“I want to get lean”
“I want to lose weight”
“I want to build muscle”
Since we’ve all heard these “wants” more times than we can count, I’ll differentiate the meaning of wishes and goals and provide my advice as to how best to achieve these desires. The previous statements are what constitutes over 90% of all health and fitness related goals, wishes, and conversations. The reason I define them as goals and wishes is because there is a distinct difference between the two. A goal is something you set out to accomplish with a distinct plan of action that allows you to have measurable results to track progress. A wish is a statement thrown into the wind that may represent something you want but not bad enough to take the steps forward to make it a reality. The group of people I want to communicate to today are potentially the biggest section of the health and fitness population. These people are the ones that have a goal and think they are putting their best foot forward to achieve it but are missing a few key elements that would help them get there. “I want to get lean, lose weight, build muscle” typically looks like the following. I show up to the gym and go through a resistance training routine on a regular basis (3x per week), do cardio several times a week, and eating better. To truly make progress toward the above mentioned goals we have to provide ourselves with the framework to measure whether or not we are achieving what we set out to do. Most people will embark on a program to achieve the above stated by showing up and doing a routine, doing some cardio, and eating a little better. Their faith in accomplishing the goal for them self is completely dependent on the attendance factor. They typically follow this up with some level of frustration and a drop off to less exercise and less significant eating choices leading on down to no exercise and then back to square one of wishing for the desired goals to happen. My point in this is that we have to make each one of these goals, or any fitness goal we have, quantifiable in some manner so we can make a measurement on our progress. So here is a quick way to provide you with some things that you can immediately start tracking so you can assess whether you are making the changes you need to.
If you want to get lean or lose weight it is important that you have your body fat percentage calculated and the circumference measurements of areas you want to improve measured; examples include (chest, arms, hips, abdominals). This allows you to have a starting point from which to work on. You should check in periodically, about 4-6 weeks, to have the measurements redone so that you can see if the changes you are after are starting to take place. I am always weary of using the scale as the end all be all of body composition changes but some people really want to be at a certain weight. It is important to remember that if your body fat percentage drops and your circumference measurements are smaller you are making body composition changes regardless of what the scale says. With that, its also important that we find a way to measure the amount of food that we are eating whether that’s through calories, meal size, or meal frequency. People often get frustrated with their inability to make body composition changes and more often than not they have no idea how many calories they are eating at any given time. There are always potential factors outside of our control that could lead to having trouble losing body fat but for the most part, if we keep it simple, it comes down to energy balance. If we burn more than we consume we lose body fat and if we consume more than we burn we gain it. So if we re-measure our body fat and circumference measurements and then we don’t like the results; we need to know the caloric intake. If we don’t have an idea of how much we are consuming calorically it gets really hard to make those changes.
If you want to build muscle you must measure the exercises that you are performing for progress. To make it as simple as possible, if you are increasing the amount of stress on a muscle consistently over time you will begin to build muscle. If we don’t do a great job of continuing to push a muscle to handle more and more loads it will not grow for us. I have mentioned periodization before as a great model for building muscle and tracking measurements as I still stand by that, another simple option that could be implemented would be to just track weights lifted and reps done. Over time if you are continuing to move the same amount of weight for more repetitions there is a strong chance you are building muscle. A simple way to track would be to set yourself up for the 8-12 rep range with the thought that if you can’t do 8 great reps it’s too heavy and if you can do 13 great reps it’s too light. So if you started with doing a chest press at 20 pounds for 8 reps and over a month you were doing 20 pounds for 13 reps it may be time to take the weight up. This would also be a good indicator that you are starting to build some muscle. If you are consistently doing the same weights and reps on certain exercises with no thought to challenge yourself to do more, than you probably won’t build any muscle either.
This is the basic recipe for success. Provide yourself with measureables to track where you are or aren’t making progress, so that you can continue to make the adjustments. Remember, we aren’t always going to make forward progress but we always need to make measurements so that we know where we need to make changes. We should always track body fat, circumferences, calories, and try to make continued pushes for rep increases and weight increases on the exercises we do (always assuming good solid form). I truly believe that these goals are attainable for everyone, but without a correct measuring system desired results are nearly impossible.
Need help setting and reaching measurable goals? Meet with an Ortho-Kinetics® Trainer to get you on track to seeing results. Contact Member Experience to schedule an appointment 972.386.2580