3 months in the gym before and after. Three months of training: how our body changes with regular exercise
When starting to play sports, people pursue a specific goal: someone wants to lose weight. overweight, others dream of having beautiful and relief body and others just love active activities. Therefore, each person will have his own individual training program aimed at achieving the goal. Results from classes will appear at different times.
For those people who want to lose excess weight, the main attention should be paid to cardio equipment: treadmill, elliptical, stepper and others. It is recommended to exercise for 45-60 minutes. This time is necessary to burn excess calories and lose weight. The optimal number of workouts per week is 5. If available free time, you can exercise every day, in which case it is better to alternate exercise machines so as not to get bored. As an option, exercise 6 days a week on any of the cardio line units and devote another day to swimming in the pool. With strict attendance at classes and proper nutrition, the results of training can be seen in 2-3 weeks. Most likely, the weight will change slightly, but the volumes will decrease.
If a person does not suffer from overweight, but just wants to tighten his body, make his muscles more visible, strength training will help him. They are recommended to be carried out 2-3 times a week with a break of 24 hours. This is exactly what is needed for muscle recovery. During one workout, you should work on a specific part of the body; you shouldn’t try to do everything at once. Nothing good will come of this. At the right approach strength training, as well as a balanced diet, you can see the first result in 6-8 weeks. But it is worth noting the fact that muscles develop at different rates. So, the arm muscles will “grow” faster than, for example, the first abs will appear.
It is also worth saying about those who want to simultaneously lose weight and tone their muscles. For such people, the optimal training option is 2 strength training sessions and 2 cardio sets per week. They will be able to see the results in 4-6 weeks. But with the condition of proper nutrition and constant exercise.
By the way, no matter what goal a person pursues when visiting the gym, in order to see his result, it is recommended to weigh himself once a week and take measurements of the abdomen, hips, chest, etc.
What to eat to speed up the process
Those who are struggling with excess weight need to switch to proper nutrition. Refusal of sweets, starchy foods, fatty foods, fast food and other junk foods is mandatory. It is advisable not to eat for 2 hours before cardio training. If your hunger is very strong, you should snack on something protein-free, without carbohydrates. For example, a small piece of meat, fish or a couple of spoons of cottage cheese. After training, you should refrain from eating for at least an hour.
People involved in strength training, on the contrary, need to eat complex carbohydrates an hour before class. Any cooked porridge is an excellent option. And 20-60 minutes after the workout is over, you need to eat something protein. It could be like protein cocktail, so skim cheese or boiled chicken breast.
The main enemies of slimness are laziness and lack of incentive. If the first one can be dealt with by psychological training, then the second one will not appear if physical activity does not give the desired result. If you look at the root of the problem, you can easily remove this obstacle to fit figure.
When wondering why your workouts are not producing results, reconsider your workout schedule, your diet, and your internal state. The reason for the lack of positive dynamics can be either a digestive problem or a state of constant stress.
If you overeat
Many women mistakenly believe that sports compensate for all culinary excesses. The reasons for unsuccessful workouts often lie in consuming more calories than you burn during exercise.
In addition, it is worth considering your metabolic rate. As you know, women who have given birth and women over 30 have a much slower metabolism than young women. Metabolic processes are also affected by lifestyle, for example, sedentary work, and previous diseases.
Anyone who suffers from diabetes or thyroid problems cannot expect the same training results as healthy people.
Incorrect load distribution
If you are working out “fully”, mechanically doing the exercises and dreaming of finishing the workout as soon as possible, don’t be surprised that you don’t get results. Positive dynamics- reset excess weight and growth muscle mass– appear only with conscientious, exhausting training.
Then why doesn't training give results if you give it your all and often bring yourself to exhaustion? Wrong approach again. In order for the body to be in good shape, it is necessary to alternate enormous loads with rest.
It's a big mistake to train every day without giving your muscles a chance to recover. Professional trainers They claim that the body is destroyed in the gym, and then restored at home within a couple of days. This is how muscle growth occurs.
