It feels like Junior High here at Roguefitness, we brought back the pegboard. Some of you might ask Whats that, well its that wooden thing that hung on your gym wall. This is the same apparatus that stole your lunch money for most of your childhood. Well today we are returning the favor, wood beware!
From Doug the fitness guy, please don’t ask him about Star Wars! http://www.hyperfitusa.com
Doug Chapman, owner of HyperFit USA wrote:
Are you thinking about trying to get in shape yet again? Lose a few extra pounds? Get ready for spring break? Blah, blah, blah.
A ritual begun:
The days between Christmas and New Years are usually pretty slow and it gives people a time to sit down and think, eat too much, and generally feel something has gotta change. New Years comes and you are really, no, really, ready to change your life and get in shape. People begin to think: Maybe it is time to get in shape? Especially after eating so much around the holidays! The resolutionary market of impulse buyers and one month wonders that are REALLY ready to change their lives are what drive the “fitness” industry. Here is how the typical story goes:
So, now what? The traditional cycle is go to globo gym, sit down with a nice kid in a polo shirt and talk about a membership. The kid will ask you fill out a form about your goals, tour you through the byzantine machines and explain how they can help you reach your goals, let you know all about the options, the cancellation policies, for the low, low price of $39.99 per month. But that is not all! He will remind you about how self conscience you are about the extra pounds you carry and tell you that you will lose them and become popular and have a life that resembles the light beer advertisements. All you have to do is sign on the dotted line. You do, then go to the gym an average of 12 times in two months (From Industry statistics) and get back to the business as usually and buy some larger clothes. You stop going to the gym. This story is repeated all over the United States. Why are people in the United States fatter than anywhere else? Because it is easier here. We can get all of our imperfections fixed with a scalpel, pill or laser, all of which are financeable and some sort of usurious rate. Sounds great, where do I sign?
How about this? Let’s take a look at what is means to “get in shape”. The universal image is to get on an elliptical or stationary bike or walk briskly on a treadmill for hours, move from machine to machine or a few sets and reps and then all will be right in the world. The advertisements say it. The infommercials say it. The celebrity spokes model says it. It must be true. Why do so few people get the results they signed up for? First, on the continuum of effectiveness, aerobic training is far less effective than anaerobic training. If you don’t believe me, look up the research in trustworthy sources, life scientific and medical journals. It isn’t an exciting read, but an enlightening one.
Digression: Why is it that aerobics as held the standard for weight loss? Simple, when you burn muscle, you lose weight. When you train exclusively in the oxidative pathway, your muscle goes away. Loss of muscle mass is a major cause for debilitating problems in older adults, like falling down, loss of balance and weakness to the point where people can no longer take care of themselves. Don’t believe me, if you are reading this, you have some skill on the internet, look it up, and research from creditable sources. Training for an event, is great and should be done regularly, but balance is necessary for a well rounded human being.
Regression: The second and more perplexing reason people fail at fitness is boredom. Many people lack the discipline to do a boring workout again and again. It is not what they are doing is wholly ineffective, it is less effective than more diverse and intense balances training, but the idea of routine really makes it more challenging to have success with.
Boredom comes from a lack of skill in the training. I believe people get more from their workouts when they are doing a sport regularly. When people are focused on learning skills, better movements and are constantly challenged to improve, do more and excel,
Another aspect to success in training is camaraderie. Isolation in fitness is one of the major drawbacks to camaraderie. For instance, if you are running on the treadmill and your goal is to do a 5k in 18:00 minutes, you are struggling with the last half mile, who is going to give you encouragement or tell you to suck it up or when your iPod doesn’t let anyone talk to you. How about being the only person in the gym and you are getting set to do Fran, you begin thinking about getting through it rather than competing for another PR.
Solutions: From a programming solution, constantly varied functional exercises, executed at high intensity keeps everything interesting. The other solution is to find a group of likeminded people who are moving in the same direction.