Which routines work best for you where exercise is concerned are what you trust and then tend to follow as a gym routine.
There are a number of examples from similar fields that help explain my thoughts here.
When you read an article or a book that holds meaning for you, you can find that you seem to easily understand the book's story. Why? Because when so reading you are focused and, as a result, your brain works in fluid association with your eyes.
Equally, when you go the cinema you can find yourself enjoying the movie you choose to watch. Why? Because in such instances you can have a preliminary interest in the movie to begin with, or an actor or actress appearing in it, and are then rewarded by the cinematic experience itself.
When I went to school, my bête noire was mathematics. I decided at an early age that the subject was too complicated for me and I spent my entire school career being defeated by maths. Geography and history were my favourite subjects and though I wasn’t excellent at either I was willing to listen and learn while studying both.
Sport was my other favourite activity at school, because I was naturally gifted on the sports field and it is so easy to enjoy something that you are good at.
Over the past decade what I have learnt is that without being focused or enthusiastic you are likely to stop exercising at some point because of this lack of drive or attention to the detail of your workout.
From my own experience I believe that if people don’t understand what they are doing, or if they cannot see positive results with regard to their mind or body when working out, the result will be either an end to exercising or the need for a fundamental rethink as to why such people go to the gym in the first place.
We all have different ideas as to what makes a great workout.
In my opinion a good first principle is to have intelligent body balance when exercising, which means to train the front side of the body as much as your reverse side, so that balance is achieved between the front and back. From this starting point the next step is to add intensity to the workout. I think this is vitally important, otherwise exercise can quickly become pedestrian, unchallenging and fail to deliver gains.
Such intensity will also help the maintenance of focus during exercise.
The other factor that should be brought to a solid workout is the inclusion of regular coordination exercises such as box jumping, jumping lunges, battling rope or the injection of a short and fast run into the routine.
These exercises stimulate the brain in a different way because of their combination of energy bursts and precision moves. Plus, they can be more enjoyable than heavy weight resistance exercises (especially if you lack the strength for lifting heavy weights).
For myself, I don’t lose my enthusiasm when I train and I am proud that I help my clients to maintain their workouts over the long term. If I can use a metaphor, I would say I am here to teach my clients how to understand the principles of successful exercise so they can then workout as best suits their lifestyle and can enjoy doing so.
In this way working out with a Personal Trainer such as myself is more of a team effort, during which I exchange information with the men and women I train and with all of us learning during the training process.
I can’t emphasise enough how enthusiasm is the main driver of success in this life.
If you are enthusiastic you will keep going, whatever the resistance you encounter on your journey, and you will also discover that enthusiasm is the best fuel for a fit and healthy life.
So use it to power your workout.
Julien