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Yesterday, I got an email from Lucy, one of our faithful readers. In it, she described how she has been going to the local Big-Box gym for a couple years now spending anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes on the treadmill or elliptical 4 or 5 times a week.
While she saw some results when she first started, over the past few months she doesn’t feel she’s gotten any better and to quote her: “The scale hasn’t moved.”
She’s not alone in this and I thought it was such an important point that I’d share with all of you.
Smarter not harder
I’m sure you’ve heard the phase “work smarter, not harder” before. When I worked for companies, it was something I heard in management seminars and meetings almost weekly.
To be fair, it is a fair, pretty relevant statement and when done right can be very powerful in every area of life… including fitness.
A common mistake that I see folks like Lucy make is to up the volume on their training when they hit a rut: “If 90 minutes a day at the gym isn’t working, then I’ll go to two hours, or three, or four. But, it leads to diminishing returns.
Think about it. You are a human being and you only have so much time, energy and ability in the tank to perform at your best.
Traditional workouts tend to take 60-90 minutes to get through all parts of a circuit including cardio or something like a yoga class.
I believe all forms of fitness, like yoga, are totally viable and should certainly be incorporated.
However, if the goal is to get results, especially if you’re “stuck,” then you should add High Intensity Interval Training (HITT) style training to your routine.
Why? Well HITT is proven to burn crazy amounts of fat in a fraction of the time. Add to it you’ll get stronger, reduce the chance of overuse injuries, and achieve all of those potential goals listed above.
So, if you’re stuck in a rut, not getting results, or just plain bored with what you’ve been doing, don’t quit. HIIT.
Don’t quit. HIIT!
A couple of other things you can do to help you get your best results without spending hours working out.
• Mix it up! Doing the same routine over and over again is going to hinder progress and visible results. Do cardio all the time? Add weights. Do weights all the time? Yep, you guessed it add cardio. Mix in some HIIT, yoga or anything else you like. Oh and don’t forget to work on flexibility training, aka stretching!
• Make it a habit. You’re far better off exercising a few days say, three to four days per week than going seven days in a row one week and taking the next two weeks or a month off.
• Fuel your performance. Just like your car won’t run well with cheap gas in it, neither will your body with cheap food in it. And, you don’t need those gimmicky diets either. Eat real food in the right amounts and your body will purr like your car’s engine after a tune up.
• Always focus on your form for best results and to prevent injury. Something we preach here at FCFNY. Exercises done properly with good form will yield far more results than the “go heavy, go fast or go home” thought process.
• Make sure there is a strength training component in your workout program. It is without question the thing that will give you the most benefits in both the short and long term!
At Full Circle Fitness, we pride ourselves in helping our members get the best results they can. We incorporate a wide variety of exercises including ALL of the above. In fact, we have over 800 different workouts so we rarely repeat a workout meaning you’ll never get bored.
We’ll make sure you do the exercises right so you stay safe and get the maximum results out of each session.
Ready to get started? Give us a call at (518) 955-6924.
Dan Romand is co-owner and co-operator of Full Circle Fitness-NY in Albany and Saratoga Springs.
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