New Trainee: "My goal is to look hot at the beach, so if I do lots of abdominal exercises and butt exercises, then they'll look more toned right?"

Me: "No"

New Trainee: "What!  In magazines and on TV the experts say that if I just use the machine that works my abs for 3 minutes a day then my stomach will get smaller and I'll get the sexy core the people on the infomercials have."

Me: "Well unfortunately, you've bought into one of the biggest fitness myths in the industry.  Just because you train one area of the body doesn't mean it will lose fat in that area."

Above is a conversation I've had with many people, it has to do with the concept of 'spot reduction' a myth, which is a great sales technique for infomercials, but is not based in reality.  It’s because of conversations like the one above and the misinformation from the fitness industry infomercials, that I believe many people think that if they work their abs or glutes and get a good burn going then those muscles somehow melt off the fat surrounding those areas.  Which is understandable because they feel the muscles working and often feel sore then next day.  Many people don’t understand the complexities of how the body loses fat, and that different people lose fat in different places at different rates of speed according to their own genetics.  Infomercials and fitness magazines are OK with keeping people in the dark about it because they sell more products that way.

Don’t get me wrong, abdominal exercises should be done, but remember abdominal exercises won’t give you a skinny waist, in some cases they can actually make your waist grow.

The best way to get the body you want is to workout using multi-joint exercises and to eat properly.

If you live in Keene area, come by Granite State Kettlebells, 175 Martell Court, where you’ll learn how to do several multi-joint exercises in a community of people all working hard at improving their fitness.

Effort during a workout

One of my favorite thing as a coach is to watch the clients putting everything they’ve got into a workout.  This mornings 6AM workout was a great example, the workout for today is a CrossFit benchmark workout called Cindy.  5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats, that’s one round and try to get as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes. 

Regardless of how many rounds the 6AM crew got at the end of 20 minutes, they did the best they could, they put in 100% effort to get as many rounds as they could.  One of the guys got 17 rounds which is awesome, but on other days he might only have 12 or 13 rounds, but I know that regardless of his numbers that he’s giving everything he’s got to give. 

I believe that when you put 100% effort into a workout, even if you’re not at your normal full potential, that at the end you will feel satisfied about your performance during the workout, and reaching your fitness goals will happen before you know it.

Success!

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.” - Coach John Wooden

Many times we only look at success from the bottom line, in fitness that usually means numbers on the scale, inches off the waist etc.  Well, if you’ve read some of my former posts, you’ll know I believe that while losing weight and inches are worthwhile goals, they shouldn’t be the end all marker of your fitness success and that I believe improving your performance numbers in the gym are far better indicators of your progress.  However, I believe that even as you accomplish your fitness goals, the peace of mind and satisfaction is often short lived, because you can always improve your performance (often we get to plateaus), and healthy weight loss is limited by your physiology, which can make feeling like you’re not being successful at your fitness. 

However, as Coach Wooden puts it, if you put everything you’ve got into doing the best possible work you can, while holding nothing back, you’re successful, you are a winner.  Only you know if you’ve done the best of which you are capable, only you know if you could have done one more good rep, only you know when your technique is breaking down and you have to back off to do good quality reps. 

I believe that your fitness goals will be achieved faster and you’ll break through plateaus more easily by putting everything you’re capable of into each workout. 

Remember that ‘everything your capable of’ doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going “full speed” all the time, it does mean that you’re doing the best reps you can at the highest intensity that you can while doing the best reps you can.  If your reps aren’t good but your intensity is, then you need to dial the intensity down and make your reps better.

So come on in and give everything you’ve got!