By Adam Tree (www.intensitytraining.co.uk)

“Knowing is not enough, we must apply.”

“Willing is not enough, we must do.”

The quotes above are from the legend himself, Bruce Lee. After hearing them, it got me thinking about fitness, and how everyone could, and should, apply the messages to their own training.

I also began to think about my own attitudes when I first started training, and how mistaken some of my own philosophies were at the time. We see it everywhere, shortcuts to a leaner, fitter you. I’d be willing to bet if you went on the men’s health website right now, and looked at the forums, you would get people asking the classic questions, ‘shortcuts to better abs?’ ‘fat burners that work?’ ‘sweat vests to lose weight?.’ Worse still, are the writers of the content which shows up on both the main site of men’s health, and the magazine itself. I’m not saying everything they put is incorrect, and I’m not saying that reading the magazine isn’t inspirational/entertaining to some. But when I see headings such as ‘flat stomach in 4 weeks’ ‘lose the beer gut with no effort!’ It basically makes me angry. Getting a better physique is hard work, it takes time, and a whole lot of effort, and for the so called ‘field experts’ to mislead the general public should be frowned upon.

If I had my way, fitness magazines would be focussed around getting the basics nailed. Hammer home the important messages. Train hard, eat well, get rest, and expect results. We shouldn’t be teaching relative newbie’s the complexities of cover model training, we should be showing them how to perform compound movements with perfect form, and we should be giving them progressive plans which show results over a number of months. Going back to teaching the basics, we should be explaining first and foremost that exercise and nutrition should be focussed on the theories which give the majority of the results. To clarify – 6 small meals a day has been shown to produce excellent results for the majority of people wanting to lose weight. And yet, we see fitness adverts for the latest fat burner that people ‘must use.’ We see people on cardio machines jogging away at a steady pace for hours on end because of the fat burning zone myth that once again, so called ‘field experts’ have told them to do.

Let’s take a quick look at why steady state cardio should be a minor factor in your training as opposed to a major one. To lose weight we need to expend more calories than we consume. As a guideline, most males will burn in the region on 2000-2500 calories a day. On a treadmill at a slow jog, many people work for 30 minutes, burning roughly 300 calories, give or take 50. That’s 13% of their calories expended for the day, assuming they stick to their normal diet and don’t eat more as a ‘treat’ for their hard work.
Surely we can all agree, that it would show greater results if we simply explained to these people that they should focus on the remaining 87% of their caloric intake before worrying about the 13%?

What if this same fitness enthusiast researched the benefits of weights training to raise his metabolism? What if he researched basing carbs around his workouts? Eating plenty of protein to preserve lean muscle mass? Performing HIIT cardio to achieve the after-burn effect? If anyone can find someone who wishes to lose weight, and actually enjoys plodding away on a treadmill hour after hour with little results then I’ll eat this keyboard and won’t ever bother you again. Suddenly, that 13% of daily calories burned seems a little insignificant.

Going back to Bruce Lee’s quotes, it is one thing to talk the talk; we must all walk the walk. Too many people spend far too much time researching different training techniques, and far too little time in the gym itself, or indeed, in the kitchen making healthy food rather than choosing the easy option and getting ‘that final takeaway before I start my diet.’
As one of the only fitness gurus (tom venuto) I truly respect says ‘work hard, expect results’ - More info at www.intensitytraining.co.uk