Category: exercise

Why Consistency is Key

May 20, 2018

Consistency. Its a word thrown a round a lot in fitness coaching and client relationships, and in articles and blogs about results, much like this one. What does consistency mean? It means ‘conformity in the application of something’. In terms of how it can assist you in achieving a goal, it means following a certain set of rules/habits/behaviors most, if not all of the time.

Just how important is it? Very important. From this coaches perspective, it’s everything. In fact, the simple idea of doing something with great consistency is so important, that the habits or rules followed don’t even need to be perfect.  As in, just choosing a few key habits that you know you can follow day over day will yield a better result that trying to be “perfect” when picking up too many habits at once. It is in my experience that I see those with the best of intentions crash and burn when there is an attempt to change too much at one time. If your plan cannot be followed with relative consistency, day over day, week over week, then it simply will not add up.

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What are some common pit falls that I see when it comes to struggling with consistency?

  • ‘The All of Nothing Approach’. Believing that you need to train all days of the week in order to get the results that you want. Believing that you need to cut ALL sugar from your diet. Believing that certain food groups are bad, or that a slip up or deviation from the plan means that you have failed.
  • The belief that diet perfection Monday through Friday will balance out a weekend free for all.
  • Eating minimally or perfectly throughout the beginning of the day when you have the most will power, only to lose steam, and your resolve by the time you get home.
  • The idea that you will see immediate results if you eat clean and exercise for a week.
  • Generally not having a plan – be it in the gym or with your nutrition.
  • Lacking a clear and defined goal, or mission statement for your health.

There are still many other reasons why people struggle with consistency, but these seem to be some of the big ones. And I get it, its hard. It takes dedication, a positive mindset, and a plan to find true consistency with our aspirational healthy lifestyles and goals. But the good news is, with just a few tweaks, you can find it for yourself. Below I’ve listed a ‘Top Ten’ that you can choose from to help you get started on your path to consistency. Do you have to follow all ten? Of course not, but if there are a few on here that resonate with you, that you feel you can put into practice right away, then you may just find yourself on the path to consistency.

  • Set a schedule for exercise that actually makes sense. Do not worry about going all out in your workouts every single day. Think about what is realistic to expect of yourself. 3 to 4 days, with consistency, will actually get you somewhere if you stick to it. Anything beyond that is a bonus!
  • Eat similar stuff most days. I know this sounds boring, but honestly, if you look at the people that are getting it done, and feeling better, and seeing results – they’re likely eating similar things day over day. Saying that you get bored too easily is just an excuse – and if every meal needs to be a novel food experience for you, then its up to you to accept how that’s going to impact your goal and take responsibility for it.
  • Engage in activities and the kind of exercise that you like to do. Or better yet, find things that you LOVE to do, that will help you achieve your goals. Find a fun class or sport to get involved in, make some friends, and just keep showing up. Ingratiate yourself into a community, get involved and you will be amazed how easy it is to keep showing up for yourself and for others.
  • Become financially invested in your fitness or your nutrition and you are a lot more likely to keep doing it. If you follow the step above, by finding a program or a coach or a group that you enjoy being around, you won’t even mind that there is a cost, its just part of your life and what you do and you’ll make it happen.
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Look at all of these happy people! Coming together to get it done on the Team Training turf at Boston North Fitness!  These workouts are tough but the camaraderie that comes with getting it done together helps them stay consistent. 

