“You become what you do consistently…”

Your body is like a car that needs to be used regularly. If it is not used, it will cease up and fail to function properly.

Using your body regularly is ideal, not just for a 12 week programme then sitting back down again for 6 months.

Little and often

It’s better to do a little but often than to try and smash yourself for a month then do nothing. You body adapts gradually, through consistent repetition and use. It will adapt to what it does the most.

Getting yourself up and working a little harder than usual will cause your body to adapt to that situation.

The best way to do this is to gradually increase the amount of exercise you do. This can be in length of time doing it, how hard you do it, how often you do it and what you do when you do it.

Example…I start off jogging at 8kph on the treadmill 3 times a week, for 15 minutes for 4 weeks. Then I increase it to 10kph for the next 2 weeks. Then I increase the time to 20 minutes. You can change each one of the variables.

Avoid the burn out…

I’ve seen this happen a lot and I’ve personally done it a lot too! You live and learn apparently.

You start a new programme and you’re excited. Pumped, motivated and ready for action. You decide to hit the gym 6 days a week, starting at 6am each morning before work. The first week is easy. You’re dedicated and loving it.

A few weeks go by and you start to lose your motivation. Your bed seems to be harder and harder to get out of each morning. And then you stop going.

That’s not a sustainable approach for 99.9% of people. Start off gently and with an approach that is sustainable, fits around your schedule and is easier to stick with. You can always increase later on.

If you go too hard too soon, you will burn out. It’s like setting off in a marathon like a sprinter does for the 100m. You will not last the duration.

Staying in shape and body transformations are marathons, not sprints.

Body adaptations

Walk up mountains every day like a Nepalese Sherpa and your body will adapt to those conditions. Sit on the couch watching TV every day like a couch potato and your body will adapt to those conditions too.

The truth is, body adaptations take time. Your body adapts gradually as it needs to. The more you work it, the more it will change. To work it to the level required to get a 6-pack and be very lean, needs a lot of effort. And time.

You will have to build up to it over months and possibly even years if you’ve never trained much before.

The Instagram models have been training for years to get into that kind of shape. The amazing body transformations you see are usually of people who had trained a lot in the past and got out of shape. It’s a lot easier to get back in shape if you’d been there before.

Getting lean, starting training, working out, eating right, etc for the first time is difficult and takes time to master.

Be patient. Be persistent. Be strong. You will achieve your goals if you stick to it for long enough.