Castle Personal Training
Castle Personal Training is a Corstorphine, Edinburgh based company who specialise in weightloss/toning and Pre and Post Natal exercise.
Blog 31-03-13 Only steady progress will lead to great results
Hi guys,
This one appeared on Yofittv a while ago but reckon it’s worth sharing here as well.
“How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees? Thou know’st we work by wit and not by witchcraft, And wit depends on dilatory time”
That quote is from Shakespeare’s Othello as spoken by Iago, and he was on to something.
A while ago I told you the story of Rosie who was scared to work out. This week I will tell you the story of Billy who suffers from an even worse vice when it comes to exercise.
Billy is 16 years old. I know that makes him a bit younger than most of the readers of this article but bear with me. He came to me about 5 weeks ago and his goal, like the goal of all 16 year old boys, was to “gain more muscle”. Obviously we did a strength test and I came up with a program for him.
Over the past 4.5 weeks Billy increased his bench-press by 100%, from 30Kg to 60Kg, improved his squat by 80% and his other basic compound exercises by similar percentages. If Billy were to stick to his program for another 2 months he would have pretty amazing strength gains of up-to 300% and his muscle gains would also not be something to sniff at. The problem is that Billy is 16 years old and, as is the case with most 16 year olds, patience is not his strong suit.
I spoke to Billy this week, as part of his 4 week review, and he said “Yes, the program is great but I want to gain more muscle”. I explained that he clearly already had more muscle but he said that “He wanted results faster”. I told him he’d only been working out for a month and asked him where he expected to be. The answer was rather predictable; “I thought I’d be much bigger by now”.
Even though when he first came to me I explained to him that growing muscle takes a long time, Billy still expects miracles.
We come across this a lot in the fitness industry and it’s not just 16 year olds who expect miracles. A lot of products sold today focus on our inner 16 year old. All the machines that shake you about for 30 minutes and have you “drop a dress-size in a week”, all the body-wraps that claim to take 3 inches of your waist, all the magic pills and teas that will help you miraculously slim-down. We all want results now and we, preferably, want them without putting too much effort into it.
Well, here’s a shocker; Results take time. There is no magic pill.
Of course, deep down, you already know this. You’re an intelligent adult. You’re not 16 years old anymore. So why would you still expect results without putting the work in? How many creams, pills and “special” herbal-teas have you bought in the past year? What other home-shopping nonsense have you wasted your money on? Do you have an ab-circle gathering dust somewhere?
The Ab-circle; a perfect example of the saying that “If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.”
Billy is only 16 years old, and a product of the instant gratification culture we have today. You’re an adult and should really know better. You know it’s going to take hard work and dedication to get the results you want. You know that months, or even years, of sitting on the couch and eating crappy food can’t just be undone within a month or two. It’s going to take time, but slowly but surely you will get there.
Unless your goals are highly unrealistic you can achieve what you want if you just get off the couch, plan properly, work hard and are patient enough. You will see some results within a month, but to get to where you want to be you will have to be a little bit more patient than Billy is. I know you can do this, you just have to decide that you will.
Go out and get it done.
Take care,
Your Friend,
Peter
Castle Personal Training 