  • Road races and mud runs are a great way to get you motivated to work towards a goal. There is a defined date that you’re doing the thing on, and a set amount of time to go about getting ready for it. Perfect opportunity that begs for consistency. Better yet, find a group or a friend to do it with you for guaranteed consistency. We humans hate letting other people down.
  • Set realistic expectations of an end goal, or break it down into shorter time lines. Want to lose 40lbs in the next year? Totally do able. Want to lose 40lbs in the next two months? Probably unlikely, but you could lose 10lbs in two months and still help yourself get towards the ultimate goal you’ve set. Don’t set yourself up for failure before you even get started.
  • Don’t treat your weekends as a free for all.  Want to have a splurge, and Friday or Saturday is the best time to do it? By all means, enjoy that meal/event/etc. But understand that a 24 to 48 hour free for all will be very hard to undo especially if you do it week over week.
  • To add on to that point, I suggest that you make your Saturdays/Sundays look as similar to your week days as you possibly can(this is under the assumption that you work a conventional work week, but insert in here the days that you have off that may get you in trouble). Eat a similar breakfast, get in some exercise, similar lunch. You spend all week practicing good habits, try and keep it going through the weekend too.
  • Question whether you have an all or nothing mindset. Does one oreo at 2pm lead to a complete unraveling of the rest of the day? Do you look at times of opportunity for change that have to start with either a Monday morning, or the start of the next month, or the new year? Today is your day. Your next meal is your next opportunity to get back on track. If you find that you have an all or nothing mindset, you need to really dig into that and find ways to manage and change that mindset, because let me tell you, it will hold you back(this is why coaches are important!)
  • Lastly(at least for this list) take personal responsibility. Take a lot of responsibility. If you are not where you want to be right now, its not on anyone but you. This transcends exercise and nutrition. Be someone that takes responsibility for when things are not going right. It will save you so much time, stress and frustration in the long run.

So there you have it! Some steps on how to up your consistency game so that you can start to see those results, feel better, look better, and be a better participant in your own game of life. Get after it my friends!

High Intensity Training, What is it Good For?

February 20, 2018

   In our last post, we began to look into the effectiveness of cardio training vs. strength training when it comes to body composition change(lean muscle gain/fat loss). Without question, strength training takes the cake.                                                         
  However, there is still definitely not only room, but a purpose, for cardio like activity to be included in your workout regiment. There is even this happy place where you can have both the benefits of resistance training and cardio at the same time – it’s a tiny miracle known as metabolic circuit training.                                             
  There are all kinds of ways that you can work metabolic circuit training into your plan. This can act as the entirety of your workout, and it can also be a short quick mini workout at the end of a strength training session(as with anything training related, goals matter, and how much or how little of this that you would include depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your training – however, almost anyone can benefit from even just a small amount of this kind of work to compliment the rest of their current routine).                                                                                        
  The mini, fast paced circuit at the end of a bigger work out is commonly known as a ‘finisher’ – these can be as short as 3 minutes and may last as long as 12 minutes. These are meant to be short, intense, leave it all out on the floor kinds of circuits. It’s called a finisher because once you’re done with it, you should be toast.                             
  Sometimes, an entire workout will look like one big finisher, where you move quickly from one exercise to the next in an attempt to get your heart rate up and to keep it up. These kinds of workouts may last 15 – 30 minutes(or longer, it all kind of depends on intensity and what you are able to keep up) with minimal breaks or only as needed. These are perfect on days where you are short on time but still want to get a sweaty, bang for your buck, intense workout.                                                                                                
   Understanding and being able to gauge your own intensity during a workout can be tricky, and it’s completely individualized from person to person. What may feel like the hardest workout in the world to me, may feel very different to someone else at a higher fitness level.                                                                                                                                      
  How do you know if you’re working hard enough? There are a couple of methods that you can use, but probably the most reliable and accessible way is to use a heart rate or intensity monitor. This will help you determine if you’re working hard enough(most suggestions for a healthy individual will say you want to be around but not too much higher than 85% to 90% of your max heart rate). We use MyZone belts at Boston North Fitness and its proven to be a very useful tool in helping us stay accountable to ourselves during a workout.                                                                                                                                                           
   If you don’t have a heart rate or intensity monitor – you can go off of perceived exertion. A general rule of thumb is that if you can talk and carry on a conversation while you are in your working interval, you are definitely not working hard enough in a HIIT workout. You probably also shouldn’t be able to read a book if you’re ‘running sprints’ on the treadmill either. You should definitely be out of breath, and fully needing to use your recovery interval to catch your breath before you start up again.
                                                                                                                                       
  So, Why High Intensity Training? 

