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How To Dramatically Improve Your Fitness Results
By Mike Symons
Do you feel like you aren't making progress in the gym? Do you feel
that you aren't reaching your physical goals such as lower body fat
or increased muscle, even though you consistently "eat right" and
get your workout in?
What if I told you that you only need two things to get the results
that you deserve and that these items are readily available in your
home or office right now?
Before you get all hyped up thinking that this is some miracle drug
or new-fangled piece of exercise equipment, it isn't. There is
absolutely no substitute for hard work and commitment towards
your goals.
So what are these two things?
Wait for it¡
Paper and pencil.
No, I¡¯m not joking. Let me explain and give some examples.
Your body is highly adaptable. It will adapt and change so that it
can meet the challenges that it faces day in and day out. This is
great in some regards, but not so great in others. Let¡¯s take lifting
weights (with building muscle as a goal) as an example. If you go
to the gym and do bench press with 135 pounds every week and
never strive to increase the weight you lift, your body will adapt
just enough to make you good at benching 135 pounds. Your
central nervous system will adapt slightly, and you might even
grow some muscle. Eventually with no new challenges, your body
will remain the same, and you will no longer grow or get stronger.
Another example would be walking. People walk a lot (or should)
every day. If the only physical activity that these people do is
walking, their legs will not get bigger after a certain point. The
body adapts to the stress of walking, and then once it gets
"comfortable", it will remain the same.
So how does the paper and pencil fit in?
Simple. If you are striving to reach a goal, whether it be gaining
muscle or losing fat, you must strive to improve from week to
week, and month to month. To me, it is amazing how few people
actually keep track of their workouts at the gym. If you aren't
writing what you do down, you won't have any way of tracking
progress.
As a general rule, you should strive to either increase the weight
that you use or increase reps for each exercise you do.
For example, let's say that last week, you did two sets of barbell
military press. The weight used was 95 pounds, and you did two
sets of ten repetitions. This week, when you do that exercise, you
should increase the weight by five pounds, and attempt the same
number of reps. Let¡¯s say that for the first set, you got all ten reps,
but for the second set, you only got eight. Next week, in order to
improve, keep the weight the same, but strive to get ten reps for
both sets. Rinse, and repeat.
The other side of this coin is tracking your nutrition. Whether your
goal is to gain muscle or lose fat, keeping a food log is the
absolute best way to maintain steady progress.
If you start struggling to lose fat, keep track of everything you eat
on a daily basis, including total calories and fat, protein and
carbohydrates. Armed with this information, you can start
analyzing your diet to see where the problems are. If you fail to
lose weight, take the daily calories that you were getting before
and subtract 200 per day from that amount. Continue this until you
are losing the amount of fat each week that you desire (keeping in
mind that a weight loss in excess of two pounds a week can be
unhealthy).
If you are struggling to put on muscle weight, keeping track of
total calories will give also assist you. Follow the same idea for
losing fat, but instead of subtracting calories, add them.
Reaching your goals is very simple (don't confuse the word simple
with easy). If you strive to improve each and every workout
session, and keep track of your nutrition using some form of
tracking, you will see results.
About the Author
Discover the shocking secrets to what it really takes to have the body you've always wanted. Visit www.PhatFitness.net for the truth about getting awesome diet and exercise results. You may be surprised at what really makes the difference.
Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/7756.html
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