Hi all,
Its Friday again and time to answer another question (of many) that has been asked this week.
A member in the gym I work at came to me very frustrated wanting to know the reason why she cannot lose the excess fat that she carries. I am well aware that there are alot of people in the same boat so I wanted to highlight some of the possible reasons why.
Now she is by now means very big but she does carry a little excess
bodyfat. She is very dedicated to the gym and in my classes appears to be
working very hard.
This is what PT's call Plateau- a period of little or no apparent progress in an individual's performance, marked by an inability to reduce bodyfat, and improve shape.
Some common reasons for this include:
Doing the same workouts over and over. Your body needs to be challenged to progress. You need to change some part of your program
every 4-6 weeks.
Not eating enough calories. Believe it or not if your body doesn't have enough fuel to sustain your level of activity, you can actually stop losing weight.
Over training. If you exercise too much, the body can respond by reducing the amount of calories you burn during the rest of your day.
Age- Remember ladies as we grow older and more beautiful our metabolism begin to slow. Menopause causes changes in our hormones which can effect fat storage, and may cause weight gain in certain people.
The point that I want to cover and one of the possible reasons why this member and maybe you have not changed is TRAINING. After a long chat I discovered that she had been religiously exercising daily doing the same thing, lifting the same weights and eating the same foods for maybe 6 Months!!!.
So... Your training. Have you religiously carried out the same program at the same intensity forever? Are you still using the same weights as you did 6months ago?.
For the body to change it needs to feel a change. ( I will discuss this later). Or is your training inconsistent? Do you go for a week then disappear then decide after a naughty weekend to go back to your training. *CONSISTENCY* is the key.
As a PT who Trains
well and likes to see clients progress I know how important it is to change
exercises, and different methods of training to shock the body. I recommend
changing what you do every 4 to 6 weeks.
This can be done by following the FITT principle, change the
FREQUENCY- number of sessions a week (unless you train 7 days then decrease)
INTENSITY- take yourself out of your comfort zone, add in some interval work to increase your metabolism.
TIME- Maybe increase the duration. If you normally run for 30mins 5x a week why not on 2 of the days increase to 45mins
TYPE- Do you always do that aerobics class 3x a week?. Well why not try
something new like a Spinning Class, Body Attack, Body Combat or even a Dance class. Variety is the spice of life and when adding variety to your program you use different muscles, energy systems and in turn may stimulate that change you want.
So to sum up.... If you want a change you must change. The body is very smart and will adapt very easily so the *Key* is to keep it guessing and see the results.
I hope you enjoyed this blog, please feel free to leave a comment or question.
Also if you need any
help about your training or nutrition you can contact me directly on the home
page and I will Endeavour to help you.
Keep healthy
Jill
Its Friday again and time to answer another question (of many) that has been asked this week.
A member in the gym I work at came to me very frustrated wanting to know the reason why she cannot lose the excess fat that she carries. I am well aware that there are alot of people in the same boat so I wanted to highlight some of the possible reasons why.
Now she is by now means very big but she does carry a little excess
bodyfat. She is very dedicated to the gym and in my classes appears to be
working very hard.
This is what PT's call Plateau- a period of little or no apparent progress in an individual's performance, marked by an inability to reduce bodyfat, and improve shape.
Some common reasons for this include:
Doing the same workouts over and over. Your body needs to be challenged to progress. You need to change some part of your program
every 4-6 weeks.
Not eating enough calories. Believe it or not if your body doesn't have enough fuel to sustain your level of activity, you can actually stop losing weight.
Over training. If you exercise too much, the body can respond by reducing the amount of calories you burn during the rest of your day.
Age- Remember ladies as we grow older and more beautiful our metabolism begin to slow. Menopause causes changes in our hormones which can effect fat storage, and may cause weight gain in certain people.
The point that I want to cover and one of the possible reasons why this member and maybe you have not changed is TRAINING. After a long chat I discovered that she had been religiously exercising daily doing the same thing, lifting the same weights and eating the same foods for maybe 6 Months!!!.
So... Your training. Have you religiously carried out the same program at the same intensity forever? Are you still using the same weights as you did 6months ago?.
For the body to change it needs to feel a change. ( I will discuss this later). Or is your training inconsistent? Do you go for a week then disappear then decide after a naughty weekend to go back to your training. *CONSISTENCY* is the key.
As a PT who Trains
well and likes to see clients progress I know how important it is to change
exercises, and different methods of training to shock the body. I recommend
changing what you do every 4 to 6 weeks.
This can be done by following the FITT principle, change the
FREQUENCY- number of sessions a week (unless you train 7 days then decrease)
INTENSITY- take yourself out of your comfort zone, add in some interval work to increase your metabolism.
TIME- Maybe increase the duration. If you normally run for 30mins 5x a week why not on 2 of the days increase to 45mins
TYPE- Do you always do that aerobics class 3x a week?. Well why not try
something new like a Spinning Class, Body Attack, Body Combat or even a Dance class. Variety is the spice of life and when adding variety to your program you use different muscles, energy systems and in turn may stimulate that change you want.
So to sum up.... If you want a change you must change. The body is very smart and will adapt very easily so the *Key* is to keep it guessing and see the results.
I hope you enjoyed this blog, please feel free to leave a comment or question.
Also if you need any
help about your training or nutrition you can contact me directly on the home
page and I will Endeavour to help you.
Keep healthy
Jill
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