If you find yourself walking into February feeling a little defeated, I encourage you to not give up on your objectives. By using the following tips, you can focus on setting goals for long-term and sustainable behavior change, making the new year a successful one.

Start Small

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you start trying to make big jumps from your current lifestyle to where you would like to be. Instead of trying to do too much too soon, start by setting small specific, measurable, and achievable goals. Once you have accomplished those goals consistently, your “success momentum” can help to catapult you to the next step. Over time, you’ll slowly build up to larger goals.

Follow a Plan

Have a plan that outlines what you need to do and the steps you need to take. Write down your plan and review it regularly, and find ways to “celebrate” each time you accomplish each step regardless of how big or small they may seem. For some, something as simple as crossing the step off of a list or checking a box can provide a sense of satisfaction and pride. Keeping yourself accountable and motivated can and should be a fun part of the process.

Find a Support System

It can be difficult to stay on track with your goals if you’re feeling alone, especially if you get stuck and/or are feeling unmotivated. This is where having a support system — whether it’s a friend, family member, a coach, or online community– really comes in handy. Ideally, this person/community will be someone you jive well with, who can help you refocus on your vision, and who can celebrate with you along the way. (To learn more about our coaches at Pike Fitness, feel free to peruse our trainer bios here.)

Expect Obstacles Ahead of Time

Challenges are bound to pop up every so often, so plan for them ahead of time. Consider “good”, “better”, and “best”, case scenarios, and when bigger speed bumps get in your way, learn from your mistakes and stay focused about the progress you’ve already made. Even when situations arise that you can’t avoid or plan ahead for, remember that each “mistake” is a learning opportunity that will help you prepare for the next time you’re in a similar situation or circumstance.

Stay Positive

It can be easy to give up when things get tough. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you slip up. One of my old mentors used to say “if one of your tires goes flat, you wouldn’t slash the other three tires too.” It makes sense, yet so many people tend to throw in the towel over the smallest inconveniences. If something doesn’t go as planned, replace your metaphorical tire as quickly as possible and get back on the road.

Though behavior change is a process, following these tips can help you create change that can last for months, years, or better yet, for the rest of your life. It’s important to remember that lasting change takes time, so manage your expectations and don’t give up if you don’t see immediate results. With some dedication, perseverance, and intentional planning, you can reach your goals.

If you’d like to speak with one of our trainers to strategize and get started on your health and fitness goals, click here to schedule a free consultation.

For further reading:

Atomic Habits by James Clear

Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg, PhD

When it comes to building muscle, the key to success is three-fold. Just like the legs of a tripod, each part of the equation is just as important as the rest. Training hard alone won’t do it. To successfully build muscle it takes a well rounded exercise program, a solid diet, and plenty of rest to rebuild and repair. If you’re spending hours at the gym but can’t seem to grow, you may be missing a crucial piece of the puzzle. Don’t worry; success is probably closer than you think. In this article, we’ll cover the most important factors to consider when trying to build muscle. We’ll share a few secrets that will help you unlock your potential, and also dispel a few of the myths and rumors that are floating around in the health and fitness world.

Why build muscle?

Building muscle can be very useful. The cross sectional area (girth) of a muscle is directly related to strength. This means in general, the bigger a muscle, the stronger it is. Having a lot of lean mass also speeds up the metabolism, which in turn burns fat. Often, the more muscle you have, the harder it is to gain fat. While those are both nice benefits to building muscle, one of the most common reasons people want to put on lean mass is because it is attractive. There is a certain sex appeal to a muscular body, and I think both males and females would agree. Having a chiseled physique certainly makes things easier when attracting a mate.

Training to build lean mass

So how should you be training to maximize your lean mass gains? Let’s learn a little bit of the science behind the process of building muscle. The increase muscle size is known as muscular hypertrophy. Hypertrophy is the result of the body repairing microscopic tears along the muscle. When your skeletal muscle is overcome by a load, microscopic tears begin to form along the fibers. While you exercise, you are literally breaking your body down. This is a good thing though, as your muscle cells are capable of rapid repair. If your body’s energy needs are met, you will lay down new tissue on the existing muscle cells. The key here is rest, recovery, and a positive caloric balance.

Rest for success

To maximize benefits, it is critical to let your body heal itself. The minimum time needed for recovery of a given muscle is 48-72 hours. Some professionals even advocate a week or longer between training the same muscle group. Training too often can quickly lead to overtraining, which will set you waaay back on the path to your goal. You may be thinking, “That it sounds like too much down time!” Well, I hate to say it, but that “more is better” mentality is a fabrication of the steroid culture of the early 80’s and 90’s. When using anabolic steroids, the repair process is much faster, and the natural rest period is significantly shortened. (We strongly oppose the use of steroids.)

Eat to grow

As with any fitness goal, the foundation of your program should always be diet. Proper diet accounts for 70% of your fitness, and the results in the gym are entirely dependant on what (and how much) you eat. To build muscle, your body needs to be in a positive caloric balance. In other words, you have to eat just a little more than you can burn for energy in order to build muscle. (Yes, there is a reason Gaston ate 5 dozen eggs every day!)

