STOP! Don’t Join a Gym
If you are thinking of joining a gym, don’t.
I’m not joking.
January is the very worst time to join a gym – it will be crowded, full to bursting with new gym-goers, fresh from making their New Year’s resolutions and you won’t be able to move easily from machine to machine. You might love the atmosphere at the gym by March and might even enjoy going but the crowds in January will put you off like nothing else.
Also, if you think you truly want to join a gym, consider whether you have enough commitment to keep going after January is out. For most people it is a complete waste of money. 80% of the people who join a gym in January never go much beyond February (if they even last that long).
Though you think the pain of paying for something and not using it will make you go – it doesn’t seem to work for most people. The pain of going to the gym seems to be bigger than the pain of paying for it!
If you think you want to become a regular gym goer, think about what a commitment that is. How much time will it take you to get to the gym, get changed, work out and get showered and home again, three or more times a week? What will you NOT do to make time for that? And if you don’t think you will have to give anything up, then think again so that you can be ready for how much time will disappear rather than surprised!
If you still think you want to join a gym, prove to yourself that you are committed to fitness…
Keep up a non-gym exercise routine for two months and then reward yourself with gym membership. You can work out with weights at home (the weights will cost less than a gym membership) and you can run or walk for cardio training.
Better still take up an exercise you will love, something where they won’t be able to keep you away, like dancing or skating or rock climbing – whatever floats your boat.
Fitness Success Tip 2 : Challenge Yourself
Has your workout become just a tad boring? Are you finding your 20 minute daily run easier than you used to?
Surely that’s a good thing?
Well, actually, it isn’t.
The thing is, to improve any aspect of your fitness you need to exercise consistently and regularly on an ongoing basis – that means you need to show up regularly (3 or more times a week) and do the work.
But it’s not enough to carry out the same old routine day after day or week after week because you will not get any fitter (or stronger) from that.
Bodies need to be challenged to make any kind of improvement – a workout which you do repeatedly will get easier over time but your body won’t bother to take you to the next level because it knows it can cope with the work it is having to do just as it is.
So when a workout gets too familiar then you don’t get the full benefit from the time you spend exercising.
Stamina and strength increase when you make new demands on your body – your body is designed to respond so that it can handle the new level of work you are asking of it.
Best results are obtained not by switching exercises excessively but by doing the same types of exercise for a period of time while constantly increasing the effort required.
Not in a big way, you understand, but in tiny increments. This means things like running a little faster, adding a minute on the treadmill or a steeper incline, adding one more rep, a little more weight and so on.
This is called progressive overload and it will bring continuous improvement in its wake rather than the stagnation you can expect if you just do the same old, same old routine.
So don’t let yourself get bored. Make sure you challenge your body every workout, every day, every week for maximum benefit in minimum time.
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