Ahhh ssssssss...PUSH IT!!!

About a year and a half ago a friend once told me her fitness goals and I offered to train her in an attempt to teach her proper technique, to see what her workouts consisted of, and teach her a few other exercises to add to her repertoire.  As we moved through the workout she was visibly challenged and even commented that she'd "Never used these muscles before."  She would mention how she had done this exercise, but it never felt like this when she did it (technique).  I began to wonder, what had she been doing all this time.  What was she considering "her workout"??? She thanked me for showing her some new stuff and fixing her technique and told me she would be putting her newfound information to use.  A few days later she also told me how she was still sore.  Fast forward 1 year and 4 months...

We decide to go to the gym in her building with another friend and I tell her this workout will be a little more challenging than the last time, assuming that she's been semi-active since the last time we worked out.  I don't think we made it through the first set before she was already talking about how sore she was.  She then proceeded to explain to me that she may have embelished how active she was and that she hasn't pushed herself the way I had pushed her.  She explained that she worked out every other week, due to hair restrictions, and so she restricts her workouts to the alternative weeks.  We then had a conversation about her workouts and if she was pushing her limits, to which she asked me to define "pushing her limits".

One other story, a friend of mine has lost a considerable amount of weight to which I can honestly say I'm very proud of him, but he disappointed me when he told me he wasn't running a mile or remotely close to it.  He spoke of how he had increased from running a quarter of a lap to one lap around the track...over the last two years.  I quickly expressed to him that he had not been pushing himself in the least bit and that he should do better.  Think I was being hard on him?? Not at all...the truth of the matter is he wasn't pushing his limits. The Couch to 5k program has people who are potential couch potatoes running a 5k (3.1 miles) in 9 weeks for people who are driven, so for him to say that he still isn't able to run a mile after 2 years is a little disappointing.

Are you getting the results you want?? Seeing the changes in your body you are hoping for? If not, you may need to ask yourself a few questions.

When you are doing your workout:

• Are you doing the max number of reps possible when you are doing the exercise?
• If not, it's time to push for a few more.
• Within the next day or two, are the muscles that you used in your workout close to being sore? 
• If not, you may need to explore your technique or increase the weight that you are using.  Not all exercises leave you sore, however after a full body workout something should be sore. 
• In regards to weights or body weight exercises, have you increased your weight or repetitions from the last month?
• At some point your body adjusts to what you're doing (it's called a plateau), especially those who use the same routine.  However your body needs to be challenged in order for real change to continue to show.  That means you may need to take those 10 bicep curls and up the repitition amount to 12 or 15 reps or you may need to increase the weight while maintaining the goal of doing 10 bicep curls.  There needs to be an increase somewhere in order to push levels and see results.  
• In regards to cardio, are you going farther without a break or are you doing your distance in a faster time?  
• Going back to the story of my friend who only increased from running .1 mile to running .25 miles in 2 years, push yourself to do better.  Rather than trying to run the same pace for a month, you need to up your intensity (by going farther/faster) on a weekly basis.  

The point being made is there needs to be a valuable point of increase in effort, no one is saying you need to run a marathon, but your effort will show how much better you've become.  Your effort will be indicative of the results that you want and the results that you get.  Don't forget that!!

Moving forward, forget the excuses as to why we're not pushing ourselves and BE better than our former self.