People join gyms for all sorts of reasons, but the majority, in my experience, join looking for a physical transformation. Whether it is to lose weight or put on muscle, it all comes down to people wanting to look leaner. Rarely have I come across anyone that says his or her main goal in the gym is to just move better and get stronger. The problem is it takes a lot more than just 1 hour in the gym to get that six-pack. Father time is coming for us all, are you doing enough?
When you first join a gym, especially if you haven’t been exercising frequently you’re going to see results initially. You can almost guarantee someone will improve their strength, endurance and overall movement patterns, such as mobility. But if they are looking for more than a great workout with all the health benefits you can think of they need to put some time in outside of the gym.
“You can’t out work a shitty diet.”
There is a saying that I’ve heard from time to time, “You can’t out work a shitty diet.” Someone can workout as much as they want, but if they want the physique they desire they have to take an honest look at what they are eating on a day to day basis. People far to often say they workout to eat what they want. And if that works for you, awesome, I’m happy for you. But far to often that isn’t truly the case. And for most it might work when they are 18-24 years old, but speaking from personal experience once that 25th B’day rolled around my metabolism slowed way down. So my philosophy had to change drastically. Gone were the days of eating crap and over indulging daily.
It’s not like people don’t know this, but it always seems to be the piece people will look over. In order to slim down and get rid of body fat people must take a step back and look into eating habits. Food is fuel and must be treated as such. If you want to get rid of the spare tire a dietary change is typically in order. Eating healthy, drinking plenty of water and sleeping 8+ hours a night will do wonders to help you get rid of that stubborn spare tire. I don’t know the exact percentage but I’d say it’s somewhere around 80% what you eat, 20% how you workout.
Now maybe you’re food intake isn’t the issue, if that’s the case maybe you need to consider some other things. Are you pushing yourself in your workouts? Or are you hovering in the zone of safeness because you don’t want to be uncomfortable? People today are definitely afraid of being uncomfortable. I don’t know if it’s the trophy generation thing or not. Or if people just don’t truly know what their body can do.
“Your body can do great things, don’t let your mind get in the way.”
My college football coach once said, “Your body can do great things, don’t let your mind get in the way.” Easy for him to say blowing the whistle as we ran sprints, but it was true. Your mind will give up way before your body actually will. Next time you think about resting mid WOD, do a few more reps in, then rest. You’ll be surprised you were able to. Performance will plateau without change and progress and your body will do the exact same thing. Give that extra push, life is too short. Whether it’s a 400m run or 100 wall balls for time, maybe you need to just push it a little harder in the workouts.
Working out is not all about the aesthetics, it’s about the hard work you put into it. The work that will get you strong, keep you strong, get you mobile, keep you mobile so you can live a healthy and active life. But if you often are complaining about carrying to much fat, it’s on you to put the work in. And not just in the gym, but at home too. What is it going to hurt to put everything to trying to live a healthy life? I’m confident you won’t regret it. Remember it’s ok to enjoy life and eat a cheeseburger and fries. But earn it. Nobody is perfect and that’s the great thing about the working out culture. It’s a process, it’s that quest to be the best you you can be, so take a chance, mix it up and get the results you desire.