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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Three Problems That Could Be Keeping You from Reaching your Goals



This is what failure looks like...
 
     There are many reasons why people do not succeed at the different goals they set for themselves.  There are the obvious reasons such as completely sucking at what they are attempting or lack of knowledge or skill in the area but these aren’t the reasons I would like to talk about.  I want to talk about the less obvious reasons that are usually the root cause of your failure to reach a goal.  You may be suffering from one or more of these problems right now but with the proper guidance and corrective measures you can be back on the path that leads you to success.



1.  You know too much bro.


     You know too much bro and most of what you know is incorrect.  It’s the information age and everyone has access to the internet which is full of MISinformation about nutrition and exercise.  The internet is the worst thing to happen to the fitness industry since the nautilus circuit, bosu ball and that stupid shake weight thing.  The bad information out there is called “broscience” (or BS(lol get it..BS??)). 

     Broscience is when someone makes a completely unsupportable claim, not backed by either science or any form of reasonable speculation, and when challenged on that lack of support, the person instead points to his pictures, his lifts, or the phenomenal number of Olympic athletes he’s trained as support for the claim.

     This broscience is the reason many of you aren’t succeeding.  You know too damn much and the problem is that most of what you know is incorrect.

     All too often I hear people talking in the gym about the best way to build a certain muscle or what is the best ratio for post workout nutrition.  99% of the time they are wrong and 99% of the time I bite my tongue because it is not worth the argument.  Even in the face of undeniable facts and scientific proof, most people are unwilling to change their minds and will stick with the broscience approach.  (See number 3 for more on this)

     Someone new to lifting would be completely overwhelmed at the plethora of workout routines shown by a quick Google search.  They are naive and impressionable in this stage and will usually listen to whatever people around them say.  I prefer working with beginners for this reason.  They are a blank slate when it comes to anything fitness related.  If you can solidify the basics and get them to make their decisions based on science and research they will be set. (Begin rant...At least until they get into the advanced levels of lifting where for some reason people brain dump, forget about the basics and think they need to incorporate crazy unnecessary exercises into their routine to see results...end rant)

     
Steak is amazing...

     When it comes to nutrition there is the same overwhelming amount of information out there.  There are more diets than I care to mention.  The basics of nutrition are very easy to understand and even easier to apply but you have to weed through the BS to find out what the basics actually are.  Most diet books will have you believe that their way is the only way.  When X diet or X dieting protocol works for them they will assume that X works for everyone person, every time and forever.  What they fail to realize is that every person is different.  There is no cookie cutter eating plan that will work for everyone and there never will be.  The best diet is always the one that best fits your lifestyle and the on you can stick to in the long term.


Without patience you are doomed to fail.


2.  You have no ....... wait for it ....... patience.


     Rome wasn’t built in a day.  You will not go from 15% to 8% body fat overnight, just like you won’t pack on 20 lbs of muscle overnight.  Patience, persistence and consistency will get you there though.  Patience is becoming less and less common because of our fast paced society that wants everything now.  They want instant results, instant answers and instant solutions. 

     Fat loss and muscle gain are not instant and without patience you are doomed to fail.

     It’s a lack of patience that leads people to completely overhaul the plan that has been working for them for the last few months just because their weight loss or gain has stalled for a week.  Patience allows you to take a step back and analyze the situation without making an irrational decision.  There are so many factors that play into body weight that one week is nothing to be stressed about.  If you reach 2-3 weeks and have not progressed then patience allows you to make a small incremental change instead of a complete overhaul.  That small change will almost always put you right back on the path towards your goal and it can be something as small as changing your nutritional timing or dropping your workout volume.


This is me when told to do something I don't want to do.


3.  You are too stubborn.


     No one likes change because it’s uncomfortable.  It’s something different.  It’s something new.  There are people that spend countless hours a week in the gym in attempts to lose weight but they refuse to change their eating habits.  They know they will see little to no results in their physical appearance unless they change but week after week they slave away with nothing to show for it.  I’m sure you know more than one person in this situation.  They are too stubborn to change even though they know they have to in order to see results.  These same people will make the comments like “I don’t know why I’m not losing weight” or “I am spending so much time in the gym, I don’t know why I don’t look better”. 

     I can tell you why you aren’t seeing results.  It’s because you are unwilling to change.

     Stubbornness also rears its ugly head when it comes to new and upcoming research.  Every day more and more research is coming out that helps clarify questions that people have been asking for years.  There have been certain theories that have been accepted as “facts” for so long that when scientific research comes out that contradicts these “facts”, people have a hard time accepting them.

     The most recent example of this is nutritional timing.  For years now everyone has been advocating 6-8 small meals spread throughout the day but given the same total calories, research shows no real difference between 6-8 meals a day or 1 meal a day.  This is just one of the many examples out there.  New research may mean we have to change what we regard as “facts”.

    
     If you are failing to achieve your fitness goals, whatever they may be, make sure that it’s not one of these three problems that are standing in your way.  If you want to work with someone that can help you reach your goals, keep you on track and get you the body you truly want, email me @ Joshua.j.palmieri@gmail.com  I can set you up with exactly what you need to get there.