Hi guys, Kris from Custom Fitness here, your Amarillo personal trainer. Today we’re going to be talking about getting a better start. This is going to be the first part in a two part series, so be on the lookout for part two coming soon. And if you have any questions about today’s blog, then please give us a call at (806)-322-3188
It’s time to get going with this. At the beginning of the year, everybody kind of jumpstarts themselves into these crazy plans that they’re hoping will last for anywhere from four to six weeks with results that’ll last a lifetime. But in truth, I think we all know that results take time, and that in order to maintain them for a lifetime, we also have to maintain consistency for a lifetime. We have to keep doing it. Our bodies weren’t made to miraculously change in six weeks and then stay that way for the rest of our lives. Too much of our lives is spent falling back off track and going back to comfort foods, comfort activities, things that just really throw us off.
So today, it’s time for a better start. But how we do that? How do we get a better start? Because a lot of people, and maybe this is you, feel like you’ve kind of hit the bottom of the barrel with all of this, that you’ve tried everything and it just doesn’t work. Time and time again you keep trying, and it just doesn’t work. So, how do we start better? Why do we start again in the first place? Well, the why is obviously up to you. You have to have your why. If I give somebody a why, it doesn’t mean anything? You have to decide why you want it. And that determination alone is going to help push you forward into these four steps that we can take to really start to have a better start.
First off is something that you may or may not have really had crossed your mind, and that’s to figure out what kind of body type you have. I have people come in all the time. They say, “Oh my goodness. You must work out six hours a day and all this time everyday during the week because of your shape,” and I say, “Well, while I wish that I had a fantastic story for you, part of it is genetics,” right? So, my body type is different than probably what your body type is. Every person’s body is different, and that becomes the foundation of what we should be doing and why we should be doing it.
So if you take someone who is smaller framed who has a hard time building muscle and you put them only into a strength-building program where they’re gonna try to bulk up muscle, they’re going to feel disappointed and frustrated because their body’s not going to build muscle the way that other people want them to. I’ve been in that boat myself. My muscles don’t develop the same way that most people’s do. They get more toned, but they don’t get larger. My arms will probably never be more than nine and a half inches around. That’s just what they are. I never really understood that as deeply as I did whenever one day I was going through some of my grandmother’s photo albums and I saw her at my age, and she’s the same body type. Then I saw her mom at my age, and she’s the same body type. So over and over again, heredity comes first. We have to look at that. We don’t have to use it as an excuse, but we do have to look at that.
So, that doesn’t mean that I don’t ever string train, but it means that my body is more inclined to do other things. I do a lot better with my body workouts, pilates, yoga, those kinds of things. I do fine with running. I do fine with cardio-based exercise, things like that. But, hypertrophy is just not something that my body will do very well.
So, we want to look at what your body type is. And if your body type is the type that, say that you used to be a powerlifter in school and you had a ton of muscle, then we have to understand that if we start lifting weights again, we’re going to build that muscle back on. Is that a bad thing? Not always. We need to have that muscle in order to burn off more fat so it helps us to get healthier for sure, but it may not lead to your brain’s mentality of where you think you’re supposed to be if where you’re supposed to be is mentally in your head 20 pounds lighter, right? That may not work out the same.
So before you go jumping into a new program and just going all out trying to figure out what to do, we got to sit down and think about this body type thing. Really figure out what is my body type, what does my body do well at, and what does my body maybe not do as well at. Doesn’t mean that we leave the not as well alone, right? We still want to build up those strengths, but our body’s just not going to work the same way as everybody else’s. So if we’re doing the same workout that someone else with a different body type’s doing, we may notice more frustration and more depression over it because we’re just not getting our bodies to look the way that their body looks. So, that’s the first thing, is to understand that each person responds to exercise differently and there’s so many different types of exercise that you want to find the one that responds best with you.
So then, you also got to think about that same instance body type unique needs when it comes to nutrition. You can’t just follow the same plan that your friend did and expect the same results because your body may need, say, more carbs or more fat than your friend did. Your body may need a certain different level of energy in order to perform these functions that you’re asking it to do every day. But we can’t just restrict it down and say, “You know what? 500 calories, that’s the base and that’s what we need, and it worked for my friend.” We’ve got to find what works for you. How many calories does your body need? What types of macronutrients, and how much do we need to really focus on in the body? What do we need to put into this nutrition plan? So, we’ve got to really kind of research that and figure out what exercises, what nutrition is going to work well for you at this stage rather than just guessing and taking what somebody else did.
It sounds like a lot of work, right? Reasons that there’s professionals in this field to do that work for you, to research those things so that you don’t have to feel like you’re left alone. So often we feel like this is a do-it-yourself category that we have to do health and fitness on our own, that it’s ridiculous if we hire somebody to help us. Well, I can tell you darn well that I would not go and hire somebody that I didn’t think was going to help me for sure, but I also would not go and try and pull my own teeth. I’m going to hire a professional for that.
So I’m going to end part one here. I hope that you all got something good out of today’s blog, and I hope that you will come back for part 2!
If you can’t wait for part 2 and want to get to know more about us then give us a call! At Custom Fitness, we customize a plan for you. We sit down with you and find out what your needs are and then build a health and fitness plan around that. 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.