Consistency Beats Intensity

"I would rather see someone consistently train 4 times a week at 60-70 percent intensity for the long term over 4 times a week at 100 percent intensity and burn out in the first week"

This is something I tell people all the time because I think it is so important to understand. In society there is the BIG all or nothing mentality that makes achieving goals very challenging. We decided that we want to get healthier, start working out, eating better, all at once. Now don't get me wrong this is an awesome thing to do for your health, but trying to change all of this at the same time is an overwhelming thing to do for most people. What we see far too often is people trying to make a large change all at once and either burnout or don't see the changes they want instantly and stop all together. The truth people don't want to hear in health and fitness is most goals you want take time, and most of the time longer than you think. Due to that fact of things needing time we get frustrated and burnt out from making some drastic changes. 

My advice to these people is to start small and be consistent with the small changes you make! If your first step is starting in the gym than make sure you can consistently go. Building strength, losing fat, and gaining cardiovascular endurance takes time! If you go into the gym working out at your max effort every single day your body won't be able to handle the workload you are putting it through. It's great if you make it through a week or two working at max effort but what happens if by doing so you burn your body out or get an overuse injury and now have to take three weeks off of the gym? The better way I would look at it is to train by how your body feels. Most days you will probably train at 70% effort, some days being a little less and some being more when you feel good. But if training this way allows you to consistently train 4 day a week for 6 months your body will respond better by the consistent work than the overly intense work. 

So remember if you have a day where your body doesn't feel its best or the energy is down that is ok! Train how you body is feeling that day and remember any workout is better for your body than no workout! Some days may not be your best training session but for each of those days I bet you have days that are your best day! It's a give and take!

Keep Making It Happen!

-Coach Brian