But What Happens When Consistency Fails?
We as Americans, seem to spend more time reading motivational stuff than actually doing motivational stuff. I am not ragging on you for this, I collect it too. I have a folder with motivational stuff on my computer, an Instagram list, a YouTube channel all with people either gently coaxing or yelling at me to do better. When you get right down to it, we are all looking for a little motivation.
I also think a lot of this stuff is mindless jibber jabber that sounds good and looks good on a t-shirt. My job to come up with ideas that will actually help you. In most cases, this involves working hard to get people to be consistent in their training.
Consistent training works well except when it doesn't.
I love the quote, “No Matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everyone on the couch.” That one is a keeper in my book of sayings. What that means to me is that you have to put some skin in the game. Don’t talk about it, do it. But what happens when you are doing your laps and you realize you aren’t getting any faster? What if you religiously go to the gym year after year and look the same?
Sometimes people are cool with that. A Gym can be a place for them to go and have their “get away from the world” time. They don’t care about getting fitter, they just don’t want to feel older. Truth be told, the older I get, the more I can relate to that.
This year I am running slower than last year. A minute per mile slower. Is it age or am I doing something wrong? Before this, I never thought twice about age but the idea is slowly creeping up on me that I won’t continue to improve forever. That is a hard pill to swallow. By the way, I am still in denial about that and will be running faster by the end of the year, so don’t think I am getting soft!
What about everyone else who wants to get better, you are putting in the effort but it just isn’t happening.
Training equations
There are a couple of concepts you need to know, each with some mini-concepts.
You need to break down muscle tissue.
Working out is an exercise in breaking down muscle fibers but this is only the first step. The theory goes that muscle fibers get damaged during training, then they repair themselves to be stronger and more efficient. Your nervous system gets better at sending a strong signal to your muscles and change starts happening.
By the way, this is why people can make progress within the first couple of weeks of training with the worst programs imaginable. You are literally knocking the dust off the muscles and getting them working again. If you don’t damage the muscle fibers, they have no reason to repair or change and you don’t make progress.
Even if you have a good, solid program, like my online training, you will eventually stop making progress if you always use the same exercises, reps and weights. This is where a concept called “Progressive Overload” comes into play. To keep making progress, you have to keep making the workouts harder. Why? Because the body has adapted to the current workload.
When I train clients, I have a plan to start with basic exercises and progressively either add weight or introduce harder variations. I am not trying to mean, I am just working that established concept called “Progressive Overload.”
So if you are not getting results with your training, you need to ask yourself two questions.
- Am I still challenging myself with the workout?
- Am I doing too much and my body can’t recover?
It is my experience that the younger you are, the more aggressive your training will be. Oh, and your form will probably suck because you are young and you are still learning. Put those things together and you are giving your body a lot to recover from. I know when I was young, I over-trained all the time because I wanted fast results. Being young and having patience don’t always go together.
The older we get, the more careful we seem to be. This is a pretty natural reaction because at 18 I was bullet-proof. At 50 I am…well…not that bulletproof. But I may be an exception. Most of my clients start off very tentative because they don’t want to get injured.
So on the first day when I have them push a car up a hill, my clients don’t give me 100%….Just kidding. I just wanted to see if you were paying attention.
The big issue is that everybody has an idea as to how much weight they can lift and what is “heavy”. How they came up with that number is anyone’s guess but I they seem to be pretty random and it is always wrong.
As long as you have good form, there is no reason you shouldn’t pick up heavier weights or do more challenging exercises. You need to keep pushing the body, don’t let complacency set in.
Rest and Recovery
You have to repair and rebuild.
It is not unreasonable to assume that the body has an interest in rebuilding damaged muscles. The question is, are you letting this happen or screwing up the process?
What are the factors here?
Time and Nutrition
Time is broken down into two subcategories.
- Are you giving your body enough time between workouts to heal?
- Are you sleeping enough to let the actual rebuilding process take place?
If you don’t, you are not maximizing your workout.
Nutrition is also a two part concept.
- Are you giving your body the amount of raw materials it needs to rebuild?
- Are you getting the right amount of protein.
I am not here to preach to you about a certain diet. You can get to your goals with any number of eating plans. My concern is that you are eating enough and getting the right amount of protein.
The Botton Line: Quick Observations
- Skinny kids usually don’t eat enough and train too much to gain weight. Eat often and train fewer days if you aren’t making progress.
- Women, in general, do not eat enough protein to allow for muscle repair. Start by upping the protein a little with each meal.
- The older you are, the more likely you are coasting through workouts. Up the intensity. You have a couple variables to play with. You can add weight, do more sets or reduce your rest time or add more difficult exercises. You don’t have to be sore the next day but you should feel you worked out.
- If you can’t get adequate rest during a week, don’t work out as hard.
