I see it every day in the gym. Rows of members line the cardio area. The ellipticals are full. The treadmills are packed. Every bike is in use. And on all of those pieces of equipment, the tv's are on, headphones plugged in, and people churn away happily, watching Sports Center or catching up on the latest episode of Real Housewives of Blah Blah Blah. For the last eight years I've witnessed this. Many of the same people. I recognize them because they look exactly the same as they did eight years ago. No progress has been made. No changes in their bodies. Some look even softer than they used to.
On the other end of the gym, I see the same group of lifters that I see every day. I know them pretty well because they're here 2-3 hours a day, five days a week. Mostly they fill the flat benches, or take turns doing bicep curls in the squat rack. They're top heavy because they don't have an actual leg day. But they spend 15 hours a week in the weight room. They're dedicated. So exhausted at the end of their marathon sessions that they're too tired to put their weights away or wipe down the equipment. So tired that they need to drop the dumbbells they were using on their fifth set of concentration curls or kickbacks. They have to let everyone know how hard they're working.
What do these two seemingly opposite types of gym-goers have in common? They lack something that is a key to success in any type of program, whether it be for fat loss or muscle gain. They lack intensity. They not only lack intensity, they drain the intensity levels out of the room. Whether it be the slow, monotonous grind on whatever piece of cardio equipment that happens to have HD channels on the tv monitor, or the long social gathering in the middle of the weight room, interrupted only by a quick set of the chest/bicep/tricep exercise of the day, these groups will never make the progress they seek. They'll blame it on genetics or an injury that set them back. I hear it every day.
It has nothing about the amount of time you spend in the gym. It's what you do with that time. Spinning your wheels on the elliptical for an hour, or pounding away on the treadmill until your knees ache over a long period of time will have the opposite effect of what you're looking for. High cortisol levels, inflammation, oxidative stress (which causes decreased reproductive size. Sorry, guys.), and a compromised immune system are some of the things you have to look forward to.
Intensity is defined as exceptionally great concentration, power or force. Think about your last workout. Does this definition fit? Did you give everything you had? Were you focused on having the perfect set, or breaking a personal best in a lift? Did you push through when you thought you didn't have anything left in the tank? Did your training partner/s motivate and inspire you to be better? If not, you need to rethink how you train.
Many of the clients I have train with me two to three days a week sometimes for 30 minutes at a time. In these sessions we get more done than either of the above groups. And they see progress. They know they've been worked. At the end of the session they're ready to quit. They push themselves to the limit, and then raise that limit and go farther. They deadlift, they squat, they do big, complex movements followed by intense conditioning intervals. They leave it all on the gym floor, and have a sense of pride and accomplishment. This is how I train myself and this is what I expect from my clients. No matter their age or ability level, I get the most out of them as they can give. No less. And they have fun doing it.
I challenge you to make a change. Instead of spending an hour doing steady state cardio, spend 15 minutes performing sprint intervals. Turn off the tv and push yourselves. Instead of spending three hours getting in 5 half assed sets, push the sled for 20 minutes as hard as you can. Put forth some effort and you'll see positive changes. It's gonna hurt and you may want to throw up or cry, but at the end of the day you'll be healthier and stronger, both physically and mentally.
Matt Kovacs
Fitness Director
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