  • Time saver! You can get a ton of work done in a lot less time when your strength training workout can also double as a cardio session. These are perfect on days when you are short on time but still want to fit a lot of work into the time you do have.
  • Burn fat while also preserving muscle. A session of steady state cardio will only provide an aerobic workout, where a fast paced circuit of compound exercises will also provide anaerobic benefits(basically, you’re building muscle while you’re also burning fat, to put it very simply). What this means is that even after your workout, your metabolism continues to be revved up(due to the anaerobic work) and you will continue in a slightly heightened metabolic state for anywhere from 12 to 48 hours post workout.
  • Improves endurance and work capacity in a way that typical static cardio training will not. A challenging HIIT workout of body weight or kettlebells will push you out of your comfort zone in a way that the elliptical cannot.
  • Provides variety and also requires limited or no equipment. You can use every toy in the gym if you want, but you can also get in a killer workout with just a jump rope and some body weight exercises if you get creative enough.                                                                                                                                                   
      What might a HIIT or metabolic conditioning workout look like? At BNF we focus on using large compound body weight movements, medicine ball, kettlebells, ropes, Airdyne and spin bikes, rowers and sleds(among other things). Because this is meant to be a fast paced workout, you want to choose exercises that you can do safely and effectively even when you are tired and running out of steam.  Here are few examples of set ups for metabolic conditioning:                                                              
    1) AMRAP – choose a series of exercises, determine amount of reps per exercise and then choose an amount of time – you’ll likely want either a stop watch or some kind of a clock that will signal to you when the time ends. Perform as many rounds as possible within that set amount of time with as little rest as possible.
    Example: 8 Minute AMRAP – > perform 10 Med ball slams, 10 air squats, 10 KB Swings, 10 Wall Ball in that order for as many rounds as you can.                                        
    2) EMOM (every minute on the minute) – set a timer to ding every 60 seconds. Choose between 1 and 3 exercises to perform at the top of each minute. Whatever is left of the minute after you finish that set is your rest. As soon as the timer dings for the next minute to start, you begin that series of exercises again.
    Example: 8 MIN EMOM – > at the top of each minute, perform 5 Med Ball Slams, 5 Airsquats and 5 kettlebells. The quicker you work at the top of the minute, the longer your rest period.                                                                                                                              
    3) Circuit training for rounds performed as fast as possible.
    Example: 10 Medball Slams, 10 Airsquats, 10 KB Swings, 10 Wall Ball for 5 rounds. Record your time, perform again in a week and try and beat your time to see if your performance improves.                                                                                                       
    4) Timed intervals like a tabata workout. A classic tabata workout is 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off for 8 rounds. You can choose one exercise and do 8 rounds of the same exercise, or you can choose 2 exercises and perform 4 rounds of the same exercise.
    Example: Med Ball Slams and Airsquats. Do as many medball slams as possible for 20 seconds, take a 10 second break. Perform as many airsquats as possible for 20 seconds, take a 10 second break, switch back to the medball. Do each for four rounds. This an example of a great post workout finisher.

  Here is an example of how we may work some higher intensity training into our program, in our Team Training Industrial Strength workout. We start out with a warm up (not pictured) and then get into our strength for the day. The last part of the workout will be higher intensity, but will be on the shorter side and we’ll incorporate a couple of different(basically all body weight) elements in…

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  Lastly, to reiterate a point that we’ve been making in past posts – intensity matters, as does balance. I personally believe that HIIT workouts and metabolic conditioning circuits should be on the shorter side for best results. Work periods beyond 30-35 minutes aren’t necessary all of the time. You can fill the rest of your workout with a solid warm up, stretching, core work – movements that feel good and help you have a more productive workout. If you’re attempting to do these very intense workouts for longer, you’re possibly setting yourself up for overuse or injury, as well as just asking too much of your body. Intense exercise is a physical stress – be considerate of how much stress is enough and what’s going to become too much. Add in a couple of these sessions per week to your current strength routine, combine with solid rest, recovery and good nutrition, and this is where the magic happens my friends.