What Are You Doing In The Gym

Many people come to the gym to exercise in the pursuit of fitness and weight loss. Feeling the need to get out of breath, sweaty and in many cases, sore. More often than not they may be doing a class or several classes a week.

Motivation can be high at first, that feel good factor of the endorphin rush that you get and for many, the early results that you see and feel will be incouraging.
Very quickly though, the results stop coming, the body has adapted to the stresses you have put it through.

You have done a good job to this point. You likely have improved your health and fitness over them first few weeks or so. Infact you have improved to the extent that the very same routine that you are doing is no longer having any improvement benefits on your fitness or weight loss. You may still sweat and get that feel good factor but that's it.

When Motivation Wanes

This is where the initial motivation you had at the beginning wanes. Discipline can keep you going for so long but results are what really drives you and when they fall off so does the discipline and consistancy.

If you carry on doing the same thing you will maintain this level and for some that may be adequate but what if you want more? What next?

Most Get It Wrong.

Most will do one of two things or even, both. Cut the amount of calories they consume or do more classes. What effect will this have?
Regarding doing more classes, the down side is you're likely to push beyond the boundries of getting healthy recovery.
The upside? Well there almost certainly isn't one. At some point more is not better.

Cutting calories is just not a good idea or a sustainable one. The adaptation that you do not want is for your body to become even more effecient with the calories you feed it.
There is a rebound effect if or when you stop following your regime. If you return to the habits you followed before you started out you will probably gain any weight you have lost and possibly more.

What You Don't Want, Your BMR To Drop.

Cardio is never a good stratergy for weight loss. When ever you are performing predominantly cardio exercises to lose weight, your body is in a catabolic state.
Fat loss is not the only tissue that you will lose, you will also lose lean mass including muscle.
As muscle requires energy to maintain, the loss of muscle will result in a drop in your BMR (basal Metabolic Rate).
Basically you will have to eat less to stay the same weight that you were before you started.
If you have ever watched "The Biggest Losers", a very large percentage of these participents gain back all their losses and more.

This is where Training is required.

Training is perfoming planned out activities over a period of time for the purpose of acheiving a short or long term goal. This requires the trainee to be able to periodically increase the stress on the body to ellicit continual adaptation.
The training protocols quickly become impossible to apply in an exercise class setting.
So the trainee needs to devise or have a plan devised for them where they can program and monitor their exercises, dietary requirements and improvements over time.

The adaptations required by an individual can be vary varied. From losing fat mass, building strength, building power, being more athletic, or just getting bigger.
If you follow a good training plan, you are so much more likely to maintain consistancy and move towards your goals.
In summery, if you just like to sweat and get your heart pumping in a social enviroment, carry on. It's still good to be active.
But, if you want specific results you have to train.