Are you sure the exercise program you're following is the right one for you?

Lets face it. To look good and still fit into those old jeans, we have to exercise and eat right. While some people may find it easy and convenient to hop onto the treadmill and eat a salad for dinner, most of us do struggle adhering to our so called fitness programs. There can be many reasons due to which following a fitness based lifestyle can be difficult, following are just a few of them:

1. Following a cookie-cutter program.
2. Following someone else's program. 
3. Implementing random suggestions into your own life style.
4. Trying to do what others are doing.
5. Trying to do too much.
6. Lastly, doing too little. 

Another aspect that gets ignored most of the time is the fact that weather the program being followed is correctly designed to begin with. In this post, I will go over some variables that you can manipulate to both check, if the fitness program you are following is correctly designed for you and how you can choose one from the hundreds available for free. It is worthy to mention here that a fitness exercise or training program should be prepared using an individualised approach based on your goals by a professional expert. I don't really recommended trying out random training programs just for the sake of it. With that said, lets get into the details which can help in taking a sound decision while choosing a training program:

• Goal: Having a goal, especially one that is realistic and achievable is single handedly the most important parameter that can make things so much easier and sustainable on a fitness program. Goals such as "Losing 10kgs in 5 days" or "Gaining X amount of muscle in a week" are not only delusional but outright unhealthy as well. A realistic goal would be "Losing 2-4 kgs a month" or "Gaining 1-2 kgs of muscle in a month". Be wary of people trying to fool you into buying training programs that promise to deliver the impossible. 
• Exercise Type: Everyone does not have the same goal, even though most of us would prefer to shed those extra pounds. The exercises chosen and programmed for you should be in accordance with the goal that you have. If for example, you are aiming to get stronger over the winter, exercises such as multi-joint compound movements such as the Squat, Bench, Deadlift, OHP, Clean and Press, etc. should be a part of the training program. On the other hand, if for example your goal is to improve conditioning, exercises such as Farmers Walk, The Prowler, Rower, Sprints, etc. deserve there respectable space in the training program. Don't just choose a goal or an exercise because someone else is doing it or recommends it, decide what you want to do in the gym and make an effort to maintain consistency in the respective program. 
• Exercise Frequency: Again, you can only train as much as you can recover. If you're not recovering from your sessions and feel demotivated to hit the gym, its probably because you're doing more that you should be. Now don't get me wrong here, this is not an excuse to do less work. It simply means that there are times in a training cycle where the intensity should be peaking and others when the overall volume should. Similarly, there's a time to Deload also. Going all warrior mode in the gym every time is certainly a sure shot way to injury, over-working and losing the motivation that got you into the gym in the first place. Professional athletes mostly do need to give all they have in the gym, however even they try to periodize their training or rather follow a periodized program, not to forget the fact that they are elite athletes. Some people are better off training 3 days a week while some can get away with 6 days a week, I personally prefer a 4 days per week training split as it works for me. 

A quick example here, if your goal is to lose weight and build some muscle while at it, keep in mind that these are two different goals. Building muscle requires a surplus of calories while losing weight thrives on cutting calories. If you happen to be doing both concurrently but going nowhere near your dream physique, don't lose hope and motivation. Pick a goal out of the two and work towards it for a couple of months, after you've done that choose the other and make an effort to achieve it. 

• Cardio Vs Weights: "Why are the overweight people sweating for hours walking on the treadmill and the fit people lifting weights?" Does this question ring a bell. Now, if you prefer to walk or jog or run, by all means do it. Similarly, If you prefer to lift weight, stop with all the treadmill action and move over to the weight section of the gym. If your exercise program has exercises that you don't want to do or that you find uncomfortable, rest assured that you can always choose an alternative. If your trainer forces you to do the exercises that you don't like without giving a proper "SCIENTIFIC" explanation for it, its time to find a new one. 
• Progression: Believe me when I say this, no training program is going to produce results in just 1 week. Give it at least 6 - 8 weeks to the minimum. If your not progressing after this, its time for a change. Progression can be measured in different ways depending on the exercises chosen. Bodybuilders may prefer to see an increase in the size of their muscles or increase in the total number of reps or even a decrease in the rest periods between sets and consider that as progress. While, strength athletes wanting to increase their lifts, may consider a 10 pound PR in a movement as progress. On similar terms, a regular Joe sweating it out in the gym to lose weight may consider a 5 pound decrease in body weight  over the course of a few weeks as progress. As stated before, progress would mean increasing or decreasing in other words a change in certain parameters depending on the individual. Its slow, but if the training program is well designed, its certainly well worth the wait. 

Lastly, one aspect apart from the training and exercise program itself that can make an enormous amount of difference is the Nutrition a.k.a "The Diet". If your diets not in accordance with your goals and the training program, you can kiss all the results Goodby.

Note:Before starting/changing an exercise, dietary and supplementation program consult a qualified doctor/health care professional.