This month will be heaving with new gym members aiming to shift the body fat gained over the festive period. Have you noticed within a month or so that guy or girl you see on the treadmill 5 times a week, is no longer there come February/March. On average 4 out of 10 January members have stopped training within 30 days. The massive drop off in new starters is mainly down to lack of results, if someone was happy with their progress surely they would be more motivated by their success to carry on. So why are just over half of new members not achieving their desired results ?
There are two big reasons why.
1.Lack of knowledge on nutrition.
2.Lack of knowledge on optimal training planning.
As I have focused on nutrition in previous articles, I will focus on training this time around.
In the interest of not turning this article into a novel I will gun for the most common mistake in January, which is using the treadmill as your primary and quite often only training tool. Particularly jogging or long slow distance cardio is one of the least effective protocols for fat loss and here is why.
If your’e dedicating training time to long distance cardio you are only using slow twitch muscle fibres. Fast twitch muscle fibres will not grow due to under use, if the aim is fat loss this is bad news, because these bigger denser muscles burn more energy and will allow you to train heavier which in turn will also burn more energy. Constantly using your slow twitch muscles and training for weeks on end will also stress the body resulting in higher cortisol which encourages fat storage around the stomach. You may get results at the start (especially if you have been inactive for a while) but as with any other protocol results will slow, plateau then have a negative effect. Any programme needs to be varied and changed to stop plateaus. Look at the physique of a marathon runner now look at the sprinter both incredibly lean but the sprinter also looks strong. I’m not knocking marathon runners this takes dedication but is it the look you are after ?
Try this instead if you are a treadmill junkie.
20/30 second all out sprint
1.30 slow jog
Repeat until your done
I recommend
unfit 8-10 minutes
Moderately fit 12-15 minutes
Fit 20-25 minutes
You can improve fitness by knocking 5 seconds off the jog until the ratio of sprint and jog is 50/50 and adding an extra sprint each week or bi weekly.
At this point you would then need to learn resistance training starting with simple circuits then as you become more experienced move to GVT, death circuits and HIIT, changing up your routine every 4-6 weeks will keep you motivated and keep your results going in the right direction. Using this method will take years to master hence you are more likely to be still in the gym months and years later. I hope this article has been useful and helps you become a gym regular rather than a 1 month wonder good luck.