Site Search

Are You Sick & Tired Of Not Getting The Results You Want From Your Exercise Program?

By John Kent

Are you sick and tired of not getting the results you want from your exercise program? If this is you, pay close attention. There are tiny changes you can make that will make a huge difference in your results.

Recently, I was watching a popular nightly news program that profiled several individuals from the same high school. They were all trying different diet and exercise programs to lose weight before their 25 year high school reunion.

Most of them were combining both diet and exercise to achieve a healthy amount of weight loss. There was one woman in particular though who wasn’t really dieting but was on a very strict exercise program. In fact, she was training for a marathon! After three months, she was running up to 12 miles per day. Now I don’t know about you, but I think 12 miles a day is an awful lot and I can think of a whole lot of other ways I’d rather spend my time! The sad thing about this woman though is that after three months, she had lost the LEAST amount of weight.

Needless to say, she was quite frustrated that she was putting in all of this energy and effort into something that wasn’t producing the results she expected. At this point, who wouldn’t blame her for being sick and tired and just giving up and settling back into her old habits?

So what are these tiny changes that can make a HUGE difference? First things first. What we put in our body is just as important as what we do with the outside of our body. Think about it. If you want to drive your car , you don’t fill the tank with syrup or worst yet, leave it completely empty. We must feed our body properly in order for it to function the way it was designed. I can’t stress enough the importance of water. Dehydration is a major cause of fatigue. Our general rule of thumb is 3/4 gallon per day for women and 1 gallon a day for men. Of course, if you’re not used to drinking this much you may have to ease your way into it. But, do it! If you are dehydrated and you are resistance training, it’s like trying to train with beef jerky for muscles. And we all know that beef jerky doesn’t stretch!

Secondly, fuel your body with the proper nutrition. At John Kent Fitness, we recommend eating 5-6 small meals a day to ease hunger and keep your metabolism burning. This means primarily fueling your body with quality lean proteins and quality carbs in the right portions for your body. So how do you know what the right portion is for your body? I recommend having your resting metabolic rate analyzed with metabolic testing so you can zero in on exactly how many calories you need to consume in order to lose weight. This is by far a better method than using some chart that could be off as much as 500 calories per day! For convenience, I also recommend the use of quality meal replacement bars or shakes for some of your meals. My favorite is Shaklee products because they are low glycemic, low calorie and taste great! You also need to make sure you are taking whole food vitamin supplements so that your body can properly heal and recover from your workouts.

Next make sure you cycle your workouts and make them progressive. What do I mean by cycling your workout? Don’t always do the exact same exercise for the same body part. And, don’t always do your exercises in the same order. You must keep your body guessing to keep progressing. What do I mean by making them more progressive? Add more weight as you get a little stronger. We usually use a self-perceived intensity scale with our clients with one being low intensity and 10 being high intensity. You should be between 8-10 on the intensity scale by the end of your set. Use a controlled tempo during both the lifting and lowering phase of the weight. Remember, you want to train the muscle not just lift the weight.

Finally, if you’re new to working out or if you just want a get yourself out of a rut, or maybe your just too embarrassed to go to the gym because you don’t know how to use the equipment, try a personal trainer. A personal trainer can educate you on proper technique, design a program specifically for you and provide accountability.

About the Author:

John Kent is a writer, speaker and owner of John Kent Fitness, Inc. located in Clearwater, FL. With his fitness expertise, as well as warm, friendly, and approachable character, John has become a captivating and much sought after speaker on the topics of nutrition and health.

He has contributed articles to various publications and has been featured on Bay News 9, Channel 10’s Life Around the Bay and in Tampa Bay’s Best Magazine where they named him “Tampa Bay’s Body Transformer”. He can be reached at or on the web at www.JohnKentFitness.com