Why Your Workout Just Isn’t Working Out! | By Liam R Taylor
Imagine a place where 1000s of people strive to get fit, but fail time and time again. Imagine a place where avid gym goers commit years of their lives to exercise, but see little or no results. Imagine a place where hour long workouts become completely worthless and 100s of reps utterly pointless. What is this dreaded, time sapping, gym membership wasting place? It’s called the comfort zone.
We’ve all seen people living in their comfort zone in the gym. Those people who do the same routine day in, day out, yet wonder why they aren’t seeing results. The guy who lifts the same weights, in the same order, for the same number of reps. The woman who does the same cardio routine, at the same low intensity and even reads her book on the bike.
This approach to exercise is fine if you want to maintain a moderate level of fitness and simply keep active, but if you really want to be fitter, faster, stronger and leaner, you have to break out of your comfort zone. Once you understand how and why we get fitter, you’ll understand why it is so important to challenge your body and bring variety to your workouts.
Survival of the fittest…
You may not realise it, but your body is constantly adapting to your environment. Spend time in the sun for a day, you’ll get a tan. Start using the stairs at work, your legs will get stronger and leaner. This isn’t your body’s way of making you look pretty, it’s your body adapting to the environment and protecting you from the stresses and strains we put ourselves through each day.
“Fitness” in its true sense is all about adaptation. When we exercise we are deliberately creating a false environment for our body. On the inside, the post-exercise hormones and chemicals that trigger adaptations have no idea we’re in a gym. For all our body knows, our 30 minute jog on the treadmill could be a daily run in with a lion. If it doesn’t adapt and make us fitter, faster, stronger and leaner… we’re going to be breakfast!
The key point is that the body only adapts if it is challenged. Why would it need to adapt if it can already cope with the challenges it faces? If it ain’t broke, no need to fix it! So if you want to “get fitter” you need to push your body beyond what it is used to, which means creating a harsher environment for it – more workouts, heavier weights, more reps, longer runs, faster runs, more exercises, different exercises. This is known as the “overload zone” and it is the exact opposite of the “comfort zone”. It is a place where the body is challenged, adaptation is triggered and fitness gains flow.
No pain, no gain?
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To achieve “overload” you need to increase the Frequency, Intensity, Time or Type of your workouts (just remember FITT). The overload zone doesn’t need to hurt, it’s simply the point where things are no longer comfortable. It’s those extra few reps, those extra few kilograms or that extra minute on the treadmill.
Take a scale of 1 – 10, if your comfort zone is a 6, your overload zone occurs at 7 and above. The “no pain, no gain” approach is a little bit old school and might apply to competitive athletes or bodybuilders who need to perform at a 9 or even a 10. For your average gym goer “no discomfort, no gain” is closer to what is needed, but it doesn’t quite have the same ring to it!
Liam Taylor, EverythingZing.com – local gym letchworth
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