Any time you pick up a fitness magazine, you’re bound to see pictures of ultra shredded people claiming to have new workouts to burn fat and put on some sexy muscles. They’ll tell you how Hugh Jackman put on 30 pounds of muscle in just three months to play Wolverine in his new movie or how Paula Dean lost 30 pounds with her new yoga instructor. At the end of the day, it’s all about entertainment.
The point of media is entertainment, not information. If you want information, you can dust off an encyclopedia or check out some reputable books on a specific topic. Think about it, even the news is in the hunt for juicy content. News stations prey on people’s curiosity and nosiness. They are just another form of entertainment to attract viewers and earn income on prime time TV.
Fitness magazines are no different. They are in the money making business. Their job is to produce interesting content every month. They want to give you new mouth watering workouts to help you break that plateau and give you those results you’ve always wanted! Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Fitness Magazine Workouts are Scams
When I say scam, I don’t mean that the workouts don’t work, but that they are just misleading. I’m sorry to break it to you, but there are no new secret workouts that are going to get you ground breaking results that haven’t been seem before. The mechanics of muscle building and fat loss have been discovered ages ago.
There is only one way to build muscle. Add enough resistance to the targeted muscle and work it until it stimulates growth. That’s it. There’s no grand secret. The concept is really simple and can be achieved really easily with basic workouts. All you need to do is lift heavy weight until you no longer can do anymore reps. For most people, that is enough to stimulate growth.It’s best to do workouts that target large muscle groups like the legs, chest and back.
There are a ton of different techniques you can use to achieve that. You can either lift boulders, barbells, kettle bells, cars, etc. It’s all going to give you the same results.
Stop Switching Workouts so Often
Fitness magazines can’t just tell you the concept to building muscle, give you a few examples and pack up shop. They need to sell issues and produce alluring content. That’s why the give you a new way to do the same shi’t month after month. It’s exciting, interesting and most important of all, entertaining. If fitness magazines were honest, they would run out of crap to write about really soon.
This is where people run into problems. I’ve had som many friends switch up their workouts because they feel stuck and frustrated. They open these magazines or websites and see something new and exciting. They tell themselves “this is it, this will help me get to the next level” when in reality, something very simple like adjusting their diet, workout intensity or adding more recovery time is really the answer.
Switching workouts too often is one of the biggest contributors to exercise anxiety and ultimately leads to abandoning the gym!!
People who jump between multiple workouts usually lose motivation because nothing is solving their plateau. The more routines they try and alternate between, the more inconsistent they become. This ultimately leads to abandonment all together for some people. Don’t be one of those people. Just choose a simple workout, eat enough protein, make sure you’re doing enough resistant and get enough rest. Keep it simple.
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