Monotony and Inconsistency
Do you go to the gym whenever you have time and constantly perform the same rote set of exercises? Don't expect any results other than perhaps momentary fatigue.
The effectiveness of classes depends on their regularity. In addition, the muscles need to be “deceived” - increase/decrease the number of approaches, swap exercises and switch to a new training program more often.
Stress and insomnia
Often the reasons for unsuccessful training lie in a banal lack of sleep. If the body feels bad, it goes into energy saving mode. And the best source of energy in human body is fat.
Since insomnia is obvious stress, the body begins to actively resist the loss of strategic reserves, that is, it does not want to part with fat deposits.
To increase the effectiveness of training, you need to put your thoughts and soul in order, and then take on the body.
Video on the topic
Bringing their figure back to normal, people begin to play sports. At first, the results are very pleasing, but it often happens that hard and persistent training ceases to bring the desired effect. So why do sports become fruitless?
It turns out that this phenomenon is far from uncommon. Such stagnation happens to many people. Let's look at the most common reasons why training stops being beneficial.
Reasons for the failure of training
Diet. Proper nutrition is the basis of losing weight. If you started playing sports, but did not change your usual diet, which contains foods that are harmful to your figure, you should not expect the desired result. In addition, you should always remember that both overeating and undereating affect metabolism - they slow it down. People are all different, therefore, accordingly, everyone needs to adjust their nutrition to suit themselves. However there are some general recommendations, which must be observed by all those who bring their body back to normal. Eliminate refined sugar in all its forms from your menu and limit your consumption of processed foods. Load up on fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as foods that contain whole grains and healthy proteins and fats.
Uniformity of training. This, oddly enough, also affects the effectiveness of training. If you have been training according to a certain pattern for quite a long period of time, without changing it at all, you may not expect any effect from your efforts. The thing is that the body quickly gets used to the same loads. In other words, it becomes easy for the muscles. That is why you should change exercises and training regimens at least once a month.
Lack of strength training. It is generally accepted that to lose weight it is enough to give the body only cardio exercise. However, this is not always the case. To get rid of extra pounds and make your figure beautiful and slim, you need, in addition to running, to do strength training. Due to them, muscle fibers grow, which require a lot of energy to feed, which the body takes from fat reserves. Simply put, muscles help burn fat.
Lack of activity. In order for training to bring positive results, one hour of sports is not enough. You must be active throughout the day. Perform all those actions that require some, even minor, effort. Even from daily walks there is.
Lack of sleep. The body needs to recover, and it does this best in sleep. Lack of sleep affects the production of a hormone called ghrelin, which is responsible for hunger in the body. I think it’s easy to guess where this all leads. Yes, to overeating, which, in turn, slows down metabolic processes. In addition, lack of sleep also affects the increased production of cortisol, which can store fat.
If you take these nuances into account, a positive result will not take long to arrive.
What to do if proper nutrition and training do not give the expected results, and the weight moves too slowly or does not move at all? The reason is usually metabolic characteristics and mistakes made in the process of nutrition and training.
If regular training does not give the desired result, you should think about possible errors which many people do in the process of losing weight:
- Too much food and too little exercise. In this case, the calorie content of the diet simply exceeds daily energy expenditure, a calorie deficit does not occur, and therefore, fat tissue is not burned.
- There is too little food and too much training. This is also a mistake - against the background of a strong calorie deficit, excess physical activity leads to stress, as a result of which metabolic processes slow down. Poor nutrition is not the best companion for healthy weight loss.
- Lack of training regimen. If you don't train regularly, often skip classes, sometimes come to training three times a week, and sometimes just once, you shouldn't be surprised what's wrong.
- Flaw power load with too much cardio. The most important factor for losing weight is strength training - exercise with weights helps strengthen and grow muscle tissue. Muscles require more energy, which means strength training indispensable for weight loss. At the same time, excess cardio (running, jumping, exercise bike, jump rope, elliptical) leads to the fact that the body begins to get rid of reserves primarily through muscles, and only then through fat tissue. Cardio exercise should follow strength training, and too much of it is not very beneficial if you want effective and long-term weight loss.
