Being active is great — but what if you do the same exercises every single day? Will that help you stay fit?
Here’s the answer:
If you have a fitness regime in place but always do the same thing, you’ll
get some of the benefits of activity, but you won’t get all of them. With
some adjustments, your hard work could create even greater results.
For example, someone who runs 3 km at the same pace every single day
is going to be much better off than someone who isn’t active at all. Running
burns calories and works your cardiovascular system, and regular activity
is great for maintaining your health.
But the body adapts to the demands on it, and once it’s adapted to be able
to run 3 km at a certain pace, it doesn’t make any additional changes. You
still burn calories, get your heart working and use your muscles, but you
won’t get a lot fitter. You won’t continue to get faster or stronger. In training,
we call this “hitting a plateau.” Improvements stop, and sometimes you
might even slide backward a little.
To make further improvements, you need to change things to put new
stresses on the body and force it to adapt.
For example, you could run 3 km in less time, you could run 4 km, or you
could do 3 1-km intervals at a very fast pace with rest between efforts. All
these variations still involve running but would cause your body to make
positive changes again.
It’s the same thing with weight training. If you do dumbbell biceps curls for
3 sets of 8 reps at 20 lb. every day, your body won’t change much. It has
the capacity to do the work, so it doesn’t add more. But if you asked it for 3
sets of 10 reps, or to move 25 lb. instead of 20, it would adapt to
accomplish the effort. Your muscles would grow.
So if changes to your routine are needed to keep making progress, how do
you know what to change and when? That’s where we come in.
How a Coach Can Help
Get Help.
First, you must get the right programme in place to start, and it should be
based on your exact health and fitness goals. Some people just take a
routine from a magazine and do it over and over. Again, it’s great to get
moving. But that routine won’t be perfect for you, and your needs will
change.
When we create programmes, we find out exactly what people want to
accomplish, and then we put an ideal plan together.
Then we monitor progress, and we evaluate daily, weekly and monthly
results. Because we’re experts, we can tell when you’re ready for a new
challenge that will ensure you’re always moving forward. Programmes are
constantly updated to ensure you’re training optimally.
All clients at Gas Station Fitness and Nutrition have athlete check-ins every 90 days which consist of a 1:1 chat with their coach, a goal review, and an InBody Scan which gives us medical grade accuracy on muscle and fat content gained or lost over the past 90 days. Once we have baseline stats, we can then put an achievable programme in place to keep driving towards your goals before our next 90 day check-in.
Beyond physical adaptation, there’s also something else to consider:
boredom. By changing the programme regularly, we’ll keep you interested and
engaged.
Running the same 3 km every day on the same path can grow stale, and
sometimes boredom makes people quit activities.
But what if we had you do that 3 km on a more rugged trail that challenges
your balance and strength with obstacles and climbs? Or what if we had
you stop running every 500 m and perform 10 burpees?
A good coach is always working to make sure a client is moving toward
goals as quickly as possible while staying motivated.
Let’s Talk About Your Training Plan!
If you’re already active but feeling bored with your routine, we can energise
you by setting some goals and adjusting your training plan. If you like your
current routine but have stopped making progress, we can help you start
moving forward again while maintaining some of the elements you enjoy.
And if you’re thinking about becoming active, we can make sure you start
off on the right foot and continue moving forward for years.
With a coach behind you, you’ll never hit a plateau or experience boredom.
Instead, you’ll make steady progress toward your goals.
To find out how a coach can help you, book a free intro with us here:
