INTRODUCTION
In this article, we are going to go through some fitness expectations and fitness reality. Through our many years in fitness, we have noticed a few things people expect and how they turn out. Thanks to platforms like YouTube and Instagram their expectations have been twisted on any area of fitness. So if you are getting involved in fitness, this might be an article you want to check out as you might have some of these fitness expectations.
TIME SCALE
our first fitness expectation is time! How quickly you can get results. This is the biggest one that people misunderstand. The expectation is that you will be able to be beach body ready on 6 weeks. Or jump onto a 4-week plan and pick on the muscle.
Thanks to cookie-cutter plans and quick-fix schemes, people think that you can get stage ready results in 4-6 weeks. This is just silly. Will you make some progress in this time? Of course, but it is nowhere near what is being advertised. Dieting, for the average person, can take weeks, even months.
In reality, everyone will take different amounts of times to reach different goals. You can’t expect to go on a 4-week bulk and expect to pack on pounds of muscle. Will you put on weight? Yes, will all if that weight be muscle mass? Not at all. This can also lead to a bad relationship with dieting as people don’t see the results as soon as they would expect and so give up and don’t believe that dieting works. When in reality, they set themselves up for failure by expecting their final result in 6 weeks.
AMOUNT YOU CAN EAT
When dieting we all know you have to eat less, however, I think a lot of people, especially when they are doing their first diet, think they are going to have to eat a lot less than they need to. I have to say that I blame various fad diets for this, Making people believe that you have to replace your meals with a shake. This isn’t true.
When you look at dieting, daily calories and how many calories you are burning you will be surprised at how much you can eat. You will also find then when you increase your calorie your performance in the gym will go up.
The key thing to remember is that just because you are “dieting” doesn’t mean you have to eat as little as possible. The aim is to eat as much as possible while still being in a deficit.
STRENGTH LOSS
This is an interesting one to talk about. People start a cut and automatically think “I am going to lose so much strength doing this”. This simply isn’t the case. You will only lose as much as you allow yourself to lose. Some strength loss will happen as food will be down so performance will be down, but don’t think you are going to be benching 100kg one day then suddenly drop to 70kg the next.
dDuring our chat with TMCycles (You can read here), he spoke about this briefly. He said that people set themselves up to lose strength and allow themselves to lose strength. He tries to go into every session with the same mindset that he does during a bulk. Still looking to make gains and strength. Might be smaller, but it is still progress.
If you go into your sessions thinking you are going to be weaker, then you will be! Don’t set yourself up for failure. Naturally, food will be lower, so the best thing you can do is to make sure you are getting more calories in pre-workout, this will allow you to function better during your workout.
WHAT YOU WILL BE EATING
This one is slowly becoming less relevant due to better education, better Personal trainers and people like us helping spread the truth. Some people still think that you will be dieting and eating chicken, rice and broccoli. People still think that you have to cut out all tasty foods and be super strict 110% of the time.
We know this isn’t true. Calories, macros are all that matter (While still maintain health! Check out this post for more information). This means you can be way more flexible than some people let you believe!
You should be eating foods you enjoy, you like and not eating food you don’t like. I still know some personal trainers that make their clients eat foods they don’t like because it will give them “special” or “extra” results.
HOW OFTEN YOU CAN TRAIN
‘Yeah bro, I train 6 days a week, Sometimes 7”, or “when I start dieting I am going to be training every day”. These are common phrases that you hear from people around the gym. This is honestly just setting yourself up for failure. Remember, you might be able to maintain that training volume for a few days/weeks, but eventual a thing called life will kick you down and make you change everything.
You don’t need to be training every day to make progress. You don’t need to be in the gym 2-3 hours every day to still hit your goals. Set up a routine that you can stick with, if on some days you can train more than great, however if you can’t on a certain day it isn’t going to hinder your progress and demotivate you.
Instead of saying I am going to be training 6 days a week, maybe you could say I will be training 3 days a week with a walk every day. Then if you can do more great. If you can’t, you would have still hit your goals. in our chat with Max Bridger (You can read it here), he spoke about this and how it is an important thing not just for your goals but also for your mental health and motivation.
CONCLUSION
Hopefully, this has cleared a few things up. If you are looking at getting into the fitness industry hopefully this post has put a few of these fitness expectations to bed. Are there any other expectations that you thought when you first started in fitness? Let us know with on our contact page or on our Instagram. We would love to hear all the things you thought were true but aren’t.
Not everything is as at seems in the fitness industry. A lot of lies, smoke and mirrors. It is changing and hopefully, it will soon be a lot better. However, for now, do your research, speak to people and if it sounds too good to be true, well, then it is I am afraid. So don’t get to wrapped up in your fitness expectations.
Remember if you are after some amazing workouts and helpful features then download our free application! The Sets & Reps workout application contain loads of workouts, loads of features and also access to everything we have to offer. You can download it here or click the icon below!
Written by Kieran Blacker
Kieran is the CEO and Founder of Sets & Reps. He decided to make an application that helped people get a gym workout when not at the gym. He designed, Coded and built the application himself.