Why Your Body Isn’t Changing
Working Hard with No to Minimal Results?
I have seen it over and over again- you work hard, devote time and energy, resources and emotions to see your body stay virtually the same. Why are you not seeing strength, composition, energy and health goals?
I want to make sure that I am very clear that CHANGES in your body aren’t just the cookie-cutter aesthetic ones, but true changes will signify your hard work by giving you more strength, energy, health, faster healing (muscle is more vascular than fat!), and your best looking self: meaning the happiest healthiest version of you.
So why is your body NOT changing when you devote time to exercise and perhaps even nutrition? Honestly, it’s simple science, and if you already workout there are only a few distinct reasons why you are not seeing the results you are working so hard to see and feel.
REASON 1:
Always in a calorie deficit.
This goes for anyone trying to grow muscle and burn fat (remember you do not just want to lose weight- you want to lose fat… It has been my experience that women, and now many men as well, are usually in a chronic state of “dieting” to get leaner or smaller, and don’t understand that in doing so, you’ll impede if not fully sabotage muscle growth and development. Less muscle, more fat storage, especially stubborn fat. Less strength. More susceptible to injury, less healthy properties because muscle is much more vascular (blood flow)… you get the picture This doesn’t mean you need to over eat or load up on pizza and donuts, but having a regimented health, nutritious and calorie accurate (along with macro: protein, fats, carbs) is needed to grow and develop muscle- which is 80% LESS dense than fat FYI and takes up 6 cals of energy per lb vs fat which uses up 1-2 for lb while taking up 80% more space in your body (picture that).Eat well, don’t starve and don’t over eat just because if you want to maximize muscle growth and development, avoid injury nd have more longevity and quality to your life.
It is also important to note that overeating beyond your caloric needs will also derail your progress.
Finally, it is important to note that to build strong muscle you must eat a significant amount of protein (vegan, vegetarian or regular) but protein intake is also key.
Therefore to FIX this issue you must determine your ideal caloric intake and do not constantly go above or below that). With-in this intake you need to establish a good protein intake, usually somewhere around .73 and 1.3 grams of protein per lb of body weight. Good protein sources are key.
The key here is NO DIETS, just a good overall baseline of nutrition – no starvation diets and no overabundance. Good quality foods and good protein.
REASON 2:
Poor exercise selections and poor loading.
NOT all exercises are created equal, and when you do the right ones, you must load accordingly. If you don’t choose right and don’t load right, you will not get the response you want.
Before you ask “what are good movements?” Think of all the bad ones: I’m not talking about poor form, I’m talking about some crazy variation of a single leg jump with a weight stacked on your head vs a very solid squat with the PROPER WEIGHT.
*I will post much more on this in great detail as Phase 2 continues.
Not enough focus on progressive overload
This is often an area I don’t think that gets stressed enough for people who get frustrated with their progress or see zero to none after the first few months. If you’re not lifting more weight, or using a TUT and other variable approach for reps six month from now than you are right now, then you probably won’t look a whole lot different either. This is pure exercise science-
REASON 3:
Chronic routine changing.
Doing new and novel movements is fun, but your body cannot adapt and make the evolutionary changes needed to transform and build muscle (burn fat by building muscle).
Think of training your puppy or your kid, or husband (or wife):
REPETITION x PROGRESSION = PROGRESS.
WEEKLY/ DAILY VARIATION x NO DISCIPLINE or REFERENCE = CONFUSION, FRUSTRATION and a failure to ADAPT.
Muscle growth happens from progressive overload and that means repeating exercises. Not for just three weeks but sometimes for months on end in various variables. If you can’t use a routine for more than a few weeks before you start looking to change things, then that right there is your biggest issue, your body will never fully transform and injury and stress will surely follow.
REASON 4:
Too much junk volume.
Junk volume defined, is any set done so far away from failure that there are no effective growth reps performed in that set. AKA doing for the sake of doing. In fact, this can hurts muscle growth and cause injury and stress.
As we learn in our training together you must use “Effective Reps” are the reps performed very close to failure, at a max mechanical effort.
In fact, here’s no amount of “volume” that can be done to make up for a set done very far away from failure (with no mechanical tension.
You must give the muscles a reason to remodel due to that stress. That’s how the growth response gets stimulated/ kicked off and muscle builds as fat leaves.