Around the New Year, The masses start to make "New Year Resolutions" and begin to think about how they can make the next year better. One of the most common "New Year Resolutions" is to get healthy and this leads to a large surplus of people joining gyms. While these new go-getters are certainly well-intentioned, sadly for the majority, the motivation doesn’t last. Quora.com reports that 80% of resolution gym goers will stop attending by the second week of February.
There are lots of reasons, and many of them are specific to the individual, but one overarching reason is that for most people, a gym is simply a place to work out, and that isn’t enough to entice most to make it a regular part of life. People join gyms and become a number and are not provided with direction or even acceptance in some cases. If you stop showing up, no one else notices or cares; and soon, your yourself stop caring, because the space adds no value to your life. After a few weeks, once the fire of the new years resolution fizzles out and the desired results have yet to show up, it’s difficult to drag your butt out of bed at the crack of dawn (or before) to go to a place where you are alone, physically uncomfortable, and nameless to the other bodies sweating next to you.
Here are four reasons why it’s important and in your best interest to join a gym – or enroll your kids in a gym – that is more than just a gym.
1. A gym that is more than a gym helps you train to become better, not just workout…
…and yes, there is a difference, both between working out and training, and a gym and a training center. Any local gym will be a decent fit if you are the type of person that enjoys exercise in itself – the discomfort and the exertion wrapped up into one 60-minute sweat fest. Some people think exercise is fun, and this direct pay-off is sufficient to propel them to create their own discipline and accountability. But for most of us mere mortals, the individual sweat sessions are just not enticing enough. And if you are just hitting the gym with no direction or the latest Pinterest workout in hand, the sessions start to seem disconnected and purposeless, making you question if the discomfort is really worth your time.
That’s why it’s important to join a gym that is, specifically, a training center. Meaning that the institution has a mission statement that hinges on coaches who come alongside you to help you focus and adapt your sessions toward a clearly defined goal.
is the key idea here. We would all laugh if, while we were driving, we saw a man in a field throwing darts in different directions, aiming at nothing. Throwing darts only becomes meaningful and recognizable as a sane activity when there’s a target involved. This illustrates the distinction between working out and training. It’s easy to quit showing up if you’re not sure where you’re aiming. Working out is simply a task; training is a goal-oriented process, spilling over and reaping its benefits into other areas of life.
A great coach helps you identify and define that target, articulate WHY it’s important in your life, and then works with you to create a path for your journey and helps you form tactics to adjust when hardships come about. A training center operates daily with the purpose of helping its clients embrace an improved quality of life, whereas a gym simply exists to make money. In short, a training center cares about YOU, while a gym may not.
2. Such a gym can become a second home
A gym that is a second home is composed of staff and members who create community by fostering and maintaining meaningful relationships. If you join any local gym, chances are, you’ll see the same people a few days per week...You may say hi or introduce yourself....but you’ll never actually get to know them and connect. It is no more to you than space with weights and faces that have no significance.
As a coach on the floor at 5:30 every morning, I relish the opportunity to be the first positive interaction in a client’s day. As Strive coaches, we focus our efforts on staying in tune with every important aspect of our clients’ lives – family events, work changes, surgeries, and victories both inside and outside of the gym.
At most gyms, you’ll walk in and out of the door without anyone acknowledging your presence. Make sure you find a gym that can also be a second home.
3. Community creates accountability
Belonging to a gym that feels like home entices you to make training a habit. Community fosters accountability. Period. When you know you will be missed, you are more likely to go. You are far less likely to skip when you know a coach will be calling or emailing you, checking up to make sure everything is okay if you don’t show up.
Here at Strive Fitness and Performance, your coaches are just as serious about your goals and training as you are. They are consistently positive and relentlessly demanding, and they, along with the clients who have become your friends, will remind you of what you really want even when you don’t feel it. They’ll help you maintain focus when your own vision of your target gets blurred by other life stresses or periods of low motivation.
The truth is, we aren’t wired to be our best on our own. We need accountability where discipline wanes. Join a gym that fills that need.
4. Enrolling your children in such a training center provides them with positive role models
If you want your child to become a more well-rounded athlete, seek out a training center with coaches who are positive role models. Sending your kid to the gym might make them stronger and better at their sport, but being regularly under the guidance of coaches who are relentlessly positive, demanding, as well as caring, will reap a much vaster benefit. Kids adopt the habits and mannerisms of people they look up to, so placing them under the guidance of coaches who are excellent role models is a move that has the power to transform the way they think, see, and conduct themselves on and off the field.
For parents with young girls especially, it’s a great moment when your fourteen year-old daughter comes home from her training session and says, “Mom, I want to be STRONG,” instead of “Mom, how can I look like a Victoria’s Secret model?” Entrusting your female athlete to the care of coaches who emphasize the importance of feeling strong instead of being skinny – both through their coaching and their own habits – has the power to reverse the damaging societal norms associated with female body image.
If you want your child to get stronger, buy them a gym membership. If you want your athlete to become stronger, more inspired, increasingly confident, and a better teammate, entrust them to a training center with coaches who are positive role models.
Contact us Today and set up your FREE Success Session
Committed to your success,
Derek Ledwidge
High Intensity Training (HIIT) is top notch for fat loss, there's no doubt about that.
First off, The Afterburn Effect is real (it's part of your daily recovery), but if you’ve ever heard any these myths about The Afterburn Effect, you may have been lied to.
Is it as effective as some claim? Lets talk about it.
It’s not uncommon to hear people blaring on about “burning fat on autopilot for 36 hours” as a result of doing a 20 minute session at home with no equipment.