To build lean mass, your daily caloric intake must be 350-700 kcal above your total energy expenditure (TEE). If you are eating about the same amount of calories every day and you’re maintaining weight, you’d have to consume an extra 350-700 calories each day to build muscle. By doing this, you should put on 1-2 pounds of muscle a week¹. If you would like to learn how many calories you need to sustain your current weight, either complete a 3 day diet log (most accurate), or Click Here to get a rough estimate of the calories you need the fuel your body.

Guidelines for Hypertrophy

There are a few guidelines to consider if your goal is to safely increase muscle mass. The best way to train is by performing resistance training at a slow tempo. If you can keep your muscles under consistent tension through a full range of motion, your muscle tears will be uniform in nature. The National Strength and Conditioning Association has done a considerable amount of research on the subject, and have found the following formula to be the best recipe for hypertrophy. *These guidelines are recommended for the intermediate to advanced exerciser.

Warm Up

Warming up before an exercise is absolutely essential. Spend 5 -10 minutes warming up before you train. Try to break a sweat before hitting the weights.

Tempo

Tempo is king. To maximize hypertrophy, try to spend about 3 seconds on the eccentric phase of a lift, and 1-2 seconds on the concentric. You want to be as smooth as possible while doing this. Keeping the muscles under constant tension will go a long way in building mass. Try to avoid ballistic reps, especially if you have to break form to complete them.

Reps

Perform 6-12 repetitions of an exercise per set. Each rep should be completed immediately following the last. At max, rest for 1 second between reps. If you are performing a single joint exercise like biceps curls, never drop below 8 repetitions. If you cannot perform 8 clean reps, the weight you are trying to lift is too heavy.

Sets

Each muscle group should be trained for a total of 8-12 sets per workout.

Rest

Between sets, spend between 60 and 90 seconds to rest and recover. Begin the next exercise within 5 minutes so that you do not cool down.

Cool down

Spend about 10 minutes doing light calisthenics and stretching to cool down after a workout.

After Training

Within 30-120 minutes of finishing your workout, you should eat a good source of carbohydrate to restore lost muscle glycogen, and around 25-40 grams of protein to aid in the synthesis of new muscle.  Avoid high fat foods immediately following your workout, as it can slow the absorbtion rate of protein. Remember, you build muscle by resting after a workout, not at the gym. Be sure to give yourself at least 48-72 hours of rest between training the same muscle group.

If you want to learn more about how to build muscle, please contact us. We would love to help you out. Thank you

References

¹ Human Kinetics,’ “NSCA’s Essentials of Personal Training Second Edition,” pg. 118.

TAKING YOUR PERFORMANCE TO THE NEXT LEVEL

For many of us, the goal of exercise is not to get ripped six-pack abs, build 20 inch biceps, or to look sexy at the beach. Our goal in training is based in the functional application of our fitness. For us, it’s about being able to perform our day to day activities with ease, having the ability to work harder for longer, and not getting hurt while we do what we love. For some, day to day activities might include gardening, playing with the kids, or taking out the garbage. Even seemingly mundane tasks like this require a certain level of fitness. In the athletic population however, day to day activities may require much more physical demand. When training for performance, it is important to consider the requirements for the task at hand. Generally, the traits which aid in sports performance are focus, power, balance, agility, flexibility, aerobic capacity, endurance, and skill. All of these traits can be trained and improved upon, so if you want to take your fitness to the next level, here are some aspects to consider.

Focus

The role of the mind in sports performance cannot be underestimated. Think of the times that you have been completely involved in a task; whether physical, mental, or otherwise. You were probably highly efficient, and were easily able to sail through any obstacles that stood in your way. This deep state of focus is a hallmark of almost all highly successful people, from athletes at the highest level, to the greatest thinkers our world has known. If you want to get something done, and do it well; you need focus.

Power

Optimal performance in most sports is highly dependent upon power. If you run, jump, throw, swing, kick, or punch, developing power is something you should be working on. Power is an expression of strength, and is the rate at which work is performed. It is the ability to produce force over a distance, quickly. The more force you can produce, the more powerful you are. Some common training methods for developing power include plyometrics, sprinting, and Olympic weightlifting.

Balance

Balance and proprioception make up an important aspect in both sports performance, and day to day life. They are your ability to perceive your position in time and space. These traits are crucial to your ability to perform any movement, or even just sit still. Do you have good balance? Are you clumsy? No matter how good or bad your balance may be, you can do exercises to improve your abilities.

Agility

Agility is directly related to balance and proprioception. It is your ability to quickly reposition your body to adapt to a given situation. The better your agility, the more rapidly you can change your body’s speed and direction in response to a stimulus.

