Is Your Programme Holding You Back?

We all want results. We all want to achieve our goals, run faster, jump higher, lift heavier and lose more body fat. But are you sure you’re on the right path? Find out with this blog entry from T2 Fitness...

I lose count of the number of people I speak to in the course of my work who recount to me their training diaries and it reads like a tick-list of every exercise modality they can think of, or a friend has told them to do.

‘I run 3 days a week, do circuits on a Tuesday, spin Thursday and Saturday, and go swimming on a Friday. Oh, and I cycle to and from work and I try to do a weights program one day a week too, and I play squash as well’.

If this sounds like you I have one question for you – When your car needs a service do you do it yourself? Have a friend do it? No, you likely have a mechanic look at it. Your body is the most complicated machine you will ever have and we don’t mind taking advice from literally anywhere or anyone when we decide what to do with it.

One of the best things you can do is find a trainer and have a loooong chat with them. Find out their training philosophies, how they would approach various goal-based programmes, how they support their philosophies and their recommendations for you specifically. Write down everything you’re currently doing and let them wade through it to see if it supports your goals (it probably doesn’t or you probably would have achieved them by now)

If you trust them based on their ‘interview’ hire them! Turn all your programming over to them and follow their orders. This will feel a little alien at first I’m sure but also strangely liberating. In this instance the financial outlay is so worth the rewards, and if you use your sessions wisely you can learn enough to carry on yourself with a bit of ‘maintenance’ from the trainer.

See, your current regime is probably, like I said, a mish-mash of several ideas that you have thrown together in the hope of striking gold and while I agree that exercise of any kind is better than none it could be that your efforts are hindering your progress.

If you try to conquer everything in one go it’s very likely that you’ll get stronger, leaner and more efficient with your cardio…marginally.

With a bit more direction your programme could allow you to get A LOT stronger, leaner and more efficient.

We fellas get a bad rap as being unable to multitask but I’m sorry to say it ladies, you are just as incompetent in this arena at multitasking. It is precisely this flip-flopping that confuses your body as to what kind of response would be appropriate and what stimulus you are needing to recover from and adapt to first.

Find yourself a professional (if you know me come and ask me!) and start dissecting that plan you’ve got. You never know, it could be the best decision you ever make regarding your body.