A word about New Years Resolutioners

I'd like to start off by wishing all my readers a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and generally a happy holidays.

I've decided to do an entry about New Years Resolutioners because I've seen a lot of negativity (usually jokes) about this group of people on social media. Understandably this stems from the frustration that is associated with the stereotypical New Years Resolutioner. That is typically the gym is full of newcomers at the beginning of the year due to everybody making fitness based resolutions and within a few weeks the crowd thins out again as people struggle to stick to their commitment.

Why is this frustrating?

Most committed gym goers find New Year an annoying time of year because the gym typically gets busier, full of people suddenly wanting to get in shape. These people of course end up using equipment, making lines for equipment longer and training sessions generally less time efficient. I think people also get annoyed with the resolutioners not only because they are making the gym more cluttered but because time after time we see that the motivation and commitment doesn't last. So I suppose it feels like the gym just gets temporarily busy and committed people are inconvenienced for no reason. If all the resolutioners were to actually stick with their resolutions then I doubt that regular gym goers would become as frustrated because they would have a real reason to be there and a genuine dedication to achieving their goals. That would make a crowded gym much more tolerable.

Tips for New Years Resolutioners

1. Make a real commitment - Like I mentioned above, there is nothing more annoying around this time of year than someone who joins the gym in the new year and takes up space and equipment in the gym only to quit soon after. Make your commitment real. You are going to find it difficult to adjust to training, to changing your eating habits, you will experience some soreness, you will have days where you don't want to train. Be prepared to deal with these things and make sure you are mentally committed to complete the task you set for yourself because it is good for you even when you don't want to do it.

2. Have a realistic plan - Your plan needs to be achievable both in terms of your current level of fitness and your life circumstances. If you aren't used to going to the gym, you have a busy job, 3 kids and 2 pets then training for 3 hours/day, 6 days/week might not be very realistic for you. If you were to set a plan to train 3 days per week or even 2 days per week for 1 hour then honestly that would be a great start. And if someone were new to training then that would yield some results over time provided they were consistent in implementing it. Don't be over-zealous when setting plans initially, in fact it doesn't hurt to be conservative.

3. Don't listen to the naysayers - I realise I've just written a few paragraphs about how annoying New Years Resolutioners can be. However I realise that some of you may be in this situation and you might not be very motivated. So if you are a New Years Resolutioner who wants to get in the gym and improve themselves then I encourage you to do it. Giving it a go doesn't hurt and there have been some people who have changed themselves dramatically having started off with a New Years resolution. I recall that natural pro bodybuilder Ryan Doris was once one of these people. No doubt many others have been the exception to the rule and have made huge changes to their lives and their health. You have the capacity to do it too, you just need to take the appropriate steps and stick to it.

4. If you fail don't give up - Clearly not everyone who starts out with the best intentions to get fitter in the new year is going to be successful the first time. If you do mess up then there is nothing wrong with that. Just get started again. There is a quote that I saw posted on instagram the other day that said "if you were serious about your New Years resolution, you'd be doing it already". There is some truth to this. You don't have to wait for a particular date to start. You don't have to start diets on Mondays. Just start these things whenever you want to. If you start your New Years resolution and fail then don't wait until January 2017 to get started again. Keep at it throughout 2016 until you fail less often.

5. Set a goal and go after it - The worst thing you can do is go into the gym with the vague idea of "I want to get fitter". What does "fitter" mean to you? Stronger? More muscular? Lower body fat? Improved cardiovascular endurance? Increased flexibility? etc. Think about exactly what you want to achieve, set some SMART goals, create a plan, hire a coach/trainer if you need help and make sure you stay dedicated to it.

I hope that this post was helpful to anybody considering embarking on their fitness journey. Again a Happy New Year to you all and all the best to you for your health and wellness in 2016.

Need help with your 2016 goals? Send me an email and let's discuss what you want to achieve.

Muscle Academy contact details:

Email - info@muscleacademy.com.au
Website - http://www.muscleacademy.com.au
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/MuscleAcademy
Instagram and Twitter - @evansoooon

- Evan

The 3 biggest misconceptions about deloads

Deloading is a beneficial strategy to improve recovery, sometimes boost performance, reduce the likelihood of developing injuries and improve mental focus. Some people get anxious about including deloads and may not want to do them at all because they have made assumptions about them. This is especially true of people who are not used to deloading. Fortunately these assumptions simply aren't true. In this blog post I will discuss the three biggest misconceptions about deloads.

Number 1 - Muscle Loss

Some people think they may lose muscle if they don't train at full intensity or with the same volume of training they are used to. This isn't true because deloads generally only last for around one week and the amount of atrophy that can occur in that time period is negligible or perhaps nil. And we of course need to mention that during a deload we are actually still training (with low loads and training volumes). By continuing to train at low loads/volumes we are allowing to recovery processes to occur but we are maintaining all or most of our adaptations. Funnily enough the people that are against deloading are often the same people who decide that every once in a while they need to take a week off the gym completely, and that whilst it's not going to have a huge impact, will produce more muscle atrophy than deloading will.

Number 2 - Mentally unable to perform the deload

This is not a misconception but it is something that I see and hear frequently. What I mean here is that some people just don't feel like they can go into the gym and train at a level below what they are accustomed to. They can't go into the gym and not give it their all because it doesn't feel right for them. This is fairly common and people need to realise that giving it your all sometimes just means carrying out the plan. Being dedicated is going in there, doing your job and being able to do that both when it is difficult and when it is easy. Deloads are supposed to be easy, that is the point. They promote recovery, hard training doesn't promote recovery. So for these people it's a good idea to firstly chill out (mentally), stay focused on the task, get it done, enjoy it and know that it's doing you good in the big picture.

Number 3 - "Training is going well, I don't need to deload"

In this section I need to cover two points:

(i) One of the reasons for including deloads into one's programming is that it serves as pre-hab. It's a pre-emptive strategy that helps to reduce the likelihood of developing injuries. We all have those little niggles that happen as a result of training every now and then. Sometimes all those things need to recover (or at least to not get worse) is a bit of time away from the constant pounding of heavy weights.

(ii) Another thing is that yes you may feel like training is going perfectly and you don't feel like you need to deload at all. But unless you are very experienced your "normal" might actually be under-recovered. You may be so used to training in a chronically under-recovered state that it just feels normal to you. This is more common than you'd think. It's not until some of that training stimulus is removed that we can begin to notice that we weren't as recovered as we thought and that the deload is actually beneficial.

That's it for this week. I hope you guys got something out of it. If you have anything to add to the discussion then please comment below or on facebook/instagram.

Muscle Academy contact details:

Email - info@muscleacademy.com.au
Website - http://www.muscleacademy.com.au
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/MuscleAcademy
Instagram and Twitter - @evansoooon

- Evan