Should Exercise be – "Not to Hard"?

Hi,
I was at the gym today exercising, and they have several personal trainers. I overheard one of them say to his client, as he moved the lever to a lower weight, “We won’t go to hard today”.


Now, I don’t know if this was the first time this client had ever been to a gym or ever worked out. She was overweight by about 30 pounds, around mid -30’s and did not look weak.

The weight he moved the lever to was one rung above no weight at all. Something the average 6 year old child could move.

Even if this was her first time, the message was wrong.

Sure you don’t want to kill a first time exerciser, but you don’t want to let them off too easy either.

My guess is that he – as so many personal trainers do – didn’t talk to the woman about her goals. And I am positive he did not give her any kind of strength or conditioning tests.

If he did he certainly would not have started her at such a light weight. As it was she easily did 12 reps and was not breathing more than normal. And that was the only set he had her do.

If she had walked up about 10 steps she would have burned more calories and it would have done her more good than that exercise did.

So here is the take away. If you are a beginner, make sure your personal trainer – if you are going to use one – understands your goals. And that they give you a conditioning or strength test.

This woman was much stronger than this exercise and as such she didn’t get anything out of it.

Look, most people don’t really like to exercise. So if you are going to do it, then make it productive. Each exercise should make you struggle a little bit.

It doesn’t matter if you are really weak or really strong. You just vary the weight so that you have to struggle.

This keeps your muscles strong and they will continue to get stronger and somewhat bigger as you progress. Doing anything less is pretty much a waste of time.

Why is that you are asking? Because the body is really great at one thing. And that is adapting.

You see this all the time at any gym. People do the same exercises with the same weights for years.

And their bodies get worse and worse each year. In order to progress you have to do either more exercises or more strenuous exercise.

Maybe you think if you keep doing the same thing your body will stay the same. Unfortunately, the body adapts. And the body adapts so that what you are doing now is not enough to maintain the body you have.

So if you want to make progress, lose body fat, get stronger, have more energy you have to push it a little bit.

Not a lot, but you do have to make progress.

Thanks,
Mike Val