Ok I have written, blogged, spoke and whatever else you can do about this subject a number of times in the past, however, still find myself coming back to the same place every few weeks. People you need to learn to work smarter! I am a huge fan of working with maximum efficiency and not just beating yourself up in the gym for the sake of it (unlike some currently popular ‘trainers’ whom were the subject of a recent Hitler YouTube video).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z2b2x6C5o0
On almost a daily basis I have people preaching to me that they are working so hard and are going to be in their best shape ever but needless to say they very rarely get anywhere near where they want! Now for a while I tried to give these people advice, design them programs, go through their nutrition etc but have of late given up on this as most people do not listen as they are more interested in taking the easy option.
Here is a list of my top three inefficient training methods:
- Running laps to improve sport specific training.
Now I am not going to go into detail here but I implore you think about the sport you play. Unless you are a middle to long distance runner you will get very little carry over to sports performance from running laps. As most of you know at this stage rugby is my first sport and passion and it never ceases to amaze me how many people do their preseason by adding two laps a week and finishing the session off with some so-called core work (ab crunches???).
- Using body sculpt, body pump, body attack or any other Mr. Motivator type class to try to bring about body composition change.
These types of classes neither provide enough overload or progression to add muscle mass (thus no increase in metabolic rate or any of the other million and one benefits of increased muscle growth). The class also does not work at a high enough intensity to elicit body fat loss (again very much due to the lack of resistance). Throw away the barney dumbbell if you want real body composition changes!!
- Doing spinning classes if your goal is anything apart from being good at spinning.
I am so fed up of people going on about how great spinning is. I am yet to see anybody have any major body composition changes, improve sporting performance or win the Tour de France. I mean surely at this stage people are starting to realise that they sweat and sweat and not only do they not get anywhere in a physical sence its the same metaphorically “they get nowhere”
However this is only my opinion!!! You decide are your training methods working for you? Oh and by the way I am not anti group training (classes etc) as long as it is done in an efficient manner where the instructor thinks about more than how much can I make you sweat or puke. Exercise is an art and a science so for any and all trainers out there please remember this and take into account the results you want to achieve with your clients when planning their sessions. Train hard, train smart
Rant over for now
Mike
