You’ve been working out, eating healthy and still not seeing the results you are looking for. For the first few weeks you have experienced some progress but it seems like it stagnated ever since. In this article i have broken down four main variables to pay attention to in order to resume your progress and achieve your fitness goals.
1. TRAINING
Before any value can be given to a workout program, exercise selection or numbers of sets and reps, the most important variable that will dictate your results in the gym is exercise execution.
We are all built slightly different, therefore logically it doesn’t make sense to blindly follow someone’s else routine. How you perform an exercise is much more important than which exercise you do. Just because John the Biceps Guy says to do barbell curls for arms does not mean you will benefit as much or any from doing them since your body may be structurally much different than his.
Focus on learning the correct movement patterns for your body, making sure your muscles are fully engaged and doing as much work as possible with each repetition.
Allowing your mind to drift away into paradise while working out and simply moving weight from point A to point B is insufficient. A muscle must be put under mechanical stress and unless you are one of the 1% of the genetically blessed individuals, you must consciously pay attention to what your muscles are doing during your workout.
Lighten the weight if you have to and focus on learning the proper exercise execution for your body type. You will undoubtedly experience a new wave of progress and results.
2. NUTRITION
This is probably the toughest part for most people. The workout part is only one hour of the day, nutrition part is the rest of the day.
Nutrition must go hand in hand with the type of training your doing and your specific goal you are working towards. It will dictate whether you will be maintaining your current physique, lose weight & body-fat or build muscle mass.
Once you figure out what you exact goal is, align your nutrition with your goal.
If your goal is fat loss then you must be eating in a caloric deficit. If your goal is to build muscle then you must be eating in a slight surplus.
Working out hard and eating whatever you find around the house hoping it will somehow get you to your goal or that your workout will cancel out the poor food choices is most likely not going to happen.
In addition, eating ‘healthy’ and losing body fat are not necessarily one and the same. At the end of the day, total caloric intake will make the difference whether you will be losing weight or not.
Eating healthy and losing fat most definitely can be congruent, but careful attention must payed to the amount of healthy calories you are consuming daily.
Tracking your food intake will simplify the process, giving you the opportunity to make daily adjustments so that you stay on track and get the results you’re after.
3. RECOVERY
This may be one of the most overlook variables when it comes to health and fitness. In a world where coffee rules, sleep deprivation is increasing. Regardless if your goal is fat loss or muscle gain, sleep and recovery plays a significant role.
Studies show that sleep curtailment decreased the fraction of weight lost as fat by 55% and increased the loss of fat-free body mass by 60%. In addition, the body became more adapted to the caloric restriction, burning less fat while hunger was increased. (1)
Sleep deprivation also leads to decreased insulin sensitivity which has a great impact on fat storage.
In an ideal world, 7 to 8 hours of consistent restful sleep would be a goal to strive for but sleeping less than 6 hours on an ongoing basis may be the culprit blocking your results in the gym.
4. CONSISTENCY
After you’ve assembled all the pieces together, you will require consistency to glue it all together.
No matter what you are trying to accomplish in life, consistent repetition will be the deciding factor whether you will achieve it or not.
Practicing your 3-point shot once in a while will not make you a great basketball player. Consuming your daily target macros once in a while will not help you achieve your fitness goals. Just like eating a donut once will not make you fat, working out once will not make you fit.
Consistency is key to your success.
Truth is everyone experiences plateaus because no success ever comes in a linear pattern. Assess your current situation and pinpoint what may be the cause to your stagnation. Make the necessary adjustments and keep chasing after your goals.
Change the plan, never the goal.
