Brian White | Fitness
Most of us are exercising to make a change in our body. Whether that is to lose fat, build muscle, get healthy or all of the above, there are seven mistakes that may be holding you back from getting the results you want.
1. You equate time with work.
Yes, showing up is half the battle, but flipping through People Magazine and chatting with friends is not going to change your body. Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone will. You don’t need to be a workout beast, just work hard enough that you are sweating and breathing heavy. My advice is to cut your workout time in half and do all the exercises you normally do. The benefits of gym time don’t work through osmosis.
2. You hit cardio six days a week.
Listen up, cardio fanatics. Cardio is not enough to get the body of your dreams. In reality it is probably the least important part of your overall routine. Weight training will build lean muscle, boost your metabolic rate and burn more body fat than anything else, even hours after the workout. If time is an issue in getting in workouts, skip the cardio and hit the weights for 30 minutes to change your body.
3. You listen to your body.
Some people use the mantra “listen to your body” on a regular basis to talk themselves out of exercise. In order to change your body, you have to push yourself and challenge your muscles. Stepping out of your comfort zone is imperative when exercising. It took a lot of effort to put that weight on; it takes a lot of effort to take it off. Soreness and fatigue is OK to a point, just make sure you can differentiate between soreness and an actual injury.
4. You only do 20 percent of what it takes to achieve a body transformation.
No matter what your goals are, achieving them relies on 80 percent nutrition and 20 percent exercise. You are never going to “out exercise” all the bad nutrition you take in. Attack your nutrition just as diligently as you would your workout. Don’t overwhelm yourself with calories; make good food choices. Eliminate processed foods and replace them with organic fresh vegetables, fruits and grass-fed meats. Your body will run better, feel better and burn body fat more efficiently if it is not jammed up with toxins and chemicals.
5. You drink anything but water during your workouts.
The commercials show these elite athletes with eight-pack abs guzzling sports drinks before, during and after their workouts, right? So why shouldn’t you drink them too? I will tell you why. You don’t sweat and move enough. Second reason is that your goal is weight loss, and not to be able to get that last yard on the third down with two minutes to go in the – professional – game. Third reason, you don’t work out long enough to warrant one. These drinks are perfect formulations of electrolytes and sugar to replenish the body after a long, strenuous workout. There is too much sugar in these sports drinks and you will sabotage your weight loss if you drink them. Drink water.
6. You never skip abs.
Alas, many of you will not want to hear this, but you are wasting your time when it comes to abs. So many people waste their time doing hundreds of crunches at the speed of lightning. I’ll admit it does feel good to have sore abs, but what are you trying to accomplish? All that stored body fat around your waist will not disappear, even if you did 1,000 crunches everyday for the rest of your life. A combination of proper nutrition and calorie-burning exercise is the only way to burn it off. Stick to doing 3-5 sets of crunches for 15-30 reps every other day, spend the other time you save doing cardio or weights.
7. You stay within the “fat burning zone” when you are doing cardio.
If you are trying to lose weight and body fat specifically, you need to train as close to the cardio zone as your fitness level allows. The fat burning zone is a lower-intensity zone; you absolutely do not burn as many calories as you would if you were in the cardio zone. If you burn 100 calories in the fat burn zone, 53 of those calories might be fat calories. If you burn 100 calories in the cardio zone, 47 of those calories might be fat calories. What’s the difference? It will take you a shorter period of time to burn the 100 calories in the cardio zone, so in actuality, if you did twenty minutes in each zone, you would burn more overall fat in the cardio zone.
—Brian White owns BWF, San Diego’s Premier Training Service located in Hillcrest. He runs boot camps in Balboa Park and trains clients in Diverge Gym. Go to youshouldbedoingit.com to read his blog, or take his seven-day video challenge to get back into healthy habits. Contact Brian at [email protected] or on his website.
