m done”.
You drive to the gym, to walk on the treadmill.
Here’s another grey matter baffler. While yes I do understand that some people need to drive to their local gym because of distance, or they are hitting it in between errands, or on their way to or from work. Subtract these people from the equation and you still have a wait list for the treadmill.
In my workout, and those of our members, a treadmill is only there as a warm-up tool, or to do an interval workout on. Other than that results are seen in the weight room.
While you may, personally, have seen results in the past with long bouts of cardio (especially beginners), you will see them faster (as well push through any plateaus that you may have with your weight loss program) by lifting weights.
Our programs are actually designed to get the muscles moving as well as the heart beating with our unique training system of weight training intervals.
Check out our YouTube channel for over 45 weight training interval workouts.
Wrong order of exercises.
There should be a plan with your workout program. Don’t start your program with the first machine that you see in the gym and then just follow the line of equipment from there.
Work large muscles first (such as your quads, hamstrings, glutes, pecs and lats), and then your smaller muscles after (hip stabilizers, triceps, biceps, core and shoulders).
As well, don’t forget to train the opposing muscle groups in your body.
For instance, if you do a push-up, make sure that you have a row, pull-up or pull down to balance that pressing action.
Train the body in a 360-degree fashion – not just what you see in the mirror.
Check out our “Upper Body Burn” workout for a peek on how to program a weight-training workout that will address all the muscles in the front, as well as the back, of the body.
Train the body in a 360-degree fashion – not just what you see in the mirror.
Your diet sucks.
You have seen the quote on Pinterest, Instagram, our blog and perhaps seen the smoke signals from extinct tribes – “you can not out train a bad diet”.
You can try, but trust us when we tell you that you will never run as fast as a bag of Doritos can, or lift as hard as a Panago pizza can.
If you really want to see results in the gym, and in turn on your body and intrinsically with more energy and added years to your life, you must put quality food in your mouth.
Not sure where to start? My first recommendation is to read the following blog Eating Clean 101 – The Go Fit Gals Way.
The Go Fit Gals are your online experts in weight loss, nutrition and fitness. They just recently released a 6-week nutrition and fitness plan specific for menopause, “The Hot Flash Hottie.” Finally, a plan unique for your needs and wants!