Pick up any fitness DVD and you’ll see claims of how this crucial training ingredient is the missing link between a regular body and a ripped, lean body.
But the reality of The Afterburn Effect is far different then some sales people will lead to believe.
In fact, it may not even be close.
I’ve seen tons of people greatly exaggerate the EPOC phenomenon and use it as a marketing tool, without any research to back up their claims.
Heck, these are just a few statements I’ve seen over the years:
“You will become a fat incinerating machine for 36 hours following every workout!”
“Our fitness class will boost your after burn effect x5 over any other class!”
“For every 1000 calories you burn with this workout, you’ll go on to burn an additional 500 calories after the session!”
Let’s take a moment to slam our heads on the desk before moving on.
There is a possibility that they are lying to you (if they know it or not).
--> “You will become a fat incinerating machine for 36 hours following every workout!”
Really?
36 hours?
So if I do three workouts in three days, I’ve already added three 36 hour bouts of pure fat burning, right?
So can I take the week off?
That would have unlocked the miracle fat burning system that genuinely allows people to lose weight by doing barely any exercise and not even talking diet.
No.
After a very hard High Intensity Training Session, The Afterburn Effect can last for up to 14 hours maybe (it's pretty much the time after your workout where your body is recovering).
Not 24. Not 36. Not 48.
And sure, you can find research to support anything you want to (search McDonalds is healthier than) but this comes back to common sense.
--> “Our fitness class will boost your afterburn effect x5 over any other class!”
This one could be more pure marketing hype?
They are merely trying to say our class is better than their class. And there’s nothing wrong with more people offering a service to help people accomplish their goals (since as a whole, us fitness professionals are failing, we need all the help we can get), but it shouldn’t be done by confusing the market with more fancy marketing terms.....
It doesn’t matter where you do it.
It doesn’t matter what equipment you use to do it.
It doesn’t matter whose name is on the door of the building.
Providing you are Training to you Maximum effort , you will see results.
--> “For every 1000 calories you burn with this workout, you’ll go on to burn an additional 500 calories after the session (you are going to burn calories no matter what by being alive)!”
This is not so much marketing hype.
Maybe just a totally incorrect statement?
That would give you a 50% rate of EPOC – a figure unheard of in any study on high intensity interval training. Ever.
In fact, review studies covering the full body of research on High Intensity Training report The Afterburn Effect to typically fall between a 6% – 15% increase in EPOC.
Not 50%.
Quite frankly, if you burned as many calories as some of these people were suggesting, you’d prob be dead.
The afterburn effect is 100% real.
And it sure is useful.
But it is not, and never will be, the missing link between doing 20 minutes of exercise per day and getting ripped.
It’s not the “secret fat loss formula” that many make it out to be.
If you are Training Hard – whether it is outside, in a gym, or at home – you still need to Train Hard and you still need to Keep Your Food Tight in order to Lose Fat.
That said, those 6% – 15% boosts in fat burning activity following each session might not sound like much after they were previously hyped as 50% spikes, but they sure do add up over the course of a couple of solid months of consistent training!
Instead of the quick fix it’s often billed as, The Afterburn Effect should be a long-term concept.
And the stronger you become over time, the faster your metabolism will be in general and the more fat you will burn as a result
What can we take away from this?--> The harder you train (to your Max, not what the treadmill says, but what your body tells you), the better your fat loss will be in the long term.
Committed to your success,
Derek Ledwidge
The holidays are always a main focus/dread for people when they think of weight gain. People are always wondering how to stop the holiday weight gain and are stressed out over what are they going to eat, is it too much etc. It is very stressful and chaotic time to begin with and then you add the stress of losing all the results of your hard work.
I don’t believe people just magically lose their motivation during the holidays, you lose your momentum.
You have worked hard over the course of the year. Became better at your major lifts, lost some inches, began to eat better and form better habits.......ALL HARD WORK AND COMMITMENT!!!
So what happens during the holiday season?
Our motivation is always there....Our momentum seems to slow down due to all the other things going on.
Your time will be at a premium, your stress levels may be a little bit higher than normal, and those things can legitimately effect your momentum.
Here are 4 steps you can take to maintain your momentum:
1. Plan your workout schedule NOW.
Seriously, if at all possible don’t play it by ear during the holidays. I’m going to maintain my schedule to a T, and make sure I get every training session in during that time. I may have to do it earlier or later than normal because of family commitments, but I’m going to make it happen.
2. Pick a mini goal between now and the end of the year.
This might go back to the motivation side of things, but pick a mini goal. Is there a Santa Shuffle, or Turkey Trot you want to run, walk, or ruck? Is there a little getaway where you want to look and feel your best with your friends and family? Is there a huge weightlifting meet the week after Thanksgiving? That mini goal can help hold you accountable internally, while your gym family at Strive can hold you accountable externally.
3. Join us for our HOLIDAY ACCOUNTABILITY GROUP
Starting after Thanksgiving and running through the New Year can be the tough time. Family parties, staff parties and get together's with friends can get overwhelming. Here at Strive, we put on a HOLIDAY ACCOUNTABILITY GROUP during the season of chaos. This group is a lifeline for many people during this time to get a hold on the holidays and is a resource for healthy recipes and new habits. LEARN MORE HERE
4. Commit to a de-stressed holiday season
This is a big ask I always tell myself before the holidays that this year I won’t get stressed about family member X, or if there are enough desserts.
Repeat it with me…there are always enough desserts, there are always enough desserts- it can be our holiday mantra. Enjoy the time with your family, or the relaxation of no work that day, and let the stress roll off your back.
Try out the 4 part Momentum maintainers. Your motivation is still there, just keep rolling!
Committed to your success,
Derek
