Jump Start Your Fitness Program

How’s your training going? Are you noticing any visual, physical or emotional effects? If not, you’re wasting your time. Your time is too valuable to be getting little or no results from the effort invested in a fitness regime. What should you do? Quit entirely? Absolutely not. Your body needs a change in order to see results. I know some people that will train the same way day in and day out, doing the same activity or lifting the same amount of weight in the same order for the same number of repetitions for years. Guess what? They look exactly the same as they did years ago, with the exception of time’s toll on them. Then, I also know some people that are fairly zealous fitness enthusiasts who are constantly looking to jazz up their routines and they look better than ever, as if time has forgotten to age them.The body likes what is called ‘homeostasis. This means ‘the tendency to maintain internal stability in an organism by coordinated response to environmental changes’. In other words, the body adapts to your initial fitness program by making the necessary physical adjustments, such as increased muscle mass, increased cardiac capacity, weight loss etc. Then, unless your fitness program continues to challenge, no further changes will result. Your body will ‘maintain’ your current level of fitness, your current body composition, and your current amount of muscle. This is actually a good thing, if you’ve ‘arrived’ at your fitness goals. However, I’ve yet to meet anyone who would consider themselves at the top of their game. Most people, even elite athletes, usually have a higher goal to reach. So for the majority of us that still have a long way to go in order to get the body of our dreams, what should we do?The answer is to shake up your program. If your program is more than 6 weeks old, it’s time to change it. You could try some completely different physical endeavors through some cross training, or you could increase the demands on your body by adding further challenges in your current program. You could consult a personal trainer to change your routine. You could start a new activity all together on your own or in a class situation or you could take up an old activity. Remember to start anything new with caution. You may think that you’re in good condition, but your body may tell you something different the morning after. Any new activity will place different physical demands on all systems and it will likely result in some muscle soreness. Stay the course though. The body takes time, up to three weeks, to see and feel the effects of anything new. It also may be helpful to keep some notes on your progress: how you’re feeling or any aches and pains. This doesn’t have to be a ‘book', even some jot notes on the calendar can help to later diagnose a nagging pain, or to celebrate new feelings of strength. Think about how you’d like to look this summer. It’s not too late to get into that bikini or those swim trunks. What can you do to look and feel your best?

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