Advice For The Lost
Over the last few months, I’ve been occasionally answering questions from members of Planet Fitness Facebook support group. I found it so humbling to realize how many people need help out there, and did my best to give simple helpful advice.
Q: How often should you weigh yourself?
A: This depends how comfortable you are with the process.
Some people cannot look at the scale because it’s so inconsistent (which is normal) but it creates a poor relationship with the process.
Others trust the process well and can routinely check the scale, same time of day every day, knowing it will go up and down.
If you’re really uncomfortable with the scale, don’t do it more than once every couple of weeks.
Regardless, you should track success of the process. How many days did you go to the gym? How many strength days? How much more weight could you do? More reps? Are you staying on track with the balanced diet? Write all that down, own that process, and once that’s consistent then find guidance with the scale if you’re comfortable with it.
Q: I just ate a whopper. I feel like crap. How long would it take to burn this off?
A: So looking at it like your need to “burn it off” is your first mistake. Exercise isn’t actually great at burning Calories compared to how fast we eat. Look at the big picture.
We are in the weight loss era but this causes a poor relationship with food. Food doesn’t just add calories. It has protein (for building) different types of energy (fats or carbs) that help us, nutrients for our immune system, and it’s important to enjoy food!
There’s a pro and con to your feeling horrible about this.
Pro - it’s important to recognize when we don’t feel as good, to compare it to more whole food or less processed food. Having these foods because you enjoy it isn’t bad! But having them too much, we will feel poor often.
Con- it’s important we don’t feel controlled by the guilt of food to make you feel the need to workout excessively. I’ve been there. This is the pattern that works people into bulimia. Including myself. It’s not always the traditional throwing up, but instead we workout excessively to compensate.
You wanted to enjoy food. You’re not a bad person for it. You’re one good meal and one good day of getting back on track. Leave it in the past. Move forward with a manageable plan of healthy living.
Q: What should I use during workout to make me more sweaty to lose weight?
A: Sweating is the body’s way of keeping your temperature in an ideal range to operate. You will not “burn” more calories. If you do sweaty workouts this could be because the body is generating so much heat from the amount of movement, which the movement does burn calories because that the use of energy.
Simply wearing a hoodie will actually result in poor body regulation, because you generate so much heat that movement would actually need to slow down, and burn less.
Do exercises you enjoy doing hard with clothes that keep you at a good temperature to do it well.
Q: I haven’t been to the gym in 2 months and I feel like I’m failing.
A: What do you think is the most minimal exercise you could do consistently for 3 weeks 3x/week? And I mean minimal, doesn’t have to be the gym. What about a walk for 10 minutes? What about bodyweight squats for 10 minutes?
The all or nothing makes the first step back feel like a leap. Pushes you farther away. The conscious effort to put in any training will not only help you physically (as even 10 minutes is significantly better than nothing) but also mentally. Your mind will build strong habits from frequency rather than the duration. So making this effort 3 x/week for just 10 minutes is better than one 30 minute session. Once you get that down, you will feel ready for your next step because you’ve proven to yourself you can make time and challenge yourself.
What’s your minimal consistent step?
Q: I’m really new to exercise. What is the best exercises to start with?
A: Honestly there’s nothing better than doing bodyweight exercises. It’s the fundamentals of movement. If you choose machines, then balance out the body. Choose a lower, a pushing upper, and a pulling motion so that you’re balanced. The easier the workout, the better to start because results aren’t a destination, they are a part of a lifestyle. The best thing you can get is consistency to your lifestyle, and then time creates the results that you want. Regardless, you gotta keep going with what you do, so it should just be moderately challenging to start, but know that you can keep it going consistently for a very long time. Over time you raise it up a little bit, heavier weights, higher reps, and keep focusing on good nutrition and sleep. It sounds simple but that’s very hard to do, so you need your start to be the simplest step.
Q: I’m 290lbs and I’ve lost 30lbs, but I want to lose another 80lbs. I’m doing cardio before my workout, some free weights, and some cardio after. How much more do I need to do?
A: Eventually more is not more. It shouldn’t be a question of trying to challenge more cardiovascular system unless you’re going to continue to do the cardio, it’s just gonna work against you eventually. How strong you can get, and how effective the weight training session is will have a much larger long-term impact on your metabolic health. Which means how you utilize calories. From there you have to concern yourself with the proper calorie intake. I always come back to this analogy: Don’t try to work as many hours as you can to make money, work a job that will build your salary and keep your living budget within reason. This is no different than building calories versus burning calories, and then considering how many calories and what type of calories utilize with your diet.
Q: Is it better to do more cardio and a little weights, or more weights and a little cardio?
A: We are all more similar than different, especially in physiology. Meaning that most of us will all benefit drastically more from strength for long term health. The only exception is when you enjoy the cardio, like runners like to run, so you wouldn’t tell them not to run, you would just tell them to incorporate strength training. But if you don’t enjoy doing cardio, then don’t do much of any other than just walking and occasionally sprinting. However, strength training cannot be replicated, and it has more benefits than any other form of exercise. On top of that, it can be the most enjoyable when you start actually seeing your strength progressions. Start to track how much weight you can do and how many reps you can do it for. You will find huge gratification from the process of strength training.
Q: So what's better to use to build muscle on my arms? Free weights or machines?
A: Whatever you do more often consistently matters the most. The body is going to respond to dealing with handling force, and then you’re trying to progressively overload, which means trying to do a little bit more than what you did last time. The free weights have a stability challenge to it, so we can transfer more over to other things, like actually picking up things and pushing or pulling, but if you find the machine keeps it simple and you know you can do it consistently, that matters way more. The body doesn’t necessarily know which it is, it only knows whether or not it’s handling a force. Even to the realm of bodybuilders, you’ll see some use a lot of machines, and then some will say they don’t want to use any. Which means they both work for those individuals that do it consistent. And then from there, make sure you’re trying to do better than what you did last time, either more weight or more reps with controlled form.
One of the things I hope you notice here is a couple common trends. When focusing on your fitness, it’s about consistency, value of strength that you enjoy, and creating things you will continue to do.
If you have any questions for me, don’t hesitate to book a call with me sometime (no charge), just to ask me any question you may have.
Or send me an email; Rhylandqually@gmail.com
Send a text 204-799-8597
I’m here to help 😊