INTRODUCTION
Every year around this time millions flock to the gymnasium, join a diet centre, or make a pledge to get fit, and yet, within a short time, 90% have failed in their resolution and return to their old ways. Sure, they’re frustrated, discouraged and miserable with their current condition, but feeling that way about your health and your body does not determine whether or not you will be successful this year in making a real change. Why? Well, there are many reasons for fitness failure, and as a fitness professional I see them all the time.
Did you know there’s a 96% failure rate when people seek to achieve their health and fitness goals without professional support? It is a statistical fact that less than 20% of us stick to our New Year resolutions, yet after spending an enormous amount of time, money and effort, almost everyone fails to achieve significant long-term results. Here are the reasons why:
1. LACK OF COMMITMENT
This is the first thing you need to do. Think about what you want to achieve, and how long it will take, what it will cost, and decide that you will commit yourself on a scale of 1-10 as being a ten. Now, just ponder that. That’s a serious commitment. You can give your hard earned money to a gym owner, who will have an instructor show you how to use the equipment, but then you’re on your own. A Shashido Warrior Coach, on the other hand, will motivate, educate, guide and support you all the way until you achieve the desired result. Your coach is there for YOU only! But, you MUST commit 100% in order to achieve your goals. Without commitment, complacency creeps in. It’s so easy to settle into our comfort zone and just go through the motions, expecting some divine force to present our goals to us. Very few people have the DISCIPLINE, DEDICATION and MOTIVATION to maintain the ambition they set out with, without some professional guidance. The best guidance comes from a SHASHIDO WARRIOR COACH!
2. NO COACH
I’ve already listed above some of the assets our coaches bring, but one of their main jobs is to keep you focussed!! Life is full of distractions: work commitments, spousal commitments, social engagements, etc. Almost every self-help book ever written talks about the critical importance of having a coach/mentor. Your shashido warrior trainer is an experienced and trusted councillor and teacher. It’s inevitable that you will confront difficult times on your path to losing weight and getting fit. A Shashido Warrior Coach is critical to systemizing your exercise program for maximum results and assisting you maintain peak motivation and commitment. Plus, the coach becomes your objective feedback system, helping you see, understand and correct the problems that may interfere with your progress. Exercise and nutrition are bonafide sciences, and learning everything you need to know on your own can take years of struggle–but not if you employ a Shashido Warrior Coach.
3. POOR PLANNING
Without a complete plan, you rely only on how you feel each day as motivation to do what’s necessary. Inevitably, there will be days when you just don’t feel like doing what’s necessary, but proper planning will solve most issues.
4. NO ACCOUNTABILITY / POOR SUPPORT SYSTEM
One of the biggest reasons for failure is that no-one is there to hold you accountable for your actions. You cannot be accountable to yourself, as it just doesn’t work. As time goes by, you will find all sorts of pathetic excuses for avoiding workouts and gradually revert to old lifestyle patterns. Having a Shashido Warrior Coach hold you accountable to your plan and implementation is essential, otherwise results will disappear completely in the long term. In a recent study at Virginia Polytechnic University, researchers divided people starting a walking program into two groups. Every week, each person in one group received a phone call asking how their exercise program was progressing, whereas the other group got no calls. After 24 weeks, 45% of the individuals who got the phone calls were still walking compared with just 2% who did not receive calls. The results show that weekly accountability increases the liklihood of sticking to your exercise program by 2200%.
5. INCOMPLETE PROGRAMS
i) Failure to apply the principle of progression.
Stop and think about how much progress you’ve made in the last six months. Your training must be structured using the principle of progression. For example, a beginner, or someone returning to regular physical activity after a long lay-off needs to begin at low intensity to allow the body to aclimatise, otherwise muscles become too sore, motivation suffers, and injuries can result. Examples of progression are changing some of your exercises for more difficult ones, more sets, higher reps with lighter resistance, lower reps with heavier resistance, reduced rest periods between exercises, higher intensity ( effort ) with longer rest intervals; longer efforts ( sets ) with lower intensity, or vice versa. A Shashido Warrior Coach knows when you are ready to change the routine to maintain progress, they are constantly evaluating for the appropriate timing for any changes to the program.
ii) Failure to address nutrition first.
