Your Guide to ACTUALLY Getting Results

Author: Erica Harris | | Categories: Carbohydrates , Carbs , Exercise , ExerciseIsMedicine , Fat Loss , Fitness , Fitness Coach , Fitness Trainer , North Van , North Vancouver , Online Coaching , Personal Trainer , Protein , Resistance Training , Strength Training , Weight Loss

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What follows is what most people, most of the time, probably outta concentrate on in order to see results with their health & fitness goals.

1. Stop Chasing Optimal
There are so many detail rabbit holes that you could run down: What’s the optimal number of days per week to train? What’s the optimal set and rep scheme to follow? What about optimal exercise order and which exercises to includes? Etc. The list could go on ad nauseam. 

Many many people get bogged down in what's optimal that they’re paralyzed to start. Optimal is can be synonymous with “perfect” and that’s pressure you DON'T need to put on yourself.

If I had to define optimal it would look like this:

3×52

Say what!?

Get to the gym (or your garage or home gym which I do) and do something – anything – 3 days per week, 52 weeks out of the year. It doesn't need to be anything fancy. Maybe you do 3 days per week of a full-body strength program, yoga, group classes, or CrossFit.

It doesn’t really matter.

What matters is doing something AND being and staying consistent.

2. Recovery = Results
A good word of advice for anyone (myself included) is you are only going to be as healthy, strong, and lean (low body fat percentage) as how well you allow yourself to recover.

There is a lot of talk about recovery these days and rightfully so: recovery is important.

A popular way to recover is paying a lot of money to stand in a cryo-chamber for a few minutes and, literally, freeze.

As far as it’s efficacy, there may be some benefit to it but I’ll drop THIS here and let you see that maybe it doesn't work as well as we think.

This would be a better approach:

  • Go to bed...on time...before 10 pm
  • Consume an adequate amount of calories to support your goals
  • Get a massage
  • Meditate and pray

Any of those would be a better option - at least for your money - that freezing LOL.

3. Easy Training is Good Training
You might have heard this before:

“Lifting weights isn’t supposed to tickle.”

Unfortunately (or fortunately for those who like the pain), there has to be a degree of uncomfortableness if you want to see results.

Thankfully though, it doesn’t have to be every…single…workout.

Working hard and training with purpose/intent is one thing. (Good).

Not being able to feel the left side of your face is another. (Bad).

Always keep in mind the 80% rule when it comes to workouts. It’s a concept I learned from stole from strength coach, Tony Gentilcore.

If a client says, “Tyron, I feel like my last workout was too easy.”

Of course there’s always the chance they were a bit too conservative with the loading or the mode of exercise. If that’s the case we can discuss adjusting accordingly.

Most of the time, though, if nothing needed adjusting, it’s okay to have “easy” workouts.

Easy training is good training.

  • 10% of the time you’ll feel like a rock star and these are the days the weights fly up.
  • 10% of the time you’ll feel like garbage and weight you normally have an easy time with, feels heavy.
  • 80% of the time are your “easy” workouts.

80% workouts are the ones where you show up, do the work, don’t miss reps, and then go home and Netflix and chill (emphasis on chill).

Those are the workouts that matter most.

Refer to Point #1.

4. Miscellaneous Tidbits & Tomfoolery
– If possible, train alongside supportive people. Find a trainer partner, even if it’s just once per week, where you can train together and encourage and push one another.

– Drink more water (best detox diet there is).

– Walking is a undervalued and underutilized form of exercise. Aim for 30 minutes daily on top of any structured workout you have planned.

– Increase protein intake to 1 gram per pound of IDEAL or GOAL bodyweight.

– Eat more red meat

– Decrease carb intake to 20 total grams or less per day.

– I’m sure I could pontificate longer and muster up some more gems, but 1) I need to go workout, and 2) I want to hear what YOU have to say.

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