2 April 2014
Henry Roy is one of our instructors at BS7 Gym. He has put together some top tips to help improve your physique.
1. Make changes maintainable
There are plenty of fads out there for diet and exercise, being touted as the new magic secret to get lean quick, but ultimately they just don’t work long term (or often even short term a lot of the time). If you starve the weight off, or cut calories and eat unhealthy food to lose fat you’ll likely slow down your metabolism so you gain even more fat when you stop. Don’t struggle your way to looking a bit better, then lose it all and struggle again, get your diet right, and right for you.
Rule no. 1 is value health before thinness.
Rule no. 2 Maintain your metabolism. Maintain lean mass by training your muscles (not just cardio), and by eating plenty of the right nutrients. (This also ensures you have a body to show off afterwards).
Rule no. 3. build positive habits and a lifestyle even better than the one you have. You shouldn’t hate every second of it.
Once ‘learned’- your new lifestyle should become natural to you.
2. Use good goal-setting
What would your ideal end result body look like? How would you feel in it? What will you be able to do that you can’t do now? Before you start a journey, you want a clear destination in mind, a clear long term goal. If you’re looking to make a big change to your body, you’ll also need a series of short term goals in between.
I like to use the S.M.A.R.T system to set long and short term goals with my clients – you can check out an explanation of this at: http://www.bristolpersonaltrainer.com/s-m-a-r-t-goalsetting
3. Keep progressing and change the stimulus
To push your body to change, you’ll have to change how you use it. After a little while, you will adapt to the new stimulus, and find a new balance. You will have to make more changes to maintain progress. Not only will you need to lift heavier, run faster etc. as you get fitter, but also change the way you train to give your body a variety of stimulus.
I make strategic changes to my clients workouts/diets roughly every 6 session rotations to maintain maximal progress. This also keeps it fresh and interesting.
4. Take it one step at a time
Goals are often set when motivation is sky high, but you will need to carry them out even when your motivation is low. Do be ambitious in what you want to achieve, but be realistic about the steps you’ll take to get there. If you’re currently exercising once a week, moving up to every day next week may be too much in one go. Try 3 times a week, then 4, 5, 6… This reduces risk of injury, overtraining, and the culture shock it has on your lifestyle.
5. Actively maintain motivation
Willpower is a finite thing, so what can you do to make things easier on yourself? It’s easy to be motivated for a month, but eventually it will become gruelling. How will you prevent your motivation from dropping off? Ask yourself: why are you doing this? Who are you doing it for? What is it that will make you turn down the cakes and pick up the weights on the day when everything seems to be going wrong and you feel like hell? Write it down in one sentence, and remember it on that day when you need to dig deep.
Good goal-setting and measuring your progress will be important here, and there are lots of other things you can do. Find a picture of someone with the physique you’re going to get and stick it to your fridge to keep it on your mind. Tell everyone what you are going to do - fear of not achieving on a public stage can be a strong motivator. Make a bet, even if it’s to yourself – put £50 in a jar that you can have when you can do your first chin up (but don’t forget that being an awesome badass is also a reward in itself). You will not be overflowing with motivation all the time, accept that from the start and deal with it, if you are eating strictly 6 days a week, you may need a cheat day or meal on the 7th.
6. Measure your progress
It’s so easy to forget how far you’ve come, accurate measurements are so important for motivation, as well as ensuring that you know when things are working, and when they’re not, so you can figure out why and how to fix it.
7. Take responsibility, be tough, be accountable?
There will always be an excuse. That’s life, Stuff happens. The people who succeed are the people who take responsibility. What’s the back-up plan? How do you get past this barrier? What’s the next best option? Can’t get to the gym - do what you can at home. You’ve got to go to your heavy-drinking best mate’s stag do and are guaranteed to drink a tonne of alcohol - prepare healthy foods beforehand for the day after when you’re hung-over and most likely to eat rubbish.