The BURN Fitness Super-Secret Formula for Lifelong Fitness!
If there ever were a more gratuitous “click-bait” title for an on-line article… I’ve never seen it. But if I wrote an article called “The Most Boring and Unoriginal Way to Get in Shape Ever” nobody would ever read it. So, since this is likely the most important article you’ll ever read (on life-long fitness)… I figured I’d risk my professional credibility on a “catchy” title. Please accept my apology.
My competition is overflowing with get-thin-quick pitches, “new and incredible” workout routines, 3rd and 4th generations of workout DVDs, and “Diets”. But in reality… the only way to get in incredible shape, and STAY that way for life, is simply being consistent! Every time you start up a new workout routine, or start a new diet, and then drift away from it after a few weeks… you’re starting over. Even bodybuilder/physique athletes are guilty of this. Many will finish their contest season, and then take a month or two off from regular exercise, because they are “burned out”. When in reality, their contest prep would NEVER have been so brutal and grueling if they hadn’t taken time off after the last contest season! Just like the people who work out for a few weeks or months vigorously, and then quit… the fat weight they re-gain in their hiatus from exercise and clean nutrition they have to lose AGAIN.
Quite simply… the super-secret formula is quite boring: It’s only ingredient… Consistency.
“If you’re sick of staring over… Stop Quitting!” is one of my favorite quotes.
You see, every time you quit going to the gym, and quit following your basic nutrition, you gain back the fat you worked hard to lose, and then have to lose it all over again, just to get BACK to where you were.
But consistency is HARD!
Not as hard as you might think…
It’s true that to make major changes to your health and physique, you have to do some major work. It’s pretty well accepted that it takes almost an hour per day of exercise and a significant restructure of calories and macronutrients for people to get into “ideal” condition. And, that this volume of work will need to be done for months and months, not just a few weeks.
The good news is… you don’t have to ALWAYS do a huge volume of work to “hold the door” against fat re-gain, and loss of fitness level. Taking a FEW days off entirely, or simply dropping back to a few lighter workouts per week, will HOLD you where you are, and allow you to keep your progress. Once you regroup and are ready to get back into a full-force training mode, you will have lost almost nothing, and you’ll pick right up where you left off.
The problem comes when you go from 100 mph right down to ZERO… and for weeks at a time.
The gains (or good losses) you make through exercise are due to your body continually trying to adapt to the demands you put on it. Each month’s workout must be a TINY bit more challenging than the last to keep your body adapting. As the challenge increases, the body adapts, and you get stronger, or leaner, or both. If your workout does not continually challenge you (like taking the same class over and over at the same gym…) your body will NOT adapt. But if you MUST throttle back for a week, to maybe 2-2.5 hours as opposed to 5 hours of exercise… your body can hold its ground. It won’t further adapt to a higher level of fitness, but it won’t regress either. On the flip side… if you take 2, 3, 4+ weeks off from any serious exertion… your body will NOT maintain the progress you’ve made. It will adapt… but it will adapt to the LESSER load. It will lose muscle, and regain fat.
This is why elite level athletes and bodybuilders must continue to train at a VERY high level, even after reaching an amazing level of fitness/leanness. An extended let-up in their volume will cause them to lose their condition. Once you’ve got it… you need to work to keep it.
If this happens to you, all is NOT lost. It is much easier for your body to regain lost muscle. If you were nice and strong, even 6-8 months ago, your muscle loss and strength will come back in just a few months. Even formerly muscular people, who have taken YEARS off, will regain much of that muscle much more quickly than someone who’s never had it. The problem is… the regained fat does NOT leave quickly! The fat takes just as long as the last time…
Just a bit MORE bad news… Science is showing us that especially in women… fat re-gain doesn’t always come back to the same PLACE they lost it initially. We’re starting to learn (though the science is new…) that for various reasons, women tend to RE-gain lost fat back disproportionately in their lower body. This has a more significant impact on female physique athletes. Those who have lost fat, then gained some back, then lost, and re-gained… as is typical in an annual off-season/on-season pattern, tend to gain more and more fat in their lower body as their upper body gets leaner and leaner.
In conclusion… For life-long fitness, there is no secret formula. There is no secret workout routine. You cannot change science, and you cannot alter the laws of thermodynamics. Vigorous exercise (including resistance training) will make positive adaptations to your body. Moderate exercise will “hold” your adaptations where they are and keep you from losing ground. Significant “Breaks” from exercise will cause “reverse-adaptation”… which is bad!
So how can we help?
At this point in my career… over half of my client base has been with me for a year, to as much as four years consistently. They know that if they don’t have regularly scheduled workouts with their trainer on their weekly routine, they simply WILL NOT make progress against their goals. At a minimum… even if they are having a bad, hectic, or low-energy week, that by coming to us, they will at LEAST hold the line on their fitness and not get worse!
This is what anti-aging fitness is all about! As we get older, simply just “going to work out” does NOT guarantee you’ll lose fat and gain strength. Every year, your body WILL lose more muscle and add more fat UNLESS you reverse the process.
Reversing that process is what our business is all about! Quit getting weaker. Quit getting fatter. Quit getting OLD! Getting OLDER is a GOOD thing. Getting OLD SUCKS!
