And so the circus is about to begin.
Every magazine and every celebrity will be bombarding our turkey-ed out female population with the latest, greatest gizmo’s and diets ready to rob them of whatever is left on their credit cards after the Christmas fun and frolicking.
As usual, intelligent, educated ladies are going to start behaving like children and grabbing for the one with the most colours and fanfare, embarking on yet another 12 months of pitiful results despite the investments of numerous hours and the draining of their bank account.
I am taking it upon myself to round up those who realise that there has been something SEVERELY wrong with their approach in recent times and who are desperate to see a change.
It is beyond me why the other ladies will continue to allow people to take advantage of them even though they KNOW deep-down this new diet won’t last more than a few weeks (if that).
You continue to accept that they don’t deserve any better.
You continue to believe that THIS year, the aerobics DVD WILL last beyond the first 2 weeks of the New Year.
You are determined that for some reason, jogging whenever you can will make a difference.
Here are the 10 key things most women do wrong, leaving them feeling flabby, looking tired and overworked and never being able to get excited about anything because they are too self-conscious, lacking confidence and just don’t have the energy.
10 Biggest Errors
1) Not understanding that muscles burn calories and weights build muscles.
Virtually every woman I have ever trained has been indoctrinated by the Cult of Hello! which states that looking great requires prancing around with pink dumbbells and doing high knee repeaters.
These women have seen the rapid transformations in other women I have trained, but there Magazine Religion has brought them up to believe that THEY will blow up like the hulk unless they just do lots of high repetitions and cardio.
I can tell you with 100% certainty, that if you wish to create a lean, curvy physique, you will NOT do it this way.
You may burn more calories during a spinning session than the average weight lifting session but you are missing out on the key element. When you finish a cardio session the stressed of exercise are over and thus your body settles back to normality.
After a weights sessions, your body must repair and rebuild muscles, creating the ‘tone’ you seek (For the record I hate that word but you’ll understand!). To do this, all sorts of processes must occur over the next 24 hours or so, elevating your metabolic rate and burning vastly more calories than your spinning session.
Not only do you burn more calories whilst doing nothing thus stripping body fat off you, but you also build your muscles back stronger. This DOESN’T mean you will become huge, it simply means you get more toned looking muscles all over your body.
Not only this but doing the same Zumba or aerobics class with a few new funky moves will result in stagnation. Your body only changes and adapts when it is faced with a challenge that your current state cannot handle. Changing the Girls Aloud tricep track will NEVER, EVER do anything for your body.
ACTION STEP – Ensure you perform 3 resistance training sessions per week. A great place to start would be sessions like this (assuming you have been taught proper technique)
A1: Squats 4 sets of 8 reps Rest 45 seconds
A2: Assisted chin up 4 sets of 6 reps Rest 45 seconds
B1: Reverse lunges 3 sets of 12 reps on each leg Rest 45 seconds
B2: Single arm dumbbell row 3 sets of 12 reps on each leg Rest 45 seconds
Metabolic finisher 40m shuttle run, 20 burpees (star jumps for beginners). Complete 5 rounds as fast as possible
Similar sessions, 3 times per week will strip body fat off you in no time assuming your nutrition is excellent.
2) Not understanding that it is VERY difficult to build large amounts of muscle to look like the hulk.
Millions of boys and men across the world, spend hours in the gym, ‘pumping iron’ with little to show for it other than a bad back and a shoulder injury.
The reason for this is that to build the amounts of muscle you are scared of requires lifting HUGE weights, performing low repetitions to really challenge strength, eating large amounts of food and using certain anabolic substances (not illegal ones, just careful supplementation around workouts) You also need testosterone levels of a male which are typically 30-40 times higher than the average female.
Thus your chances of getting ‘big and bulky’ really are minimal. So are your chances of losing those love handles if you cannot except that weight training is CRITICAL to change your body shape.
This weight training needs to be challenging otherwise your muscles have no need to change shape and your body will not be required to burn body fat for energy.
