Six reasons you’re not getting any fitter

IF EVERY weekend feels like a major setback on your path to ultimate fitness, check out these six behaviours that may be holding you back big time.

Image for hangover help story for the Manly Daily Health & Beauty supplement for December.

IN MALCOLM Gladwell’s 2008 book Outliers, he introduces the concept of the “10,000-Hour Rule”, which states that it takes this much time to master a certain skill.

The majority of us will not, from a young age, dedicate 10,000 intense, focused hours to one athletic pursuit, so we can kiss our dream of a career as a pro athlete goodbye.

However, according to a study published earlier this year in medical journal The Lancet, obesity rates in Australia are rising faster than anywhere else is the world, so we obviously have no problem dedicating 10,000 hours of our lives to devouring packets of Starburst and yearning for the Third Coming of the Double Down.

To be fair though, putting aside an hour a day for physical activity (not to mention eating right) is struggle enough, especially when you’re a victim of your own feeble excuses. Here are six of the worst:

1 — You ‘don’t like the taste’ of superfoods

Remember when snacking used to be fun? Remember when your metabolism was that of a woodpecker on MDMA? Remember when you used to eat all the cheese? Your body isn’t all that anymore but old cheese habits are hard to break. And celery tastes like crunchy disappointment. Red Rock Deli forever!

Don’t like the taste of the green stuff? Deal with it.

We’ve read a select set of the literature that supports our distaste for non-processed foodstuffs and there’s no persuasive evidence, of the scientific or physical variety, to suggest that the paleo diet leads to a longer life. As for the fitspo set’s beloved kale, it seems the emperor of leafy greens has no clothes, placing a pathetic 15th in a ranking of the 41 healthiest Superfoods in a June paper from the Centers for Disease Control. Watercress, nobody’s favourite plant, came in first.

What we’re trying to say, is this excuse is almost passable if you have a high metabolism, but still...

2 — ‘It’s the weekend’

You work hard during the week. Exercising is just another plate to spin, so why punish yourself during those 48 short hours of respite, right?

Those people you see running through the city on a Saturday night or at brunch in their compression gear on a Sunday think they’ve got it all figured out, but they’re just masochistic show ponies, right? Wrong.

Weekend calories don’t count right?.

3 — Too much of your time is spent intending to get fit

Reading and thinking and watching YouTube videos about getting fit (or, better yet, gym fails), as opposed to actually doing it, can be time-consuming, not to mention draining.

“OK, get up at seven, hit the gym for an hour, and I can still get to work early. Start the day with a bang, get my metabolism humming — nice.” Or, you slither out of bed at 8:15 and struggle to get to work on time.

Later that day: “Alright, finish work at six, hit the gym for an hour, and I can be home by 7:15. Make up for this morning, salad for dinner — end the day strong.”

Or, you hit the pub after work, get the cab to go via Drive Thru Maccas on the way home, and fall asleep with your laptop on your chest, watching old cricket highlights on YouTube. If workout intentions were reps, you’d be huge by now. Instead, you’re just a guilt-ridden excuse machine with a paunch.

You don’t get guns like Wolverine by pushing snooze.

4 — You need the time for “going out”

So, you’re OK with the pain of a hangover but not the ‘good’ pain during and following a workout? At least you’re motivated about something.

If we may talk seriously about your drinking for a moment, here’s why it’s working against your dreams of a buff midsection: 1) alcohol is stored as fat and not energy by the body; 2) it has been shown to hamper muscle growth; 3) throw in a mixer, like juice or soft drink, and you add a tonne of sugar to the equation, adding thousands more kilojoules to your night out.

As for working off your hangover, dehydration and dead lifts do not a happy couple make.

Is the wolf pack growing your paunch?

5 — You’re ‘too tired’

And a workout will just make you even more tired, right? And what if you drop the bar on your head and injure yourself? That is so not worth it. If you’re exhausted, it’s best to either sit a session out — rest and recovery are a key part of the training process (but that doesn’t mean you can go for a purposeful run one day a week, then take six days off) — however, if you’re just feeling lazy, you’re best going for a shortened workout.

Michelle Bridges will tell you that exercise actually gives you energy.

Science laughs in the face of your tiredness excuse: a piece published in Psychological Bulletin a few years ago involved researchers analysing 70 studies on exercise and fatigue comprising over 6,800 people. “More than 90 per cent of the studies showed the same thing: Sedentary people who completed a regular exercise program reported improved fatigue compared to groups that did not exercise,” said researcher Patrick O’Connor, PhD.

6 — You had a ‘hard day’

The uglier twin of ‘too tired’. It goes a little something like this: “Hey, buddy, I just wanna sit on the couch and watch 24: Live Another Day, all right? The last thing I need is sore calves! Yeah, because I do a lot of calf raises at the gym.”

The days are only going to get harder if you don’t keep working those shapely pins, seeing as you’re depriving yourself of endorphins. Exercise releases this beautiful hormone, which reduces stress, boosts self-esteem, and assists with sleep.

This article originally appeared on AskMen and is republished here with permission.