Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Stop Picking Up Dimes! It's Killing Your Fitness Results

I am tired of seeing people drop a dime, bend over to pick it up, while doing so, a hundred falls straight out of their back pocket.Obviously, the dime is not important in and of itself; but in this example, it has a cost of $99.90. I use this metaphor often in the description of people who are continually focusing on the wrong things. You have $100 in your pocket, take care of it. Best case, you invest it and it grows; worst case, you at least put it in the bank and keep it safe. And you sure as heck don't walk around haphazardly with it hanging out of your trousers. What do I mean by this? Well the premise is simple; sticking with the execution is not.You have fitness goals, remember the ones you made in earnest shortly after the leftover turkey was gone from the fridge and a new calendar came in the mail from your favourite real estate agent? Yah those ones. I am hoping you haven't been walking around the gym picking up dimes....Owning a fitness business and being a fitness coach I have spent many hours in the gym. I see all types, it's in part, what makes my job so cool. Now I realize that in a facility many people are coming in for different reasons. All that being considered, we still want our time to be invested well and to see a result. Sound familiar, yeah the amazing financial advice I just gave relates to your fitness goals. It's time to wise up, your time, just like your investments, are valuable. Are you picking up dimes?Q: What are dimes? nope.A: Anything that takes your concentration off of your fitness goal. Remember you were headed to the bank with that $100. Don't get sidetracked.Fitness information is so abound right now that new terms are even being coined for the condition such as 'Exercise ADD' or 'Program Hopping' or even 'Muscle Confusion' These situations arise out of an overload of potential options. We field questions very regularly that usually begin with 'Hey, what do you think about.....". Generally this is a question about a new program that has arisen on the interwebz or in a popular rag on how to shed 13 lbs in 13 hours or add 4 inches to your biceps in 4 days. What this inevitably leads to is a person bouncing from exercise to exercise, program to program picking and choosing movements and equipment that they like and doing it without any respect given to a long term individualized goal or plan. You are coming to the gym for a result; lose 10 lbs before the summer solstice, gain 5 lbs of lean mass to make the team or even to fit you 'skinny' jeans. This pick and choose attitude is simply an ineffective and inefficient way to get there. Trial and error is not even a good way to describe this mentality; the reason is trial and error implies that once an erroneous or ineffective way is discovered it is discarded. Yet in this bounce around method there is no way to know what is effective or not and poor, potentially useless things are repeated; talk about a waste of time.Let's use a different illustration to wrap our minds around this. Mice. Small, annoying, kind of gross but basically harmless little rodents. We don't want them around and there any number of solutions to get rid of them. Deterrents (mothballs), traps (sticky or WHAM!), poison, a cat, and last resort - exterminator. We go through a trial and error process in their eradication. Deterrents don't work....move on. Sticky traps don't work; fine, move to a cat. Lazy cat doesn't produce. Finally after 4-5 trial and errors, in come the big guns and the exterminator does the job right.My point here is that trial and error for things that are not your body are fine and really the effect is generally superficial, only costing time. But seriously, when you are dealing with the only body you have been given for this life, why on earth would you resort to blind trial and error from sources that are extremely questionable at best. You hire the pros for the measly mice, a professional fixes the leak in your roof, he fills your prescription at the pharmacy etc, you get the picture. These people are not guessing. They know what works the most efficiently and they get it done. I think I am starting to show some clarity here as this stab in the dark mentality when it comes to body composition changes needs to stop.My point through all of this is do not keep stabbing in the dark by jumping around from program to program, (picking up dimes) fad to fad hoping something sticks. If you do a DIY on your roof and it leaks again, you can't complain, you did it yourself! Having a hard time catching the mouse? Hire a pro.A client recently asked one of the "Hey what do you think about this program" type questions and my response before giving my opinion was simple. Did that advice come from someone who is qualified and relies on the result to feed his/her family? If not, re-think the source. This isn't how to get a few more horsepower out of your car or tree pruning tips, this you body, take it seriously. Your body is worth too much. At Coastal Fitness we know what works. Your program is laid out in a fashion that has a long term goal orientated purpose, each workout builds off the last, you will be excited by the results! Stop picking up dimes!

Ryan Jobs has his degree in Kinesiology, is FMS Level 2 certified, and BCRPA certified personal trainer and is owner of Coastal Fitness; a results based fitness company located in the Langley, British Columbia, Canada. His passion and ability to take information from the best in the industry and provide a fast and effective result to his clients, has quickly established him as the "go to" fat loss guy in the region. Ryan and the rest of the Coastal staff strive to give Langley B.C. residents the Courage to Start, and the Strength to Succeed!For more great info and join our newsletter at to http://www.coastalfitness.ca Find us on Facebook @ http://www.facebook.c

Related Posts :

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)