Losing weight is a mental as well as physical effort. You have to think about your diet and exercise routine to succeed, rather than just dashing in and out of the gym, using whatever machines take your fancy. If you settle into a comfortable routine of doing exactly the same things in the same order every gym session, your body will also settle into the same physique- you will never achieve the lean and sculpted body you first hoped for.
If your gym sessions are so routine that you don’t have to think about them, it is time to make a change. The same goes for jogging- mindlessly pounding a pavement will probably have no effect on your body after the first couple of weeks. Some people assume that putting the physical effort into exercise is enough- why should it involve extra brain work as well? Well, if you think through and plan out your exercise routine in advance, you will get far better results. To the beginner, exercise might seem to be all about putting one foot in front of the other, whether on a treadmill or round the park, but the no-think approach will probably mean no results.
It is natural for human beings to like routine, and most people find it easier to be in a comfort zone than to be doing something new. But if you stop putting effort in, you will get nothing out of your workouts. At work, you expect to take on new challenges to develop your career, and the same is true of any fitness plan.
Some mental effort put into researching and planning new routines will pay off with results in the long term. That’s all very well, you might think, but what’s the best place to start? Studies repeatedly show that a combination of strength training and interval training is far more effective than a long slow aerobic session. Once you have this routine in place, you must vary it every four weeks. If your body gets too used to training, your metabolism will adjust and it will be impossible to sculpt muscles and lose fat.
So, here’s a sample routine to start you off. For a warm-up, use a bodyweight circuit. Repeat each movement eight times, and do the whole set twice. Use a mixture of bodyweight squats, push-ups, and bodyweight rows.
Next, do 20 minutes of body strength training, again with 8 repetitions of each and 2 of the whole set. You could use a mixture of squats and presses. Follow up with another superset of split squats and rows. Now you’re ready for the intervals.
After a 5 minute warm-up, use 6 intervals of 60 seconds at a harder pace than you would normally choose. In-between, use 60-90 seconds of recovery at an easy pace. Cool down for 5 minutes and stretch off any tight muscles.
Once you get used to this routine, it’s time to change it! Remember, variety is the key to making progress with fitness and fat loss. There are dozens of different bodyweight exercises to try, and plenty of ways to vary intervals. Use time, method, and intensity- you will soon the results with a leaner, fitter physique. Getting out of your fitness comfort zone is much easier than you think- just use your brain as well as your body.