Originally Published in Village Eye Magazine:

Remember back in school when your friend would tell you they’d spent too much time partying and not enough time studying, so they needed cram like crazy to get that last minute revision in for their exam?

Have you ever noticed that people often try a similar approach with their fitness? Suddenly someone decides they need to get in shape, so they start “cramming for their fitness exam” because they want super-fast change!

Looking For Likes

They may train twice a day, or go from doing no exercise to super intense workouts daily. They may feel good in the short term, and post about their workouts on social media to bask in the adulation of all the “likes” of their dedication. But over time something changes, all those squat jumps and burpees start to get laborious. They don’t feel energetic like they wanted, they just feel sore, and angry at the world! A few months in, they’ve given up. They resign themselves to a life of low energy and tiredness because exercise obviously doesn’t work for them.

What’s happened here? They’ve tried to cram for an exam that can’t be crammed for. You see, exercise is a form of stress. You don’t get fitter and stronger by exercising; you get fitter and stronger by recovering from exercise.

Overstressing

When you exercise, or put another way, when you train (many people exercise, but don’t train-another source of missed results), you stress your body’s energy systems and create microtears in your muscles. It can take up to 48 hours to recover the energy used by an intense exercise session, and at least that long for your muscles to repair themselves.

So you see, putting yourself through punishing workouts every day, just adds stress upon stress, putting your body in a state of constant inflammation, reducing your immune function, and hampering your long-term success.

My Own Training Routine Is This:

Strength training-twice per week.

Cardio training-twice per week.

Stretching-daily before bed.

That’s it. I feel as fit and athletic at 38 as I did when I was 25. I train well, keep moving in between workouts, and give my body time to recover. If you find yourself wanting instant results from exercise, remember; that’s one exam you can’t cram for. I help people by creating training plans that they can sustain for the long term. Do too much, too soon, and you’ll burn out and miss out.

Steve