Work Smarter in the gym, not Harder!!!

I see so many people that think they need to spend hours every day & every week at they gym, or people who ARE spending hours daily & weekly while spinning their wheels.

They go into the gym without a program to follow, hop on a cardio machine like the treadmill, elliptical, bike, or stair master, and spend the majority of their time in the cardio area. Then they pick a machine that looks the easiest to figure out, maybe it's the leg press, they do 2 sets of 10 at a random weight, then they move onto the next machine, something like leg extensions. They think "Oh, I'm still working on legs" then they see the hamstring curl machine and call it a day. "I did legs and cardio"

The next day they go in & do cardio again then pick a few machines for a different body part. And each day after that they do the same, repeating this 5-6 days a week for a few weeks. (example week of training in this fashion: Cardio & back, Cardio & Chest, Cardio & abs, cardio & legs, Cardio & biceps, Cardio & Triceps, ) After a few weeks and little return from all of the hours spent, they end up skipping days, falling off, or getting a membership for bootcamp or other intense workout classes because they’re frustrated and didn’t get the results they expected for the amount of time they put in.

I’m going to explain why this happens in 3 parts

Part 1: Exercise programming

Cardio is great for many reasons such as heart health and cardiovascular health. Cardio is technically anything that elevates your heart rate. A carefully crafted strength and conditioning program WILL elevate your heart rate while you’re gaining strength, mobility, stability, and increasing your endurance. So there’s no need to waste a ton of time on cardio machines, unless you actually enjoy that and have time to kill. For my clients that only have time for two to three 30-50 minute workouts a week (which is all of them), each workouts consist of:

Positional breathing drills, specific warm-ups, Power training, Core stability, Upper body Strength training, Lower body Strength training, Conditioning, and mobility.

The exercises selected typically are typically compound movements, meaning they require multiple muscle groups to work synergistically, compared to doing isolation exercises, or exercises that isolate 1 muscle or muscle group.

So 2-3x per week, their entire body is getting worked not just in the form of cardio, but with functional strength training, stability, and mobility as well.

Those 2-3 workouts will repeat for four weeks so that the client can focus on moving better, getting stronger at the movements, and see their progress. This is more valuable than jumping around from random workouts seen on Google, Instagram, TikTok, Youtube and not knowing what body parts they’re training.

Let’s go back to the example I gave earlier where the person does cardio for 30 minutes a day and then hits 1 body part per day, 5-6x per week. So they end up hitting each muscle group 1, maybe 2x per week. Again the exercises they do on machines are typically isolation exercises meaning they isolate 1 muscle or muscle group, which have their time and place, but are’t the most efficient for busy people that just want results and to feel better, look better, perform better.

A balanced program will prioritize compound movements for 50-80% of the exercises and include 20-50% of isolation exercises.

Programming recap:

1. Training multiple body parts per workout > single body part workouts

2. Prioritize compound movements, include some isolation movements

3. Repetitive & progressive workouts

Part 2 is Rest & Recovery

In order to build muscle for the ‘toned’ look (no you won’t get bulky), your muscles need to be stimulated so they can adapt, and then they must RECOVER.

Going into the the gym is a stressor. It’s a good stressor, but for people who already live fast paced lifestyles, MANAGING STRESS is also an important factor for fat loss.

If your workouts are too intense or too frequent without time to recover, that can influence your performance in your life, and at your job, which we definitely don’t want. If you’re an already high strung individual, adding frequent & intense workouts will further increase stress hormones, which in turn can influence sleep, recovery & fat loss/muscle gain.

So by training just a few times a week, we’re in that sweet spot where the amount of stress makes you stronger, not weaker. Walking is a great addition to any program to increase daily movement and add in some active recovery.

Rest & Recovery recap: You need adequate rest time whether your goal is to build muscle or lose fat. Stress must be managed, sleep is so important!

Part 3 is Adherence & consistency

What good is a workout program if you can't actually stick to it and be consistent with it?

I'd rather see someone be consistent with their workout program 2x per week than doing a 4x a week program and only doing that fully once every 4 weeks. Let’s be real here. If you could exercise 2-3x per week and see results, would you say yes to that?

OR would you volunteer for 5-6x per week?

Most people face the issue of TIME and just don’t get started because they think they need to give too much up of it.

I get it, committing to workout 5-6x a week is hard; both motivation wise, and time wise. You’re going to need to set aside some time, but not nearly as much time as you think. I personally workout for about 1 hour 3x per week and as I told you before, my typical client works put 2-3x per week. I don’t write programs for any client for more than 4x per week, even if they want it, for the sake of recovery and adherence.

Adherence & Consistency recap: Start with what is truly REALISTIC and achievable. Do what you’d be able to maintain for months and years to come, not just the next 4-6 weeks. Being consistent 1-3x per week is better than going 5 times one week and 0 the next 3+ weeks.

If you could see results by working out 2-3x per week, would that be doable for you?

Let me know in the comments below!