Article By: John Fontana

Tricksters

For the most part, diet and exercise companies that pump out countless DVD’s and diet books set you up for failure. I’m under the belief that they really have no idea what they are doing or that they know exactly what they are doing. In some cases, these companies really have no clue about diet or exercise and are just following or attempting to create a fad that will make them some money. On the other hand some companies are very intelligent and they chose to give you a non-sustainable product, forcing you to come back for more and more. Either way, I hate to admit but your getting screwed. The whole problem is lack of progression.

What’s Progress?

A movement or development toward a destination or a more advanced state, esp. gradually or in stages. This is the definition that I got from the dictionary when I typed in the word “progression”. Any true fitness expert will preach progression when looking to accomplish fitness goals. Our bodies are fantastically smart and actually learn to adapt to the demands and stresses we place on them. When you perform a movement a certain amount of times your body starts to remember, making the task simpler. In sports we like to call it muscle memory and it is generally regarded as a good thing. In fitness it can be both good and bad, I am here today address the bad and tell you how to avoid it.

To the human body, progression is absolutely key because of the fact that it is always attempting to maintain homeostasis. If you forgot what went down in your 5th grade Bio class, homeostasis is the bodies attempt to maintain status quo.  Whatever you do to disrupt status quo (exercise or irregular diet) will put the body in a place it doesn’t necessarily like and it will try it’s hardest to resume normal function. If you want to lose weight, put on muscle, take off some body fat or get as strong as you possibly can, the key is staying a step ahead of the body and status quo.

Progress Or Die

This is the reason I attacked the workout DVD companies a bit earlier they don’t progress. Find me someone who has followed the same few DVD’s for a year straight and continues to see results. You wont. Find me someone who has walked 5 times per week for 30 minutes at a 3.5 speed and 2.0 incline and continues to see results. You wont. Find me someone who has done 3 sets of 10 twice a week on bench press and still sees an increase in strength after a few months. You wont. The commonality here is that there is no progression. In fact, talk to these people and they will not only tell you that they are no longer making gains, but they are likely regressing. This is because they body has adapted, reached status quo and now everything bad (i.e. not eating the right foods) is catching up to you again.

What Do I Do?

To break this viscous cycle you must progress with your workouts. This doesn’t mean that you have to go at every single workout with a new plan. It does mean that every few weeks, right when things seem to be getting easy, it is time to mix it up. When a workout that was really difficult begins to get easy it is a signal that the body is catching up to your brain and about to reach homeostasis yet again.

My Advice

Do not go more than 4-6 weeks doing the same workout. Those DVD’s or workouts you ripped out of a magazine will do you no good after that amount of time. This is where they get you. You saw great results in the first few weeks, so you swore by it and stuck to it. Now its 2 months later and your not only bored but not seeing result either. What’s left to do? Go buy more product.

Another Big Problem

The problem many face when they reach this plateau is that they think they have to go in the exact opposite direction and start doing a completely different workout than before. (Insert any game show buzzer noise here) That is not the route that will lead you in a good direction. It’s like starting a project, getting it close to completion, running into a problem, scratching it and starting something completely different. You will have a bunch of lose ends lying around that can’t get tied together.

Building Blocks

At work, if you never develop any new skills, it is not likely you will ever get promoted. But at the same time if you decide you are going to develop skills that are irrelevant to your job, it is likely you will be starting all over again somewhere else. Progress is all about advancement and building on what you already have in place. Don’t get nutty, go AWOL and start doing something completely different. Figure out what works and take it to the next level. If you have been losing weight by doing a steady walk on the treadmill the last few weeks, stick with that but progress to the next level. Instead of doing a steady walk, get into some intervals.  That bench plan stopped working? Instead of a 3×10 style workout get into something like a 4×8 or 5×5.

Effective Progressions

For those of you who are looking to lose weight or body fat, there are a few progressions that will work well for you. One of them is to increase the intensity. With cardio in mind this will be either extending the time or making things harder with speed or incline. If you are weight training based this will be lifting faster and/or heavier. Another key progression here is to keep reducing the amount of time you rest in between sets.

For those of you who want more muscle strength or size the progressions will be more sets, reps, resistance or tempo. For example if you are doing 3 sets of five at a certain weight on week one, jump to 3 sets of 8 week two, 4 sets of 8 week three and then look to increase the weight or slow down the tempo on week four. By week five you will get a new group of exercises that are similar but a little more challenging that previous weeks and get rocking again.

Forget Status Quo

The progressions are endless, but you should always try to build on what you have going for you. You should be building up into exercises or workouts that take your current one to the next level. Get a hold of this concept and you will constantly be seeing results in one way or another. Status quo is nonsense, break the mold, continue to reinvent yourself!

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