How to structure a workout to achieve the desired effect?
- Cyclic loads aimed at different muscle groups are useful. You not only lose weight, but also acquire a slender, toned and harmoniously developed body.
- Study according to an individual program drawn up in advance. Three four strength training per week will be enough to get rid of excess weight and maintain shape in the future.
- The body adapts to stress, so every two to three months it is necessary to make adjustments to training program. At the same time, most of the training should consist of basic exercises for large groups muscles, as this enhances metabolic processes.
- Don't neglect rest between sets and approaches. Rest is necessary to prevent injuries and sprains.
- No need to train on an empty stomach - this leads to destruction muscle fibers. On a full stomach, physical activity is also harmful and ineffective. For the greatest effectiveness of classes, you should eat an hour before classes. There should be no feeling of heaviness in your stomach, but you should not feel hungry.
Well, ask the experts, however, and they will tell you: the scientific evidence is not conclusive. What is the best way to study, in the light or in the dark? "We don't have the answer," says Walter R. Thompson, a professor at Georgia State University in the US.
What we do know is this: “Light is a very, very powerful signal to the brain,” says Phyllis Zee, MD. The answer should be something like, “We live in a light/dark cycle, which affects the circadian rhythm, which regulates our productivity.”
Most fitness facts come down to personal observation—for some, working out at 5:00 a.m. in complete darkness is better, notes Thompson. Others swear that they only study at lunchtime and cannot imagine studying in the dark at all.
But you should also know that when you're at your most focused, your muscle strength is at its highest, which can help you achieve your best performance, Zee says. For early risers, this occurs in the afternoon when there is plenty of bright and natural light. But does light intensity increase muscle strength? Not necessarily, notes Zee, but definitely, bright light at any time of day can make you more focused, more energetic and motivated. All this can improve performance: either motor or mental.
Optimize the light in your life with these invaluable tips from modern science:
You'll be faster in bright light
If you have a lot of bright light, you'll probably run faster,” says Zee. Most natural blue light occurs at midday. But in addition to the physical effect, light also has a mood effect, which, as the professor notes, can either calm or, on the contrary, energize.
You'll stay sleepy in the dim light
Dim lights in the long, red/orange range do not provide a high level of alertness. In the afternoon, as twilight begins, you see more light in the orange/red range. This type of lighting is suitable for meditation or calming yoga, but is not intended to be stimulating. Red light has the least effect on your body clock and has little or no suppression of the sleep hormone melatonin.
Working near a window improves your sleep
After conducting research, it was found that people who work in offices with many windows generally have best sleep and health in general. It was also found that these people were more physically active, says Dr See.
Morning light improves your metabolism
Another of Professor See's studies found that people who received more morning light had lower body index scores than those who received sunlight later in the day. Blue light activates metabolism, says Professor See. And in the morning it can even suppress your appetite.
Alexander SOKOLOV
athlete, traveler
Saint Petersburg
It seems that everyone understands that achieving a champion physique in a few months is impossible. Those same professional bodybuilders took years and even decades to achieve their titles. But they had the most advanced training techniques and powerful pharmacological support at their disposal. Should you be disappointed if, after a couple of months of the most exhausting workouts, your reflection in the mirror does not resemble the figure of Arnold Schwarzenegger in best years? However, in 3 months you can achieve very good results if you assess reality sensibly.
Losing weight is more profitable than gaining weight
Gym visitors are mostly divided into two unequal parts. Those who want to lose weight (the majority of them) and those who want to gain muscle mass. To the delight of the first category of people, I responsibly declare that you can lose much more fat in 3 months than gain muscle mass in the same period of time. Some numbers from personal experience.
