30 Lessons From 30 Pounds of Weight-Loss: Part 4- The Workouts
Here we are. The final countdown. If you’ve hung with me through the first 20 lessons, I appreciate you. If you’re new to this series, well, you can check out parts 1, 2, and 3 here…
Click here for part 1 - general observations and thoughts
Click here for part 2 -all about motivation
Click here for part 3 - all about nutritional strategies
Okay, part 4, the workouts. I think some of these points will surprise you, and some of these will be ‘no, duh’ moments. But in the end, they’re very valuable points if you are someone trying to navigate workouts while trying to lose weight.
1) More workouts =/= More weight loss.
The cold, cruel reality of working out is that is actually contributes very little to the total calories ‘burned’ each day. Now, this doesn’t mean working out isn’t good for you as we all know it brings tremendous value for building muscle, mood enhancement, energy regulation, and so many more things…but if you think you need to workout 4-7 times a week to lose weight, well. sorry to be the bearer of bad news, you do not.
With that said, I focused on working out 2-3 times a week as my schedule allowed, and actually felt a relief of pressure to ‘grind’ in the gym. It made for a sustainable approach to the gym.
2) Plan your workouts around your worst week.
Keep in mind this whole weight loss process happened over 6 months. On the grand scheme of things, that is a very short time frame. BUT, as we all know, most weeks go to shit by Wednesday, so having a plan for how to navigate your worst weeks is actually an optimal strategy in my opinion. Knowing on my worst weeks I would get 2 workouts in - Saturday and Sunday morning- I had two workouts ready to go, and if I could do them during my more optimal times during the week that would be stellar.
3) In the workouts themselves, PLAY THE HITS!
This may sound super obvious, but when I workout - weight loss goal or not- I really only do the movements I like. Now, there are certain movements I like for different reasons - ease of setting up, minimal equipment that may or may not be used, movements that make me feel strong, and movements I like that challenge me - but the takeaway here is you shouldn’t be afraid to play the hits.
4) When working out in a calorie deficit, less is often times more
When the goal is weight loss, you eat less calories than your body wants. Because of this calorie deficit, you do not have ample energy to recovery from hard, heavy, high volume workouts. So, my workouts centered around building strength - heavier sets with less reps and less sets - and were often 35-40 minutes in total length.
5) Keep the goal, the goal.
Stemming from a point I brought up in the first part of this series, my goal is to lose weight, not to build muscle. In past weight loss phases I would try to ‘recomp’ my body and simultaneously burn fat while building muscle. Though it can be done, it’s actually super hard to do, and typically requires a high amount of compliance with nutrition and recovery, two things I didn’t want added pressure to stick to. So in the end, I settled for just trying to lose weight and if my T-shirt size went down because my body shrunk, well, so be it.
Note- don’t confuse size with strength. If you look at my workout journals for this year, I have improved in almost every strength category - more chin ups, heavier chin ups, more bench press reps, more squat reps.
6) EMOMs for Strength kick ass.
EMOM stands for “every minute on the minute” and I LOVE this format for training strength while managing the time element of a workout window. When you only have 30-40 minutes to get a workout in, EMOMs are a great strategy. My two favorites were…
Chin ups x 4 reps on the top of every minute for 10 minutes
and
Weighted push ups x 10 on the top of every minute for 10 minutes.
You can pick your favorite movements and train them for 1-5 reps - the EMOM format will build in your reps, and allow you to get some quality work done!
7) Have a plan B and plan C workout.
I touched on this in part 2, talking about motivation. There are going to be days you don’t want to do your workout. It is going to happen. The best thing you can do is have a few ‘oh shit’ workouts that are on deck to help keep you engaged in the gym. There is nothing wrong with taking a 1 or 2 day break from your usual training, especially if it helps you stick with it for the long term.
8) Have an out-of-the-gym anchor exercise.
Again, another repeat point from a previous part. An anchor exercise is something you do that is different than your traditional workout - that typically revolves around a community - that keeps you active week over week. For me, I started playing pick up basketball on Sunday mornings. For many of my clients, it’s weekend hikes, ski or snowboarding, roller blading, swimming, ultimate frisbee leagues, other adult pick up sports, group exercise classes, and/or walking their dog(s). Have something out of the gym that promotes movement. It’s an amazing thing to lean on for long-term consistency.
9) Chase performance goals.
Performance goals are typically separate from your desired outcome goal. My outcome goal is to lose weight. My performance goal was to do 50 bodyweight chin ups in 10 minutes. If you read the EMOM point from two points ago, you’ll see that the EMOM format was how I broke up my performance goal. Week over week I did the same damn workout, but just strived to do more chin ups in that 10 minute EMOM. Because I was chasing this performance outcome, it kept me motivated in my workouts and more importantly, gave me the opportunity to set a goal for each training session.
Speaking of goals…
10) Set a training goal or training intention for every workout.
This was huge. Even when I wasn’t motivated at all, going in to every workout with a desired intention or goal for the training session was so important for 1) getting some progress done in the workout and 2) leaving the workout feeling like I was productive with my time.
In my experience as a Personal Trainer, very few people care about the contents of their workout, but damn near everyone cares about the outcome/progress/ post workout vibes they get as they leave the gym. Often times, I feel that people hire me because having a trainer can help improve those intentions, we kind of help with that process.
So, before each workout I would ask myself two things…
First, what movement do I want to try to improve on today.
Second, what movement and I most looking forward to doing today.
By answering those two questions I would set myself up for a clear performance outcome while also navigating the ‘workouts are supposed to be fun, sometimes’ element that people talk about with the gym…
Boom. This series is coming to a wrap. My weight loss goal continues in 2023, but at a dramatically lower pace to close out 2023. I hope you found some of my insights useful should you chase your own weight loss goals. As always, if you ever have any questions on the topics shared throughout this 4-parter, I will leave the comments on, and you can always reach out to me directly at Casey@PurposefulStrength.com.
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