This essentially means you are pouring money down the drain just for some to tire you out and leave you more worn out than you were in the first place!
ACTION STEP: Learn to love weight training. Find someone who can show you how to use resistance (your bodyweight, kettlebells, dumbbells, bags, balls and anything else you can find) to create enjoyable but challenging workouts which produce results on a weekly basis. This is not your boring, do a set, chat for 2 minutes then do another set training.
3) The women you want to look like have been photo shopped and trained for 2-3 hours a day to get magazine ready.
The strange thing is that you know this! I’m not going to insult your intelligence by explaining it.
You know THAT body wasn’t created with her ‘10 minute toning’ DVD in the lounge. That girl has been put through her paces for weeks and weeks specifically preparing for the photo shoot.
“Former EastEnders actress Natalie Cassidy has admitted that keeping her newly trim physique is proving to be nightmare – and she has to work out for two hours daily to keep her Size 8 figure.” Daily Mail, April 2008
How many people bought her DVD but never knew this?
You’re chasing dreams that you will never achieve.
Hang on Jon, you’re supposed to tell me that anything is possible.
You’re right, it is. But doing 15 minutes a day of twizzling ‘cardiorobics’ in your living room will NOT make you look like the hot instructor patronizing you from the TV screen.
Sorry it just doesn’t work that way.
ACTION STEP: Stop falling for January glamour offers from every celebrity under the sun. You are smarter than that and you KNOW great results come from hard work in all walks of life. Don’t join the gullible droves of teenage girls clambering for Jilly Jubbly’s new boxaerobiczuma program.
4) You don’t understand that, provided all is well with hormones and stress levels, aerobic exercise is the slowest, most inefficient way to create a hot, sexy body but the fastest way to impact injuries and becoming skinny fat.
If you are highly stressed, a few weeks of light cardio work OUTDOORS can do wonders for your health and body shape but not necessarily because of the direct effects of ‘doing cardio’.
The act of simply finding time for yourself, getting outside and oxygenating your body and forgetting all the stresses in life can make your body do wonderful things, inside and out.
However, this will only get you so far, and certainly not to that curvy Size 10 you keep talking about.
Nobody EVER looked great simply from obsessing about hours and hours of cardio in the gym. That skinny girl on the cross-trainer was probably like that before she started. Don’t make assumptions.
To make ‘cardio’ harder, you need to run either longer (who has time for 3 hour runs) or harder.
If you’re going to run harder, you may as well have done some interval training or resistance based intervals in the first place.
Cardio has its place but should not be the be-all and end-all. This includes aerobics, zumba and all their ineffective cousins.
Remember that ‘cardio’ means anything that provides a challenge to the cardiovascular system. This can easily be achieved with resistance training (and without the build up at the start of a run which is just wasting your time).
ACTION STEP: Focus on quality and efficiency in shaping your exercise time. What will give you the most ‘bang for your buck’? I call it ‘metabolic weight training’ which partly breaks down muscle to be rebuilt afterwards and partly spikes your heart rate and metabolic rate both during and between sessions for optimal effect all week, not just whilst you’re in the gym. Put steady state cardio at the bottom of your priority list after resistance training and metabolic conditioning training. Erase aerobics and Zumba off all together.
5) You talk about and worry about hormones on a daily basis yet continue to do exercise and eat food which makes the situation worse.
At some point sooner or later, every woman has a tough time with hormones.
Understanding hormones is the key to finally changing your body.
Unfortunately all the chocolate treats, sugar filled bread and pasta and excessive cardio just make the situation worse.
If you want to make progress, you need to get hormones like leptin, insulin, adrenaline and cortisol under control as they determine how your body treats food and how well you will be able to exercise.
If you’ve never heard of these, your attempts to hit your goals (particularly if you have a history of dieting or stress and depression) may well be futile.
Unfortunately, despite your best intentions, you may make the situation worse as certain exercises and the way they are performed can push stress levels up and you to the brink of meltdown.
