First Posted: 2/9/2015

On pretty much a daily basis I may have a conversation with someone that goes like this:

“Tim, I’m not really seeing progress. I eat well, and I’m at the gym but the scale hasn’t moved.”

“Well, OK. Tell me about your program and your diet.”

“I don’t really have a set program that I follow. I eat really good, well, except… “

And there’s your answer. You must follow some sort of program and stick to it. And you must eat better than you think you are.

I’ve probably reviewed thousands of workouts and diets in my career so far and 100 percent of the people not seeing progress have the same underlying mistakes.

Your program could be:

-regular classes such has MWF Wake-Up Workouts.

-Primal Scream classes

-Bootcamp

– BWOW workouts

-or split lifting routines

You can see progress with any of the aforementioned methods as long as you stick to them.

Here are a few suggestions on how to get your leverage back in the gym:

1. Pick one program and follow it. If you don’t follow a program for at least 12 weeks, then you don’t have the right to say it doesn’t work.

2. If you want to lean out, take three months to tighten up nutrition and build a program that works to increase density over time. More work in the same amount of time is the goal here.

3. If movement issues are holding you back, take 2-3 months to focus on improving how you move and getting yourself right. If you haven’t done anything in awhile, it’s going to take you a couple months just to get started and comfortable. After that, the workouts you need to do will start.

4. Active recovery almost always trumps passive recovery. Hitting the couch in lieu of even an easier workout is almost never a good idea.

5. Be patient and choose high quality exercises. You want to get beach sexy? Then, you need to be busting your rear now not two weeks before you leave for vacation.

Follow a program with a specific goal. You want to do chin ups? Do a workout that will get you stronger. You want shredded abs? You need to lift weights and have a really clean diet. You want endurance without losing muscle? Long cardio sessions is not the answer.

And lastly, train with a purpose and a specific goal in mind. Avoid the random mish-mash of self programming and eliminate all “pet exercises” with no real objective.

The take away, pick something and stick with it and improve over time.