Many fitness programs and training facilities have cropped up, all promising to have the “right formula” for weight loss, better health, and overall success.
You may have tried one of them. Heck, you may have tried them all.
And what infuriates me is that none of them have the right formula for success. In fact, they all have what I call the “failure formula”.
They each have their own flavor of the “failure formula,” but in the end, they all ensure the same thing: that the only thing that becomes skinny is your wallet.
Failure Formula #1: “Create Elite Fitness with Extreme Cross Training”
This kind of training facility is my favorite.
It espouses training that uses exercises from a wide variety of disciplines (gymnastics, Olympic weightlifting, etc.), mish-mashes it into a chaotic random mixture, and has you perform everything as a race.
The workouts leave you lying on the floor, half-conscious in a pool of your own sweat. But the results come quickly.
Right away, you start to notice drastic body composition changes – you’re leaner, tighter, more toned, and all your clothes suddenly become too baggy!
Awesome!!!
That is, until you encounter your first injury. Which you most likely try to push through, because the results have been so fantastic so far. And then injuries start to pile on, and you find yourself in chronic pain all over your body.
Here’s what goes wrong with our Extreme buddies and their training program: when you take highly complicated disciplines that take years to master, force a total beginner to perform their movements without the proper training, and make it a race, you’re essentially trying to drive a stick-shift sports car for the first time on the Autobahn while under the influence.
What I mean is, you’re going to crash and burn. Their program is silly and unsafe at best, and will likely leave you with lifelong chronic pain.
So here’s what you’d accomplish with these guys: you’ll spend $200 dollars a month for half a year, end up in worse shape because you’ve had to nurse your injuries, and have to pay up for surgery or physical therapy.
Failure Formula #2: “10 Week Challenge to Transform Your Life”
Various gyms and personal training studios run those “X-Weeks-Long Challenege” that supposedly have helped people lose 50+ lbs and totally transform their minds, bodies, and lives.
You may have seen some advertisements floating around online, conveniently popping up whenever you scroll through Facebook or Instagram.
How awesome would it be to completely turn your life around in such a short amount of time? It sounds almost too good to be true …
And that’s because it is.
Ask yourself this: do you know of anyone who’s completely changed their life in two months or less? Seriously.
To lose weight, feel great, get the body you deserve, and attain happiness, you need to make consistent, steady progress over time.
It’s a lifetime of small changes and commitment to those changes that make you a healthier, happier person.
Can you a whole ton of weight and look like a completely different person in 10 weeks? Sure, if you starve yourself and workout for 5 hours everyday.
But you and I both know something like that isn’t sustainable. And unless those 10 week challenges offer some sort of support beyond the 10 weeks, I wouldn’t bother expecting any life-long transformation.
(Note: they indeed DO NOT offer support beyond the 10 weeks … unless you keep signing up for more 10 week challenges.)
Failure Formula #3: “Get Long Lean Muscles with Ballet Fitness”
Ballet dancers – elegant, poised, fit, and not a single ounce of fat to be found on them.
And there are fitness studios that promise you can look just like them and get long lean muscles, all by training like a ballet dancer!
Yes, you read that right.
“Long, lean muscles.”
I’m going to cut to the chase right now: training ballet movements, like these studios will have you do, cannot give you “long lean muscles” or make you look like a ballet dancer.
If you want to look just like a ballet dancer, you need to eat/sleep/train like a ballet dancer. These people dedicate their lives to ballet and their bodies are a by-product of all their hard work.
And forget the whole ballet dancer thing. What if you just wanted to get “long, lean” muscles? Well … that’s going to depend on two things:
- How short or long your muscle bellies are (this is completely genetic, just like your height or facial structure, and literally cannot be changed, short of some gruesome surgery).
- How lean your body is (basically, how little fat you have).
The former depends on genetics, and the latter depends on diet.
So what does performing ballet movements for exercise do with either of these points?
Nothing.
You can get a leaner, healthier, better-looking body, and it doesn’t require overpriced glorified ballet lessons.
Keep an eye out next week for our “cure” to the formula formulas, and see what options you have to get in shape, feel great, avoid injury, & get your money’s worth.
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(Photo Credits: Nick Youngson – nyphotographic.com)