Success is 80% nutrition, 20% exercise. You’ve got to feed your body the right fuel to exercise, have energy, keep up with the increase in activity, and stimulate your metabolism.
iii) Incomplete nutrition
With all the wacko diets and well-meaning, but uneducated friends giving you advice in this area, then it’s no wonder there is so much confusion. For example, all protein or no protein; All oganic, low glycaemic-high glycaemic; Good fats/bad fats, or low carb/high carb? etc. If you are confused about how to put together a good nutrition program that will get you to your goals, you’re not alone.
iv) NO POST-WORKOUT NUTRITION
The proper after-exercise nutrition is important because it will promote much faster recovery, refuel glycogen, and reduce soreness dramatically. Attention MUST be paid to nutrition after the workout, and there is a VERY specific formula for maximizing it. Use it and succeed, ignore it and suffer.
v) AVOIDING ENDURANCE
Cardiovascular and muscular endurance are both critical components of a complete program.
vi ) AVOIDING PERIODIZATION
Used weekly, you need to vary the intensity of your workouts from day to day. For example, it isn’t wise to use 100% intensity two days in a row, such as Monday/Tuesday, but it could be fine if Monday/Wednesday, and Wednesdays exercises were emphasizing different muscle groups. Are you beginning to see how intricate “proper planning” actually is? One of the pitfalls of training yourself without a coach is pushing too hard, too often, then becoming so sore that you start to lose enthusiasm, and begin missing workouts, or quitting all together. Furthermore, you risk developing a chronic injury, which will probably end your training indefinitely.
vii ) AVOIDING STRETCHING
There is a time for static stretching, best post-workout, with dynamic stretches pre-workout. Stretching muscles should form part of your warm-up, and cool-down, and is EXTREMELY important as part of your injury prevention and recovery programs.
viii ) NO WARM-UP AND / OR COOL-DOWN
Unfortunately, most people fail to recognise the importance of warming-up the muscles, stimulating some blood flow. Put simply, it will allow you to perform at your best, especially if intensity is going to be high, and helps protect you from injury. The cool-down speeds recovery, and aids the lymph glands to remove lactic acid waste that builds up as muscle fibres break down with exercise. Most beginners think a warm-up and cool-down is just stretching–wrong! Although, as previously stated, stretching is a vital component.
ix ) NO TRAINING DIARY
Indispensable tool! You should own one, and enter every workout set, rep, tool or poundage, note your “new PB’s ( personal bests ) etc. Your Shashido Warrior coach will also maintain records of all of your workouts. Bodyweight once per week, weighing on the same day, and preferably around the same time; a food diary is a good idea too, so you can see both your progress, and when you slacken off. Establish the habit of keeping a diary, it’s a great motivating tool! I’ve kept one since 1972, detailing every workout I’ve ever had.
6. OVERTRAINING
Your workout is either too long, too intensive ( perhaps too often ), overdoing cardio or strength work, or simply pushing too hard, too soon, which almost everyone does when they don’t employ a personal trainer. When your body isn’t ready for it, you will make yourself too sore, or be too restrictive with your eating, resulting in unnecessary pain and suffering that sabotages the best of plans. Worse, you suffer increased risk of injury–so training under a Shashido Warrior Coach minimizes that risk.
7. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
Components of fitness, and how best to train, plan workouts, nutrition guidelines, training principles, periodisation, principles of progression, how and when to stretch, etc. Without the proper training it’s virtually impossible to prepare properly for best results. However, with a Shashido Warrior Coach, YOU CAN’T LOSE!.
8. UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
Your Shashido Warrior Coach plans your progression through the workouts to maintain progress. Trying to succeed on your own usually fails because you don’t have the knowledge to know what you should expect. You start off all gung-ho, expecting a quick fix, then become demoralized when results don’t meet expectations. I blame the lies that so many of the weight-loss “gurus” tell you in order to sell their gimmicks, gadgets, pills and potions. Don’t fall for it. With the right guidance and plan, like what you will receive at our seminar ” How To Make 2012 Your Best Year Ever!”, you’ll be armed with the blueprint for success.
9. LACK OF VARIETY
When you see the range of exercises you can do, how simple, fun and engaging they can be, and how quickly they can bring about results, you will understand that variety is the spice of life. The same goes for nutrition. A lack of variety leads to boredom, one of the biggest downfalls. Most people don’t have the knowledge required to draw up a complete, progressive program with the necessary variety to maintain enthusiasm.Our Shashido Warrior Coach’s have an exceptional knowledge of program design, and will provide the best stimulating routines to keep you on track to succeed in your quest.
shane shiels
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