Flexibility

The ability to move your joints through a range of motion is known as flexibility. The greater your range of motion in a given joint, the more flexible you are. Possessing good flexibility is a key to preventing injury, and aids in your performance by allowing you to move freely without restriction. You can increase your flexibility by performing static stretches, performing resistance exercises in a full range of motion, and using dynamic flexibility drills. Remember, it is your responsibility to possess strength throughout your full range of motion, and balance between opposing muscle groups. Hyperlaxity (excessive flexibility) can also lead to injury.

Aerobic capacity

Your ability to take in oxygen and deliver it to working muscles makes up your aerobic capacity. The first part of the equation is your lung capacity. How much air can you take into your lungs when you inspire? If you only breathe a small volume with each inhalation, you will have to breathe much faster to give your body the oxygen it needs. You can expand your lung capacity by breathing as deeply as possible at the same time as raising your arms over your head. Hold your breath for a few moments before exhaling and lowering your arms. Do this for a few repetitions to get the most out of the exercise. Another aspect of aerobic capacity has to do with the heart and blood. By doing cardio type exercises such as running, rowing, or swimming, you increase your body’s ability to effectively transfer the oxygen that you breathe to the working muscles that need it. A measure of this is VO2max, or the maximum amount of oxygen that you can take in and utilize. Cardio conditioning is crucial to success in any sport.

Endurance

For many sports, endurance is necessary to perform optimally. Endurance is the ability to perform at less than maximal exertion over an extended period of time. Although often assumed to be an aerobic trait, endurance also applies to the muscular system and the training required for it’s improvement is quite different. This trait is of huge importance to activities that require sustained work lasting longer than three minutes.

Skill

The final aspect of sports performance that we will discuss here is skill. Skill is arguably the most important factor influencing performance. If you are highly skilled in a specific task, you can easily outperform someone who is unskilled while exerting far less energy. Just like the traits above, skill is highly trainable. You can good get at anything, and the key is known as the principle of specificity. Specificity means your body will adapt to exactly how you train it. If you want to get good at hitting a baseball for example, you have to hit a lot of baseballs. There’s no substitute for practicing the activity that you want to get good at. Make sure you have a good understanding of the task at hand, then put in the countless hours it takes to become proficient. Just remember, practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.

Whatever your lifestyle, training for form and function is very important. By increasing the aspects of fitness that make you a good athlete, you will become much more efficient in your day to day life, and as a wise teacher once told me, you’ll be more useful in general. Life can be so much easier and more enjoyable when you are well conditioned, so it is of great importance to work toward developing your athletic abilities. Remember to have fun out there. Do what you love to do, and keep yourself active.

1. Eat plenty of protein. High protein diets (containing 1.5-2 grams/kg body weight) have been shown in numerous studies to increase long term weight loss, improve body composition, and even cut down the amount of food consumption per day. Did you know that a high protein diet is a strong stimulator of the hormone CCK, a satiating gastrointestinal hormone that has been shown to inhibit food intake in both rats and humans? Protein also takes more energy to break down than carbohydrates and fat. Remember that fat, carbohydrates, and protein are all essential for optimum health, so don’t cut them out of your diet.
2. Vigorously train when doing cardio. Why exercise for two hours when you can get the same
   work done in 20-30 minutes? More is not always better. Ever heard of fat burn mode? Stop wasting your time. Though you may be burning a higher percentage of calories from fat in “fat burn mode,” you can burn a lot more calories and more fat overall by stepping up your game. The American College of Sports Medicine suggests that all adults should engage in thirty minutes or more of moderately intense physical activity per day or vigorously intense bouts of 20 minutes on three or more days per week.
3. Squeeze in some weight training! Resistance exercise (a.k.a. weight training) is one of the best
   ways to see positive body composition changes. Not only does this type of training keep your muscles and bones strong, it also burns a lot of calories and continues to do so even after you’re done by increasing your resting metabolic rate! Two to three days of this type of training is recommended for most people. Keep the days evenly split throughout the week and listen to your body to prevent overtraining. If you’re first starting out, high repetitions and little rest is recommended. From there, start adding on some weight and go between heavy and light days to prevent plateaus. For the best and safest instruction, find a certified personal trainer in your area with NCCA certified credentials on www.ideafit.com.
4. Create a negative energy balance. This means, you’re eating fewer calories than you’re burning throughout the day. A good place to start is following the recommended 2000 calories/day. This coupled with daily exercise will most likely put you into a negative energy balance. Never try to fast from food for weight loss because the weight you lose will likely be muscle, lowering your BMR and probably leading to even more weight gain! Also, very low calorie diets (less than 1200C/day) should never be done without clinical supervision by licensed health care practitioners. When in doubt and for best advice, find a registered dietitian on www.eatright.org.
5. Set a good SMART goal. A good goal will greatly improve your chance of success and a good
   goal is 50% likely to be accomplished. Try setting a big goal and breaking it up into micro goals so that you can feel rewarded and increase your motivation and self efficacy along the way. When creating a goal, remember the acronym SMART. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time bound. Let your friends and family know your goal; be loud and clear about what you want and not only will they help you with some motivation, but you will feel more obligated to succeed just so you don’t let them down. Picture the end results and don’t take that image out of your head.