Weight loss, injury prevention and building full body strength are popular fitness goals Napa gym goers frequently pursue. There are obvious benefits to our everyday lives in obtaining an optimal fitness level. Looking and feeling better, thinking clearer, and being more productive are some of the many facets of pursing life time fitness goals that motivate people to refine their exercise routines. However, there are times where the weight just doesn’t come off as easily as it should. Availability in the schedule isn’t always open to fit physical activity in. Injuries, tweaks, and strains can occur and deter a gym visit for a few days. These factors lead to potential plateaus in efforts to accomplish fitness goals. Plateaus can be frustrating be enough to discourage someone to quit working for fitness goals indefinitely.
As personal trainers in Napa, we work with cases where exercise participants experience forms of plateauing. We commonly hear, “Nothing’s working. I’ve been following my ketogenic diet, eating vegan, and doing my exercise DVDs. The weight still isn’t coming off.” To solve this issue, we always start with the question, “What does your current fitness routine look like?” If we plan to successfully coach someone through a plateau, we need to know what their physical activity practices look like on a weekly basis. The usual response to the weekly exercise frequency question that unveil lack luster results commonly start with, “Well, sometimes…” or “When I have time…” or “I might fit in…” When we hear these statements at the beginning of the answer to a layout of person who is plateauing in their fitness routine, we can identify a critical piece of the puzzle that was left out in the beginning of their fitness efforts: lack of planning, foundation, and structure.
We deal with similar barricades that hold people back form achieving their goals. Personal trainers specialize in solving these issues by making sure to design structured, individualized programs. What makes our fitness coaching services a unique remedy to the plateau equation is that we have clients report to us to as much as three times per week. We ensure exercise prescriptions are not just “some exercises” that clients “sometimes” come in for. Our personal training clients follow a specific plan to ensure they are adhering to a weekly prescription of life time fitness techniques each week involving physical activity. As life time fitness coaches, we meticulously track and manage variables that affect their fitness goals. For example, we need to know how many lower body and upper body movements are executed each week. How much recreational physical activity, such as walking, hiking, or sports are being performed throughout the week? How much cardiovascular activity is being performed each week? In order to identify how a fitness plateau is being caused, we need to identify how much many times a person is covering these critical factors. Usually the plateau is occurring because people have a case of the “sometimes” when approaching fitness and shoot from the hip when randomly choosing forms of physical activity to address their fitness goals.
A solution to these common plateaus is to write down how many days you are doing your favorite top three forms of exercise. How many times are you performing resistance training at home, a gym, or with your personal trainer per week? How many times are you performing 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise such as going to the local gym and using the elliptical or treadmill? How many times are you playing a recreational sport such as Bocce Ball, Pickleball, Tennis, kayaking or hiking throughout the week? If you can create a check list on your top three favorite forms of physical activity, you can reinforce your motivation with a strong foundation of productive tactics. Looking at this list and making efforts to complete these new found effective physical activities can integrate structure toward your goals. With a strong foundation and structure in your game plan, plateaus in your fitness journey are less likely to occur.
When plateaus occur, we always encourage our personal training clients in Napa to take a step back and look at what they are currently doing for their fitness goals. Avoid frustration, it’s a waste of time and energy. We guide our personal training clients by taking that step back with them and looking at the big picture. Surpassing fitness plateaus can be solved on your own by just taking a step back and laying out some more plans for success. We all have the potential to live happier, stronger, and healthier lives. We just need to lay out some plans and rigorously revise our efforts toward our life time fitness goals.
Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.
