Simple plans, better results
Written by Mike Cheliak on August 19, 2009 – 8:06 pm -As life becomes busier with work, family, activities, socializing and more it is often the case that we overcomplicate our lives even more by adding complex “things” to our everyday fitness and nutrition.
In the last year, I have turned my fitness and nutrition into a simplified solution. I have found that often the most complicated plan or situation can be simplified to an almost rudimentary function.
Let’s start with fitness. Many people who are trying to get fit spend countless hours and dollars on workout plans, new gadgets, fitness fads and more. They often lose interest because the plans are almost always unnecessarily complicated.
Simplify your workout. Compound exercises (such as Bench Press, Deadlift, squats, lunges and others) work multiple muscle groups and nervous system branches. They are simple to do, simple to learn and very efficient. Build your weight training around a core of those exercises and keep the workout scheme simple using super sets when possible so your resistance training is done in 20 minutes!
Add some interval cardio (sprint/rest) and keep your method simple but keep changing how you do it (treadmill, rowing machine, stairs, body movement circuits…). You will find your workouts are quick, fun and very diverse.
Active resistance training and interval cardio = maintained/gained muscle
Next we move into the most complicated and confusing one of all…nutrition and diet. You don’t have to be a genius to know that there are tens of thousands of different diets, fads, supplements, wonder herbs and drugs and self proclaimed gurus.
The problem is that they all have a gimmick; every one of them preaches that their plan is the best and most of them have very little scientific research to back their claims. Oh ya…the biggest downfall is that most of them are so complicated you need to watch, count, measure and manage absolutely everything you put in your mouth.
And you wonder why most people fail when they start a new “diet plan”.
Here is the simplest, easy to understand, scientifically proven, undeniable, truthful program that you will ever hear…and it’s free!!! Are you ready?
Eat fewer calories = lose fat
While that is somewhat of an oversimplification it is also very true. If you want to lose fat, eat less, if you want to maintain muscle, use resistance training and add in interval cardio to help increase your metabolic burn.
Working it all out is pretty easy. I have made it my mantra to keep all my workouts as simple as possible. I work out at the gym four days per week (sometimes three). I do a 5 minute warm up run on the treadmill, do some ballistic stretching for about 5 minutes and then do 3-5 supersets of combined exercises that allow me to work hard and rest very little. I finish my workouts with 15-20 minutes of intervals of my choice. I am out of the gym in less than an hour every time! I switch my exercise sequences, weight loads and rep sets every 4-6 weeks to keep from adapting and also to keep it interesting and challenging.
I like to keep my nutrition even more simple. I follow a routine of intermittent fasting which involves fasting from 2PM in the afternoon until 2PM the next day. I do this once or twice per week. The rest of the time, I eat a well balanced diet of mostly whole foods (not much processed stuff). I don’t count calories, carbs, protein, fat or anything else. I just make good food decisions most of the time and when I have a little “cheat” here and there, I don’t even concern myself with it as I know that my fasting puts me in a caloric deficit for the week.
“De-complicate” your fitness and nutrition. It is easier than you think and empowers you to take control of your own needs and results. It is amazing how much you can learn from yourself!!
In Happiness and Health as always,
Mike C.
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