You go to the gym religiously, but your Badass looks the same as it did a year ago. You eat virtuously, or so you think, but the scale is stuck - or moving in the wrong direction. You lift weights, but you're not getting much stronger.
If any of these hit home, odds are you're missing the equation somewhere. As a trainer and fitness instructor, students and clients often share their goals - and their frustrations - with me. Three things consistently emerge as the culprit. When they address the culprit and make adjustments, they typically start to see the results they want.
As the new year and Resolution season gets underway, here are the most common fitness missteps I see along the road to a leaner, stronger, healthier Badass:
1. Lack of Intensity: News flash -- walking the treadmill at an ambler's pace when you're capable of a jog, or even short sprint intervals, isn't going to get you to your weight loss goal any time soon. Spinning with the tension knob at 2 when you should be on a steep "hill" is cheating yourself. "Pumping iron" with 3-pound weights when you're strong enough for 10-pound dumbbells isn't the way to get sculpted.
This Badass journey is not a stroll in the park. It takes sweat, elevated heart rates, sore muscles and doing more pushups than you'd rather. So if you're going to show up, SHOW UP. Badasses don't do anything Half-Ass. Work hard. The eventual result: Harder abs, tighter Badass, rock-hard biceps.
2. Poor Form: Good form in weight training is key to good results. Instead I see:
- Crunches that involve pulling (and straining) the neck, instead of squeezing the core.
- Bicep curls that are all sloppy momentum, instead of a controlled curl.
- Lunges that are more like a quarter-curtsy instead of a deep, 90-degree lunge that really works the glutes and quads.
It's easy to get stuck in a comfort zone. But if that comfort zone involves poor form, you'll be just another "gym rat" who comes every day yet looks the same month after month. If maintenance is your goal, fine. But if you really want to make changes in your Badass, you need to lunge deeper, curl with more control, and lift smarter.
3. Miscalculated eating: The key to an efficient, fat-burning metabolism is balance. That means you don't cut calories to 1,100 or 1,200 a day while doing two-a-day cardio sessions. It means you don't justify three pieces of double-meat, stuffed-crust pizza with "But I just took a cycling class!"
Your body is a machine. Machines need fuel to keep running. They need not just the right fuel, but the right amounts. Eat too much, and the scale won't budget because you're not burning more calories than you put in. But if you eat too little, the scale won't budge because your body thinks you're starving it - and slows down your metabolism as it goes into the survival mode that dates back to our caveman days.
This miscalculation of eating is one of the most common challenges I see in clients and students. It inhibits their progress and frustrates them. They're exercising a lot, and they expect to see results. Totally understandable. But keep in mind: All work(outs) and no food makes your Badass starve. All work(outs) and too much food makes your Badass stagnant.
Balance, Badasses, balance. It will get you farther down the Badass road than any extreme diet or extreme exercise plan.
Coming next week: My 'date' with a healthy chef from across the pond; Monday's Move; and a Butts and Gutts workout
