Quality, Not Quantity

By Team Beachbody

If you spend enough time exercising you will get fit, and that's where the old adage of more is better comes from. Once upon a time, fitness trainers would point housewives toward the weight machines and tell them to exercise for two hours. Did they get results? Of course they did. Was this an efficient way to work out? Of course it wasn't.

Today's client is much more picky about time and efficiency, and has the right to be. Sports science has made tremendous strides over the last two decades and now clients are learning to expect excellent gains with relatively little time invested.

Like most advances in the fitness world, this knowledge has trickled down from the sports world. Athletes once trained following the "more is better" principal as well. Inspired by films like Rocky, some world-class athletes would pound away for 8 to 12 hours a day—especially those in endurance ssports, such as triathletes. It was once thought that the amount of time one put into training was directly linked to results.

And it was the triathletes that finally tore this idea apart. Agingtriathletes whose bodies were breaking down due to the overuse and abuse from hours of training needed to cut back their total mileage. They began experimenting with shorter, higher-intensity workouts-once thought to only be effective for power-based sports. What they found was that not only could they workout less and keep up, but they could WORKOUT LESS AND IMPROVE. One such athlete, Mark Allen, spent his 20's as a good competitor, but was never "great". Then in his 30's, he cut his training volume nearly in half and became the best triathlete the world had ever seen.

Our 90-day body transformation program is based on this same knowledge. You can make enormous improvements in your fitness level and only spend 45 minutes a day working out. Whether you follow our recommendations in Power 90^®, or follow your own workout regime, there are four simple rules to get better results in less time:

1. Progressive Training: Each workout should build upon the last, and have variety. If you repeat the same workout over and over your body becomes very proficient at it, and the benefits decline. Adding variety to your workouts, even slightly, will give you better results. By combining power yoga, cardio, abs, and strength training, Power 90^® provides variety, and ups the ante by taking you through four phases of intensity, keeping you out of your comfort zone to provide maximum gains for 90 days. You can do the same thing in a gym or with a trainer if you keep track of your routine.
2. Resistance training: Resistance training for every body part will change the shape of your body quicker than one single exercise. For example, if you ran every day but never lifted weights, your body would respond slower for two reasons: One is that you would fail to work all of your muscles, which not only makes you stronger but increases your basic metabolic rate so you burn off more fat. And two, doing the same activity day in and day out allows your body to get very efficient at that one thing. This means that the five-mile run you did on day one will be of almost no fitness use to you by day 30, if that's all you're doing. Resistance training is critical if you want to improve your overall fitness and change the shape of you body.
3. Rest: Your body only gets stronger while at rest. Power 90^® varies your program so that you work one aspect of your fitness (like cardio, or muscle strength) while the other is recovering. Don't fall into the trap of training seven days a week (overtraining)—and always give your body the chance to recover. It's better to have a program that doesn't risk overtraining in the first place.
4. Nutrition & Supplementation: Sports science has made tremendous advancements over the last decade. Now, by learning not just What to eat but When to eat, you can get better results in less time. For example, something as simple as having 100 grams of simple sugars (such as a glass of grape juice) within 30 minutes after working out can make a 50% difference in your body's recovery rate. And there have been breakthroughs in safe, natural supplementation which are sold over the counter and allowed at all levels of competition. With a little research with your goals in mind, you can improve your results by using supplements that have been tested to be effective. The Power 90^® program uses the latest information in sports nutrition to help men build muscle and trim fat, and to help women tone muscle and trim fat—efficiently.

Make Your New Year's Resolution Stick

As the New Year rolls around, many of us will embark on a journey to self-improvement with the declaration of a New Year's Resolution. Unfortunately, surveys say that most of us will not see our resolution through. So you ask, "how can I make a New Years Resolution that will stick?"

1. Make a resolution that suits your personality. Are you someone that likes to do things gradually, or are you a more extreme type that prefers to go cold turkey? Assess your strengths and base your resolution on you. Don't be swayed be peer pressure to try something just because your friends are doing it.
2. Allow for some failures. This is probably the most important step. The easiest way to give up on your resolution is by making it nearly impossible, like "I'm going to work out every day this year." Once you miss a day, you've blown your challenge. To not allow any slippage gives you an easy way out of your commitment.
3. Make an attainable goal. Declaring the impossible is another way to give yourself an out. Don't say "I'm going to run a 3-hour marathon" when you've never run 10 miles, because it allows you to quit once you realize you set your sights too high.
4. Stick to your plan. Don't give up. If you've set a reasonable goal you can make it, but we all lose heart from time to time. Throughout an entire year you're bound to go through a bad stretch or two. Just hang in there and get through it. Even if you barely have the motivation to get out of bed, keep going. Fighting through the bad times makes the good times all the easier. Like Nietzche said, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." And like we say at Beachbody: "If it didn't take commitment, everyone would look good in a swimsuit."
5. Remember the ultimate goal. All you are really trying to do is improve yourself, right? Keeping this in mind is a good way to keep going even if you slip on the original goal. Because what is failure anyway? You still improve, just not as fast as you had planned—and that's not really a failure at all.