If there ever were a more gratuitous “click-bait” title for an on-line article… I’ve never seen it. But if I wrote an article called “The Most Boring and Unoriginal Way to Get in Shape Ever” nobody would ever read it. So, since this is likely the most important article you’ll ever read (on life-long fitness)… I figured I’d risk my professional credibility on a “catchy” title. Please accept my apology.
My competition is overflowing with get-thin-quick pitches, “new and incredible” workout routines, 3rd and 4th generations of workout DVDs, and “Diets”. But in reality… the only way to get in incredible shape, and STAY that way for life, is simply being consistent! Every time you start up a new workout routine, or start a new diet, and then drift away from it after a few weeks… you’re starting over. Even bodybuilder/physique athletes are guilty of this. Many will finish their contest season, and then take a month or two off from regular exercise, because they are “burned out”. When in reality, their contest prep would NEVER have been so brutal and grueling if they hadn’t taken time off after the last contest season! Just like the people who work out for a few weeks or months vigorously, and then quit… the fat weight they re-gain in their hiatus from exercise and clean nutrition they have to lose AGAIN.
Quite simply… the super-secret formula is quite boring: It’s only ingredient… Consistency.
“If you’re sick of staring over… Stop Quitting!” is one of my favorite quotes.
You see, every time you quit going to the gym, and quit following your basic nutrition, you gain back the fat you worked hard to lose, and then have to lose it all over again, just to get BACK to where you were.
But consistency is HARD!
Not as hard as you might think…
It’s true that to make major changes to your health and physique, you have to do some major work. It’s pretty well accepted that it takes almost an hour per day of exercise and a significant restructure of calories and macronutrients for people to get into “ideal” condition. And, that this volume of work will need to be done for months and months, not just a few weeks.
The good news is… you don’t have to ALWAYS do a huge volume of work to “hold the door” against fat re-gain, and loss of fitness level. Taking a FEW days off entirely, or simply dropping back to a few lighter workouts per week, will HOLD you where you are, and allow you to keep your progress. Once you regroup and are ready to get back into a full-force training mode, you will have lost almost nothing, and you’ll pick right up where you left off.
The problem comes when you go from 100 mph right down to ZERO… and for weeks at a time.
The gains (or good losses) you make through exercise are due to your body continually trying to adapt to the demands you put on it. Each month’s workout must be a TINY bit more challenging than the last to keep your body adapting. As the challenge increases, the body adapts, and you get stronger, or leaner, or both. If your workout does not continually challenge you (like taking the same class over and over at the same gym…) your body will NOT adapt. But if you MUST throttle back for a week, to maybe 2-2.5 hours as opposed to 5 hours of exercise… your body can hold its ground. It won’t further adapt to a higher level of fitness, but it won’t regress either. On the flip side… if you take 2, 3, 4+ weeks off from any serious exertion… your body will NOT maintain the progress you’ve made. It will adapt… but it will adapt to the LESSER load. It will lose muscle, and regain fat.
This is why elite level athletes and bodybuilders must continue to train at a VERY high level, even after reaching an amazing level of fitness/leanness. An extended let-up in their volume will cause them to lose their condition. Once you’ve got it… you need to work to keep it.
If this happens to you, all is NOT lost. It is much easier for your body to regain lost muscle. If you were nice and strong, even 6-8 months ago, your muscle loss and strength will come back in just a few months. Even formerly muscular people, who have taken YEARS off, will regain much of that muscle much more quickly than someone who’s never had it. The problem is… the regained fat does NOT leave quickly! The fat takes just as long as the last time…
Just a bit MORE bad news… Science is showing us that especially in women… fat re-gain doesn’t always come back to the same PLACE they lost it initially. We’re starting to learn (though the science is new…) that for various reasons, women tend to RE-gain lost fat back disproportionately in their lower body. This has a more significant impact on female physique athletes. Those who have lost fat, then gained some back, then lost, and re-gained… as is typical in an annual off-season/on-season pattern, tend to gain more and more fat in their lower body as their upper body gets leaner and leaner.
In conclusion… For life-long fitness, there is no secret formula. There is no secret workout routine. You cannot change science, and you cannot alter the laws of thermodynamics. Vigorous exercise (including resistance training) will make positive adaptations to your body. Moderate exercise will “hold” your adaptations where they are and keep you from losing ground. Significant “Breaks” from exercise will cause “reverse-adaptation”… which is bad!
So how can we help?
At this point in my career… over half of my client base has been with me for a year, to as much as four years consistently. They know that if they don’t have regularly scheduled workouts with their trainer on their weekly routine, they simply WILL NOT make progress against their goals. At a minimum… even if they are having a bad, hectic, or low-energy week, that by coming to us, they will at LEAST hold the line on their fitness and not get worse!
This is what anti-aging fitness is all about! As we get older, simply just “going to work out” does NOT guarantee you’ll lose fat and gain strength. Every year, your body WILL lose more muscle and add more fat UNLESS you reverse the process.
Reversing that process is what our business is all about! Quit getting weaker. Quit getting fatter. Quit getting OLD! Getting OLDER is a GOOD thing. Getting OLD SUCKS!