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You ever wonder why a lot of people struggle with losing fat, getting strong, and having a good body?
These are all pretty common problems and typical frustrations we hear on a daily basis.
But, what is the common denominator? What is the limiting factor to all this?
In a word- pain.
It could sound something like these scenarios:
“My knee starts to hurt when I run more than a mile, so I just don’t do it anymore.”
“My back is killing me the next morning after a workout, so I just take it easy.”
“My shoulder feels a pinch when I lift anything overhead.”
“My neck really bothers me when I’m bent over.”
Sound like people you know, or maybe like you?
These little aches and pains are keeping people back from stringing together a consistent program of exercise that allows their body to achieve the results they want.
But, let’s go deeper (but, staying very simple) on how pain is not allowing you to burn fat, get strong or have a nice ass and abs.
Why does pain keep you from burning fat the way you want?
Simply put, because if you are in pain you can’t workout hard. And if you can’t workout hard, you don’t burn a lot of calories. If you don’t burn a lot of calories you don’t burn fat. It’s math.
A little walk works for about 3-4 weeks before it no longer has an affect on burning fat. Do you see a lot of fit people who just say, “yeah all I do is walk?” Absolutely not, because it’s just not enough to achieve maximum fat loss, especially considering the amount of calories this society takes in.
So less pain equals more movement, more movement equals more calories burned, more calories burned equals less fat taking up the space between the clothes you want to wear and your skin. You see, simple.
Now, how does pain affect how strong you are, hence your ability to burn fat?
Again, very simple facts, if you are in pain, you have to workout light, if you have to workout light that means you lift baby weights, and lifting baby weights isn’t going to put that nice lean muscle on your body that helps you burn calories all day long, so you have the belly you want.
You see it all the time, ladies with 5-6lb weights wondering why their body is not changing. It’s not a mystery. It’s just not enough load on the body to create muscle. And muscle is what burns calories and fat. (show me a woman or guy for that matter who has a real good body, one that can kick some ass (and being thin, does not mean you are healthy, it just means you don’t eat much) and I’ll show you a person who lifts some weights and doesn’t bulk up either!
Sure, 5-6bs is good for first 4-6 week, or some rehab isolation moves, but to get fit, so you burn fat, nope.
To burn fat you need to be able to lift more challenging weights in order to spark the fires in the mitochondria! (yeah, that science was almost over the top. As much as trainers wish people did, no one cares about the science, let’s keep it real.)
If you want a tight ass, slim belly, nice arms, 5-6lb weights aren’t going to get you there. And in order to lift challenging weights you need to have a good range of motion that doesn’t cause pain, that doesn’t leave you hurting in your joints. So, that leads us to #3.
Why are so many people in pain?
Again, keeping it simple, and excluding trauma or accident, the reason so many people are in pain is because the daily patterns we’ve adapted in society have made us practically immobile.
We sit, drive, are at computers and have technology at the tip of our fingers now, that too much of our lives are about too little movement and too many calories.
Have you ever seen a pro athlete later in life, after their career is done? They are typically much heavier, sometimes overweight and a lot of the time obese. Why? Because they did not change their habits. Before they used to move a ton, worked out 3 times a day, had practice, they could eat like crazy and not gain weight. But, once that movement stopped and how many calories they were burning changed and they didn’t alter how many calories they were taking in, they ballooned up.
Well, unfortunately that is most of society today. We still haven’t woken up to the evolutionary fact that we eat the way we did when we had to
move more and ate fewer calories. Now, in this society we move less and eat more, so we are fattening up and staying that way.
Then you couple that with the desire to be a weekend warrior, and injury is just brewing.
Let’s try to understand simply why bad movement patterns like driving, sitting, moving less put you in pain?
If you sit, drive and work at the computer all the time your muscles get short, cramped up, and just don’t work the way they should.
These tight, cramped, short muscles lead to your body compensating and joints starting to move in all the wrong ways.
Your body doesn’t like joints that move in all the wrong ways, and within time, it will signal to your brain pain, and only in a matter of time will lead to injury.
So, what can you do about it?
You learn how to train to release your body!
When you learn to allow the muscles and joints to move better:
You can release a lot of that pain
Allow your body to move better and heal better
You can train more, train a little harder, lift a little heavier
You can get those calories burning, that body laying down beautiful lean muscle and you having the body you want.
A body that is strong, lean and pain free so you can go out and enjoy the active life you deserve
And trust me, you each deserve the change to be active and to tackle this life!
Vito La Fata, NASM-CPT, is an international presenter, nationally certified personal trainer, fitness and nutrition expert and the creator of Fitness Evolution, a premier fitness and weight loss facility in Laguna Hills, CA. Vito has been helping people lose weight safely, quickly and permanently while getting in the best shape of their lives for over 10 years. You can get more FREE fat and weight loss tips at www.fitnessevolved.com. Visit www.facebook.com/fitnessevolutionlagunahills to become your personal best.
