“Information is the resolution of uncertainty.” -Claude Shannon
Uncertainty is rife in gyms and training. Every enthusiast of fitness-whether they are cardio-centred, more focussed on weight training, or perhaps leaning towards functional training such as CrossFit-knows the feeling of going to a new gym. A new environment can take a while to get comfortable in, and you tend to stick out like a sore thumb when you are a new gym user-not that anyone particularly cares (at least not as much as the individual thinks they do). Honestly. Most people are far too focussed on their own workouts to care what the person next to them is doing. Unfortunately however, the person training dangerously or ineffectively is slightly more obvious.
Information is everything when it comes to training in a meaningful or systematic way-30 minutes of research could completely change ones perspective ok how and why they train. As I’ve mentioned before, me and my 16 year old mates flooding into the gym just went straight to trying to lift as much weight as we could-until a brief conversation with the in-house personal trainer changed my perspective. He swiftly made me realise that not only were we training in a way that wasn’t progressive, it was also putting my health and functionality at risk by not building myself up first. He also made it clear that building up foundation muscle was fundamental in making any sort of progress, and a combination of positive nutrition and informed, safe training methods was effective-surprisingly so. Using TRX ropes combined with basic set structure, with slow eccentric phases and more explosive concentric phases built me up fairly quickly-and noticeably too as I have a natural Ectomorph body type (skinny, slim and not particularly strong). I had to up my calorie intake as well and bought mass-gain powder whilst powering through bowls of rice, tuna and cheese. Semi-informed, this made a fairly positive difference and I started to work large muscle groups with a focus on compound lifting. Moving to university after a couple of years of slightly inconsistent training meant I was in fairly good shape and, moving forward, could have complete agency over my diet and training regime as the gym was on campus. I thought I was going to make progress with ease!
Wrong. There is so much more to making meaningful progress than eating lots and hitting a few compound lifts a week. I was genuinely shocked at how little I knew when comparative behemoths were chatting about hypertrophic training, functional CrossFit sessions and reverse pyramid training. Fortunately in the football team there were a few lads on their sports and exercise science degree who imparted their ever-increasing wisdom on me. Chuck in a few training sessions a week plus a game and I was probably in a calorie-deficit (which means I was losing weight). Not great news for progressing my strength or size and I still was struggling to eat enough due to a hectic schedule and a few nights out a week-fresher year is there to be enjoyed though. I don’t regret it in the slightest as that year was a huge learning curve in more ways than one.
Training with no real understanding of what, why and how you’re doing exercises is a quick way to burn yourself out and become unenthused. No one wants to have inconsistent and meaningless workouts, but it’s an easy trap to fall into when you haven’t got clear objectives and understanding of how to achieve them. Training becomes monotonous, and there’s little worse than putting in 2/3 hours of physical exertion for no actual benefit. It’s imperative to give yourself a schedule once goals are established and stick to it with a degree of flexibility-life gets in the way in an unpredictable manner. No matter whether one wants to lose weight, gain lean muscle, gain mass, become more functional or whatever it may be, it can’t be achieved without knowing how to get there.
The way to fully eliminate the chances of training dangerously and unproductively is by getting a personal trainer. Very simply, on the whole they are extremely well informed and only increasingly so with the constantly progressing nature of science within the field. Many now have degrees and the amount of work they have put in on both practical and theoretical levels is huge. Finding the right personal trainer can make a immeasurable amount of difference, no matter the depth of research an individual could do.
The fitness industry is intimidating by its own nature in that the amount of science introduced into its mainstream, as I’ve previously mentioned-especially for new gym users. With that comes confusing and seemingly complex jargon. Keep it simple, find an objective, work out how your body best responds and stick a routine without getting caught up in gimmicks and progress follows naturally.
The journey of fitness. 