ACTION STEP: Take some time to find out about these hormones and how they affect you. This is obviously crucial around the menopause but is affecting younger women and teenagers more and more.
Such articles can be found on this blog.
6) You never follow up on the people you give money to.
What is that hot celeb in the exercise video doing now?
Last time I bothered to check, Natalie Cassidy was fat and Gillian McKeith has lost the plot.
Just because they are on a DVD cover doesn’t mean it will get you results.
If they fell apart soon after leading to a food binge and no exercise, the chances are it will do the same to you!
ACTION STEP: Don’t buy any fitness DVD’s in January. Let the New Year wildfire stop burning and use that time to gather information for more informed decisions with people who produce results all year round, ever year.
7) You mistake sweat for progress
Sweating is a necessary part of getting results.
It signifies, stress, increased circulation and hard work – all components of a productive program.
However, it is possible to sweat A LOT without getting results.
I know people who sweat eating a curry – it doesn’t mean they are going to reach 15% body fat or get into a slinky black dress.
Review the changes in your body and fitness since doing aerobics for 12 months. The chances are the first month brought some results – anything does for a month when you have been inactive.
But what happened beyond that?
ACTION STEP: Keep a journal of results. If you haven’t got results for 3 weeks or more, sack it off and change direction (see above)
8) You haven’t been truthful with yourself.
There is often a deep underlying time bomb inside you putting the brakes on progress.
You say you want to lose a bit of weight, get a bit fitter, be able to run more.
What you mean is you are sick of being the overweight one in the office as it’s make you sick to the pit of your stomach.
What you mean is that you feel life is running away with you now the hot flushes have kicked in and you feel rotten every day when you get up.
What you mean is that you have lost the youthful confidence you had to achieve everything you wanted in your work and family life simply because you have put on lots of weight.
Understand the core issues behind the superficial feelings and you will never fall off the wagon again.
ACTION STEP: ‘Peel the onion’ on your goals to get to the root cause of your inner psychology. This is MASSIVELY powerful and the reason the people who get the best results in the long-term are those who were in the worst state to start with. They are crystal clear as to what would have happened if they had failed to take the necessary action rather than milling around a gym with no real clue and no real need to move away from the cause of pain in their life.
9) You spend most of their time with ladies who are as overweight if not more so than them.
You give up your free time to listen to ‘friends’ moan about how crap life is, how they can’t lose weight, how they can’t find a man….then proceed to gravitate towards the group average.
You become what you surround yourself with.
ACTION STEP: Take a close look at the five people you spend most time with. Find some friends and gym partners who are fitter, thinner and healthier than you. Again you will gravitate towards the group average – this time that’s great!
10) You don’t get that finding 3 hours per week to exercise really isn’t that difficult.
This is the one I have most arguments about.
“I haven’t got time”.
Once you have done the following, you may use it as an excuse…..
- Stopped watching 5 hours of soaps per week
- Stopped going shopping for 3 hours every Saturday
- Got up 15 minutes early to do some kettlebell training at home (no need to drive to the gym)
- Stopped spending 20 minutes per day gassing on the phone about how much time you don’t have
- Batched your healthy food preparation into twice per week
- Tried and failed to book exercise into your week whilst the kids are at piano / football / dancing etc etc
If you have retorted with “yeah but I like to…”, we have already made progress.
Now it is clear the problem is not one of time, but one of motivation in that you DO have enough time you just don’t want to prioritize exercise over other elements of your life.
Note that NONE of the above will take away from your relationship with your family (in fact it should improve them!).
Don’t use the kids as an excuse until you have done the above!
ACTION STEP: Do a stock-take on every single hour of your week. How many hours do you REALLY have free with a little simple elimination of worthless activities?
Stop making all these mistakes which have plagued you for years and you will see a MASSIVE change in your life.
The beauty is that these are non-obtrusive changes!
You just need to change HOW you exercise (if you do already), WHAT you eat and WHAT you spend your time on.
No need to let your family down, just commit to doing things differently without really doing any MORE.
Simple!
Find out more at Storm Force Fitness
