Nutrition & Training Mistakes to Avoid
Over the past couple of weeks I have been uncertain what to
write about on the RikFit blog, I only wish to write about topics that I truly
have a desire for at the time, otherwise I don’t feel like the content I’m
writing will be of any value. I was going to leave it another week or so until I
found something I actually wanted to write about. However luckily a certain
topic popped into mind.
The topic is General Lifestyle, Nutrition & Training
Mistakes which is a topic I have recently realised I tend to cover on a regular
basis with clients. I’m a firm believer of making things easier for others
through past experiences, why should someone have to make the same mistakes you
have, to know what you know and do what you do, instead why not educate others
and help them avoid as many bumps and barriers so they can further develop and
progress in a faster time then you have.
I make mistakes each and every day, but one thing I try to
avoid is making the same mistake twice! I’m also very lucky to have a group of
individuals around me that help guide me from there past experiences to help me
avoid their previous mistakes. My ears are always open to advice, I just simply
logically separate the bad advice from the good advice, but enough babbling on
for now, let’s get on to the good stuff! I am going to cover some basic
mistakes I have made and I think other people make on a regular basis on the
topics of nutrition and training.
Nutrition Mistakes
I’d like to start this section by mentioning something from an
individual I look up to in the Health & Fitness industry, this is a point
from Phil Learney in his N1 Nutritional Programming E-Book. He mentions that
there must be rational behind restriction. If you do not rationally restrict
something then the flood gates are bound to open. This is something that
frequently happens with quick fad or extremely restrictive diets.
There are numerous mistakes made by millions of people daily
when it comes to “dieting”. Now I have no problem with “dieting” whether it’s
to get bigger, smaller, stronger, faster, lean, fat, whatever your goal, what I
do have a problem with is when people structure diets badly. By this I mean
diets that don’t take into consideration sustainability, specificity,
lifestyles and reversibility.
Sustainability - If
a diet is not sustainable over a long period of time or isn’t altered to be sustainable,
then it is destined for failure, this is why I portray a lifestyle change with
alterations throughout to achieve certain goals.
Specificity – if a
diet is not specific to your needs then again in my opinion, it is most likely
destined for failure. For example, let’s say Person A & Person B are identical.
Person A may be an individual that requires very high calories because they
have a high resting metabolism along with a very active lifestyle, Person B may
be an individual who requires much lower calories because they have an average
metabolism along with lightly active lifestyle. If these two people are
prescribed the same calorie intake at Persons A’s resting metabolic rate.
Person B is easily going to gain weight whereas Person A will stay relatively
the same.
Lifestyle – not every
person has the same lifestyle, fasting might suit one person because they have
a very busy job with long working hours, whilst frequenting eating might suit
another individual, therefore prescribing a normal 3 meals a day diet plan
could be a recipe for disaster both lifestyles. You must find something that
suits your needs and daily routines.
Reversibility –
in other words reverse dieting. This is something I am increasingly growing to value
the more I learn about it and apply it to my client’s nutritional programming.
Most diets take individuals to an extreme with no plan to ease them out of the
peak of the diet. This again will result in long term failure as the body will
naturally adapt to the extreme and will not maintain the results unless it is
eased out of its current state of function.
In all fairness my point here on nutrition mistakes is not
to be a stereo typical dieter, this is a mistake I have certainly experienced in
my life and it isn’t very easy to recover from the negative impacts extreme
diets can on your natural bodily function. If you want to live a healthier lifestyle,
look better and function well, then make the logical choice of creating a long
term lifestyle change, not a short term change just so you can go straight back
to your current lifestyle habits. Make your lifestyle healthy but flexible, nutrition
must suit YOU and YOUR needs, not you suit a fad diets rules and restrictions.
As I learned from the likes of Layne Norton, the actual
science and studies behind dieting is quite grim. Studies show that individuals
who frequently diet tend to gain more weight in the long term then individuals
who do not diet at all. (I do not have a link or access to the exact studies
currently but I will link them in the future if possible. In the meantime, if
you are curious, please search “Relation between dieting and weight change
amongst adolescents and adults”).
Training Mistakes
In this area there is one common mistake that comes straight
to mind, I see it on a regular basis, I have done it many times in the past
thinking it was the “proper” way to train, but I soon realised that for natural
un-assisted individuals it doesn’t really work, this is of course training to
failure on a regular basis and training every day!
Training to failure is basically doing an exercise or lift
or movement until you can’t do it anymore, therefore you have failed. Sure you
get a crazy pump out of it and you feel like you’ve had an awesome workout, but
doing it every set, every day for weeks is illogical. In my opinion this type
of training stems from social media, magazines, assisted body builders and get
big or get ripped quick schemes. Don’t forget that training in its self is an
acute stressor (shot term stressor), you have a choice whether this stressor
can have a positive or negative effect on your body by aiding it with adequate
recover, nutrition and supplementation. Training to failure in my opinion is a stereo
type style training method which for the average gym goer, portrays a deceiving
message of false advertisement. People think they will get great results
pushing themselves to the limits day in day out, but like with most things in
life, overdoing anything will usually end in a bad result in the long term.
Training to failure is a perfectly valid and effective
training method IF it is used wisely, meaning it must be implemented at the
right time of a training program to maximise the training stimulus. If you
train to failure for the majority of your sessions day in day out, your body
does not have time to recover, recovery is vital for muscle REPAIR and GROWTH,
so if you’re trying to perform to your best or gain some decent muscle tissue,
regular extremely strenuous training sessions is something you want to avoid.
Instead think of this type of training as a tool, you can use it at times you
hit a peak in your program and want to take your sessions up a notch or two, don’t
abuse it, just use it wisely.
This moves me on to the point of training every day. Now
again I don’t have a problem with training on a daily basis if your body can
truly handle it. There are obviously numerous variables that play a part, such
as the training type, duration, intensity etc. but if your training each day
and just bashing through maximal load or performance sessions for long durations,
you’re heading down a path that is unsustainable and the goal you have most
likely set may be unachievable or unattainable.
Let’s just be smart with this, the majority of us train to
progress and improve, therefore to improve and progress overall you must be
able to perform a task effectively and efficiently. In the case of weight
training, you must be able to effectively stimulate muscle tissue and
efficiently repair it in order for it to recover, grow and perform to a suitable
standard to repeat the process in order to progress. Not letting your batteries
fully recharge will result in weaker and shorter performance, whereas charging
them up fully will allow you to perform to level previous if not better. It’s
all about setting specific frequencies, intensities, times and types in order
to progressively overload at the right points of your training regime or
program.
Summary
To summarise this blog, you simply need to be smart and
understand that when it comes to nutrition and training, in order to achieve
long term results, you must make sure it is sustainable and specific to your
needs.
Diets don’t work for everyone whereas lifestyle changes seem
to be a much better choice. The same goes for training, beating your body day
in day out for most people is silly, but it will work for a minority of people,
you just have to be smart enough and mature enough to identify what does and doesn’t
work for you, then utilise the training that effects your body positively, not negatively.
In all fairness it is simply about logical decisions! If you
are unsure whether something may be good or bad for you, then higher a well-established
individual who can advise you on the said thing. Don’t waste your time on the
hamster wheel going round in circles when there’s plenty of other options out
there.
As usual I hope you have found this blog interesting, I do
this to help point some of you in the right direction, I know it won’t be key
advise for you all but it may help some more than others. If you would like to
contact me for any further questions then details will be linked below, thank
you for reading and have a great day!
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