It is no secret that most overweight people hate exercise. I get it. That was me once and it is part of the reason that week one of my Love Your Weight Loss program only asks you to get up and do something, anything as long as it is activity.
However, there is actually a science behind the simplicity of this edict. Not only do I want my clients to take control of their lives and their journey through choice, there is a clear reason why doing something, not everything, works the best.
This theory relates to the physiology of exercise, how it stimulates your body, and how your body, in turn, reacts to that stimulation. The basic premise: as long as simulation is provided, the body reacts and losing weight begins.
This is especially important for people unaccustomed to exercise. Inactivity causes the pathways between your brain and your muscles to actually 'switch off', a phenomenon known as 'lazy muscle syndrome'. Once you begin to exercise again, the switch is flipped back onto the 'on' position, but it takes time for the pathways to clear.
I like to use the analogy of a bush track for this. Just as an unused track begins to grow over with grass, so do your neuromuscular pathways. Once you begin to drive through a track again, it takes a few trips to clearly define the tyre tracks. So, too, must you repeat an action several times before establishing a clear neuromuscular link. This explains why new exercisers often find that they only get an exercise 'right' on the last rep of a set.
My term for this phenomenon is neuromuscular stimulation and I see it as a central tenant of my Love Your Weight Loss philosophy. The idea is that by constantly adding stimulation to your muscles through a varied exercise routine we not only forge new paths but keep the process interesting and new.
I 'discovered' this phenomenon through my own weight loss journey quite accidentally. Since I hated the idea of exercise, especially the boring bits of doing the same routine day in and day out, I constantly swapped things around. As a result I lost about 1.5 kg a week for 33 weeks straight. It was only later that I discovered the scientific reason behind not only the weight loss success but the absence of loose skin as a result of that loss.
But don't take my word for it. This idea of constant change is actually at the heart of the Cross Fit experience. Using a whole-body philosophy that focuses on seemingly random exercises and movement, Cross Fit has revolutionised the way people work out. And, while I do not advocate the 'go hard or go home' intensity of this program, nor the tendency for lasting physical injury related to it, I do agree with its core principles of exercise variation.
And that's it in a nutshell. The concept of doing something, anything as long as it's activity takes advantage of your body's natural tendency to adapt to change quickly. However, the 'step up' approach to exercise I take in LYWL (whereby clients start slow and gradually increase their activity) is proven just as effective as 'go hard' methods and far less dangerous, especially since it utilises the same core philosophy of varied neuromuscular stimulation.
There's good news and bad news, though. Unfortunately, the time it takes for women to create these pathways is longer than men. That's why men lose weight so much faster than women. On the flip side, no matter who you are varied stimulation is the best way to lose weight. What's more, through a varied approach to exercise, you eliminate the boredom factor of your routine and increase your long term chances of success.
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