Are You Making This Fatal Fitness Mistake?
posted on: May 18, 2017. posted in:
We've all heard about Goldilocks & The Three Bears, haven't we? With the porridge that was too hot, then too cold and then finally it's just right?
The Goldilocks Zone is that "just right" zone where all the elements required to achieve a certain goal are met. It's not too much, it's not too little, it's just right!
The Goldilocks Zone applies to planets.
Mercury is too close to the sun to support life, it's too hot! Neptune is too far from the sun to support life, it's too cold! Earth is in the Goldilocks Zone, that "just right" distance from the sun where it's not too close, not to far, but just the right distance and temperature to support life.
The Goldilocks Zone applies to baking.
Bake your cake at 250°C and you'll burn it, it's too hot! Bake your cake at 100°C and it won't rise, it's too cold! But bake your cake at 180°C, for just the right amount of time, not too short, not too long, and you'll be in that Goldilocks Zone that delivers the perfectly baked cake.
When it comes to fitness, the human mind somehow falls into the fatal trap of believing "more is more", the longer you bake it the better it gets.
"If I can do more, I'll get more results!! So I'm going to do Bodypump on a Monday, Circuits on a Tuesday, Bootcamp on a Wednesday, Body Attack on a Thursday, a 10k Run on a Friday, another Circuit on a Saturday, then Bootcamp again on a Sunday!!! Maybe I can squeeze in a few extra workouts too!!!"
Too much volume.
Too little intensity.
Out of the Goldilocks Zone.
A bit like baking your cake for 20 hours at 100°C, which is going to compromise your fitness results.
In this instance, doing fewer workouts, but with more intensity, would actually bring faster, and greater increases in your fitness and changes in your body shape.
Choosing to do Bodypump on a Monday, Bootcamp on a Wednesday, that 10km Run on a Friday. But ensuring you push your body to a level where you couldn't, nor would you want to, train the next day.
3 intense workouts, with much needed rest and recovery in between, is like baking your cake in that Goldilocks Zone of 180°C for just the right amount of time.
The take home message?
Too many people are either under baking their cake, exercising in the too cold part, or they are over baking their cake, exercising in the too hot part...
And wondering why, for all the hours they're putting in, they aren't getting results.
Write this down.
Fitness occurs not when you do more and more and more and more, but when you find the right balance between OVERLOAD and REST.
That is the fitness Goldilocks Zone right there.
And this is why you pay experienced trainers to design your training plans. Because like expert bakers, they know all the right ingredients, and all the right quantities, and all the right baking temperatures and times, to get you into your unique Goldilocks Zone, which is where the results flow.
Fitness is a science, not a guessing game.
So if you want to get fit, change your body, improve your shape, you either need a PT, or you need to educate yourself on that science, and learn how to find your unique Goldilocks Zone.
Most people out there are exercising like someone who's just thrown a load of random ingredients in a bowl, baking them at a random temperature, for a random time, and they're literally getting ZERO fitness gains or body shape changes for it.
You could get more, from doing less and doing it right.
Liam
p.s. To find out more about what we do, and how we can help you find your fitness Goldilocks Zone, please email us and get in touch!