I first joined the gym 2.5 years ago to gain muscle mass. Not surprising with a weight of 57 kg and a height of 176 cm! In the first 3 months of proper training, I managed to gain as much as 11 kg. A very good result compared to the surrounding hall visitors pursuing the same goals. But before this summer, I came up with the sensible idea to dry out a little in order to better demonstrate the muscles accumulated over 2 years of training. And what? I lost 12 kg in just 2.5 months!
Of course, against the backdrop of advertised weight loss methods that promise to relieve you of almost 10 kg per week, this result looks frivolous. But let's face it. Do you know what people who have lost more than 15 kg in one month look like? Theoretically, this can be achieved. If you reduce your diet to a starvation diet and tirelessly train in an aerobic mode for 6 hours a day. It’s only under such extreme loads that the body begins to burn not only fat, but also muscle tissue so that a person does not stretch his legs from exhaustion. As a result, you become smaller, but not at all more beautiful. Plus you get additional health problems.
Fading progress
If you decided to use a calculator to calculate how many kg you can gain or lose in a year, multiplying the result achieved in 3 months by 4, then I have to disappoint you! The body responds with such an “explosion” only in the first months, when any training is a great stress for it. Subsequently, the results will be much more modest. For example, gaining 2 kg of muscle per month after six months of training is very good achievement. The situation is similar with combustion. subcutaneous fat. Every month the body has less and less excess fat tissue. This means that he is becoming more and more reluctant to part with her, wanting to keep at least some reserve for a rainy day.
And the most important thing. Don't expect to make consistent progress using the same training program for a year! It doesn't matter how well it is written. Sooner or later, the body will get used to it and stop responding by gaining muscle or burning fat. Any program needs to be changed to another from time to time. How often? Depends on your level of training. For beginners, one program is usually enough for 2-3 months, while more experienced athletes are forced to resort to drawing up a new training plan every month.
Now that you have an idea of the possible results in 3 months, achieving them will be much easier!
Photo gallery
It all depends on what you want. You can lose weight if you don’t eat, but lose weight along with your muscles without ever achieving the shape you want. To achieve your goals, you need to build a diet and exercise routine, and monitor your sleep patterns. Many people don’t understand this when they come to the gym: they train, go away on the weekend, and start again on Monday. You need to competently rebuild your body, and not run away from the gym a month after starting training with the words “I can’t do anything!”
Do I need sports nutrition?
Not at all necessary. It is needed if you either do not get protein from regular food or train professionally. If you work out in the gym for yourself to relieve stress or get in shape, then without sports nutrition you can safely do without.
If a girl works with iron, will she ruin her figure?
Of course not. When muscles receive a certain load, fat mass disappears faster. If you run on a treadmill, you will lose weight, but your muscles will also shrink, and you won’t get the results you want. Training needs to be comprehensive. The main thing is to do everything meaningfully, know when to stop and involve a coach.
When are the first results visible?
With proper training, within a month you will notice very good results. There is an opinion that the first results can be seen only after three months, but practice has shown that this is not so. In three months, if you follow the diet, sleep, wakefulness and training regime, you can simply change yourself beyond recognition.
I started going to the gym and gained weight - why?
This is normal, but many people don't understand it. They say “soon I will have hands like yours!” It's simple - when the muscles do not receive load in Everyday life, muscle mass begins to develop, and muscle, as you know, is much heavier than fat. You just need to take measurements: visually you will decrease, and in the first months your weight may increase by two to three kilos. You don't get fat - your volumes go down. Arm yourself with a measuring tape!
I was gaining weight, but at some point the weight stopped growing - why?
Don't stress yourself out, calm down and continue training in your own way. The emotional component greatly influences training and its results. Any stress can trigger weight loss - you didn’t sleep for one hour, you missed a meal, you got nervous - catabolism starts and you lose muscle. All the answers are in your head. Training is not constant progress, be prepared for that.
Is it possible to “pump up” only the butt and abs?
Requests to work separately on certain muscles come from girls every day. Remember once and for all - you need to work on all muscle groups so that progress is gradual. We can focus on what you need, but we will have to work on everything. Every second person in Krasnoyarsk walks with a hunchback due to sedentary work, and a month after classes, people who initially did not plan to specifically train their back straighten their shoulders and hear compliments. And then the questions “Do I need to train my back if I only want to pump up my butt?” does not arise - I like the result.
