Dear reader, I have a potentially shocking piece of information for you:
getting in shape is not complicated.
I am sure that many personal trainers and coaches would not want the general population to know this for obvious financial reasons. However, I am not sure if all trainers are actually aware of this fact. I will not attribute to nefariousness what I can attribute to incompetence. We all know of the stereotype of the out-of-shape personal trainer, it sticks out in our minds as it is such a contradiction. It is my belief that many personal trainers do not know what the minimum effective dose is in terms of training and certainly don't know how to get the most out of the least. They simply throw a lot of muck at the wall with clients in the hope that something will stick, leaving clients burnt out and demoralised.
When I look at the fitness industry, the appalling irony is that most popular methods are ineffective for average people of average genetic endowment who do not have 15+ hours a week to dedicate to brutal training regimes. It doesn't have to be this way, however. I personally believe that 'less is more, and less is best'.
Here is the question you must answer to determine if your training is working: are you getting stronger on the compound movements? That's it. People often tell me of how they trained so hard and that they were so sore after, typically with a proud tone of voice. "Cool," I answer, "How much weight have you added to your bench press and deadlift?" The answer? Crickets...
I am often confronted with the sight of people doing overly-complicated and sometimes straight up dangerous 'functional' exercises involving medicine balls and TRX equipment in commercial gyms. That may be useful if your goal is to be a Wing Chun master training ninjas in the Himalayan mountains, but it is unnecessary if your goal is to simply improve your body composition.
People are often baffled when I say that I get stronger every single workout and that I'm never sore. Really, this is the case. Exercise isn't about beating the body up and stirring up a load of dust in your wake in the hopes that something will happen, it is about finding what exactly you need to do to get stronger - and doing that. This should really be 2 or 3 40 minute sessions per week.
Get in the gym, hit it hard and hit it right, then run out of there like you stole something.
I believe in an abbreviated strength-focused style of training 2 or 3 times per week. When done right you will get into a state of 'flow' and will be addicted to training...
Contrast this no-nonsense approach to the illusory complexity attendant on typical training regimens, and the results will speak for themselves.
If you are interested in coaching you can book a free consult and find out how best to achieve your goals and cut through the complexity today.
Thanks for reading - Conor.
