Hi guys, Kris from Custom Fitness here, your Amarillo personal trainer. Today we’re going to be talking about finding your pace from the start, today. If you have any questions about today’s blog, then please give us a call at (806)-322-3188
So, we have this notion to get in shape, be healthier, to move forward, and changing our lives for the better. Maybe changing our lives so we can change our family’s lives or our friends’ lives for the better. But a lot of times people, we kind of come in two different groups. One group says, “I can’t do this without help. I need to be pushed, I need to be motivated, I just don’t really want to do this.” And that group, we help all the time. We have the other group as well, who comes in and says, “Man, I am ready to do this. I am dedicated. I’m going to get this done no matter what. I want to. I need to. So, I’m going to get it done.” That group is great, until they get going, and then they tend to push too hard.
As our training team works, we can act as motivators and people who can help to push you forward. We can also act kind of like your dimmer switch and pull you back as well. We’ve had a lot of people come in who we say, “Do this exercise for a minute,” and they may throw out a minute’s worth of terribly awful squats or terribly awful push-ups, or whatever the exercise may be, and as they go though those, we notice that they’re more excited in their mind than they are in their body, because their body is not going through the motions correctly and therefore it leaves their body open to some issues. So, we kind of have to act as that dimmer switch, and we have to know how to pull certain people back and help you to get more benefit out of your workout.
What if I told you that doing 100 squats might not be as beneficial as doing 25 squats, and no, I’m not going to load you up with any extra weight or anything like that. What I’m going to do is slow you down and work on your form and technique so that you actually engage the muscles properly. Your body works correctly as it goes through the squat motion, or whatever exercise we may be doing, and you actually use the muscles efficiently enough that you’re burning more calories, building more muscle tone, so that the body can transform faster. Well, that’s what we do.
We as a team work on training people within 30 minutes or less, typically, with little to no equipment. We do that through focusing on the form and function, making sure that we only add an increase in pace once we have that form and function down to a T, so that we know that we’re getting things done correctly, we’re not risking injury, and we’re not causing other problems.
Why would you want to? Well, again, it’s going to decrease your risk of injury, but it’s going to help you to actually enhance your workout, get more results from your workout. So, a lot of people come in, start out going too fast. They typically end up fizzling out before they even get results, because they’re already worn out, right? So they can’t get the full workout in, or they just wear themselves out. Maybe they can’t come in for the workout the next day, because they’re way too sore from doing things incorrectly.
The second thing is that increased chance for injury. If you’re moving too fast, not watching form and function, then the body may move incorrectly, and that can cause a problem. We see this a lot or hear about this a lot through exercises like lunges, squats, burpees, push-ups. If your body’s not moving in the right motion pattern, then it’s not going to receive the right connection with the muscles, and you’re going to end up moving in a way that doesn’t really coincide with your body’s typical movements.
The other thing is that kind of happens from this is you go in with this full steam ahead approach, maybe it’s more of a “I want to exercise. I need to exercise. Somebody told me I need to.” So, you don’t really go in with a love of exercise, and then you go and try to kill yourself in the gym, and you turn exercise into a form of hatred. Something that you absolutely cannot stand doing, because maybe you got hurt while you were doing it. Maybe it just didn’t feel very good. Maybe you were sore, or you tried to puke or pass out while you were doing it.
The focus is to find something that fits your body’s needs. Some people need to move a little slower than others. Some people need to move faster, but sometimes it’s more we want to feel the workout more than just move fast, right? People can run on a treadmill or an elliptical at a very fast pace, but they don’t actually change from it.
Maybe in order to change, we start to change the way that your brain perceives the workout. So, I tell people all the time that for cardiovascular exercise, you actually don’t have to move that fast. You have to move consistently. You have to move continuously, and you have to move from up to down. But, you don’t have to move fast. So, we can move forward without raising our heart rate up, or we can go down and up, and raise our heart rate.
So, there’s ways that we can be more efficient with our movements, slow them down, focus on form and technique, and make more benefit to our body in a quicker amount of time by changing those factors. You might try giving it a chance. If you’ve got a workout that you’ve been doing that just hasn’t been changing your body, try playing with that side of it a little bit. Slow it down.
I love that day on Pilates Day, whenever we teach our mat Pilates class, and we take it at half-pace. Everybody kind of groans in the beginning, because, especially the new ones, they don’t think they’re going to get a great workout. The ones who are not so new know that it’s going to be twice as hard, so that’s why they groan. But, we take it through the form and technique, and they really feel it for at least a day or two afterwards. So, that’s always fun.
Try it out with your workout. See what you can do there. Obviously, the cardio machines, not going to get the same effect, but with your free weights, with your bands, with your body weight exercises, that’s where you’re going to see a big difference on that.
So, if you are wanting the accountability and help with creating an action plan to see results, or are wanting to someone to help create a workout plan to push you to your greatest potential, then that’s what we’re here for. We work with our clients not just on fitness, but also nutrition. What we do is we will ensure that you are supported throughout every aspect of your health and wellness journey, and that includes making those eating changes. We have an entire team of dedicated professionals to help you with your health and fitness goals. To get your consultation set up, give us a call at 806-322-3188 or email us at info@customfitness.biz At Custom Fitness, we are YOUR personal trainers in Amarillo, Texas. Have a great day.