Are you going to the gym or exercising every day just to maintain your current level of health and fitness? Or are you exercising everyday just to get into shape? If you want to see positive changes in your body just coming to the gym or “working out” probably will not be enough to see results. I see people everyday just working out with no plan in mind. Just because you are doing cardio doesn’t mean you are burning fat, and just because your lifting weights it doesn’t mean your building muscle. Cardio has the potential to burn fat as well as lifting weights has the potential to build muscle, but its not a given. If your nutrition is not in check and your not doing things the right way you can actually prime your body to burn muscle and store more fat! Yikes! All that effort of going to the gym and exercising at home could be in vain!
You should have a specific goal each time you plan to exercise. You should know what you will be doing, how much, for how long, and what you’re trying to accomplish that day, week, month, etc. A written plan of what you will be doing each day or that week could be very helpful. If you don’t have a goal then how will you know when you have reached the point where you are satisfied? If you are going to the gym just to “exercise” and go through the motions of a workout you might not be using your time very wisely.
You should have a specific goal whether it’s to build strength and muscle, strengthen your core, build endurance, or lose fat. These are all good goals but you must also make sure you are following a successful strategy (the Right Exercise and Nutrition) that will help you reach this specific goal. If your goal is fat loss following your typical low calorie diet with lots of aerobic activity could be the worst thing to do. One must build muscle first to effectively lose fat and keep it off. My recommendations are having a program designed specially for you or follow a program that is scientifically proven to get results. If your getting your workout or diet from a magazine or DVD you could be wasting your time thinking this program or diet will give you long term individual results.
Lastly, you must make sure you are changing the focus of your workout regularly, for example I have many of my clients focus on strength for 2 weeks, then endurance for 4 weeks, and fat loss for 4 weeks. Each phase we have a specific workout and nutrition plan designed specifically for this goal. Any program that you’re following the same focus point or goal for too long could be putting your body into a tailspin. The program’s my clients are following are constantly changing so their body cannot adapt to it. To see a summary of my programs please visit: Real Results Fitness.
Having a specific goal and focus point is the only way to see continuous REAL results.
To Your Success,
Your Fitness and Nutrition Coach,
~David Modderman