Is it possible to go to the gym and achieve results without changing your diet?
I hear questions like this often. Many people are ready to go to the gym every day, but at the same time they want to eat cake. A simple example: two cakes are 10 thousand calories. If you want to lose weight in such a “sweet” mode, you need to spend 15 thousand kcal per day - and this is simply unrealistic, since you will have to train about 10 hours a day.
No one forces you to give up sweets: once every ten days you can allow yourself a so-called cheat meal - eat any one dish. Understand, this is not a diet, not just “chicken, buckwheat or greens.” Start small: go to bed on time, drink water instead of coffee and tea, eat often, but in small portions - gradually you will get used to not eating unhealthy foods and notice the results. There is no need to suddenly change everything and perceive proper nutrition as a stigma. Introduce restrictions gradually and in two months you will completely rebuild.
Do I need a coach?
Undoubtedly. You don't know how muscles work. You can squat perfectly in front of a mirror, but do it incorrectly and not achieve results. Apart from the coach, no one will point out your mistakes. Why do people come to the gym and leave after a month? Because they do the exercises incorrectly, waste time, but do not see results.
Not everyone has money for a trainer, but if you come to the gym, take a couple of classes so that they at least explain the technique to you. basic exercises and wrote individual program. If you have forgotten how to do an exercise, go to any trainer, don’t be shy.
Over the summer of 2015, I pumped up quite well on street trainers. It was a pity to lose all this over the winter. Therefore, in November 2015, I enrolled in a modern Gym. Very usefully there was a service for measuring body composition. It is useful to evaluate your body from the outside at the beginning of a new stage of training.
First, I’ll tell you how this analysis is done, and then about the results after 3.5 months of training.
The analysis is done using the bioimpedance method. Impedance is resistance, and bioimpedance is the resistance of living tissues. With this method, a small current of varying frequencies is passed through the body. Based on the measurement results, many conclusions can be drawn about the state of the body.
In particular, determine the percentage of fat, muscle and water in the body, and the daily calorie consumption at rest. Assess the risk of various diseases. Why is this analysis good for those starting their journey in fitness?
Yes, very simple. External changes occur rather slowly. 2-3 months is a very short time to notice a difference. This is where bioimpedance analysis comes in handy. It will show that you are on the right way or adjustments need to be made.
How is body composition analyzed?
We use the InBody 770 device in our gym.
This is a device with four electrodes. This allows you to accurately measure the composition of the limbs and torso. Simpler devices have only two electrodes and are apparently less accurate. Here you can more accurately determine the composition of the torso and limbs.
A special feature of the device is that it does not use empirical estimates. The bioimpedance of a specific person is measured. This makes measurements independent of a person's gender and age.
For analysis, you stand barefoot on the platform and take the electrodes in your hands. You spread your arms to the side and wait 30-40 seconds. A minute later, two sheets of paper with a detailed analysis of body composition are in hand.
It is better to take measurements in the morning. On an empty stomach. I did not notice any unpleasant sensations from the passage of impulses.
The doctor told me in detail about the results. All indicators are within normal limits.
This made me happy. At least some independent confirmation from my lifestyle. After all, all you hear is that vegetarian food is not complete.
That's what the doctor told me when I left.
As you ate meat, eat it. Your protein levels are normal.
-Yes, I haven’t eaten meat for three years.
-Well, nothing in plant foods also has enough protein.
He was not at a loss. This was the first moment that made me happy.
At home I looked carefully at the printout of the body composition analysis.
They calculated my ideal weight to be 64.5 kg. Apparently it should work out if you remove excess fat.
My body mass index is normal. 22.8 when the norm is 18.5-25.00. The concept of norm is quite vague. Either this should be the case for health reasons, or this is an indicator of the majority of the population.
This indicator must be used carefully. An athlete and just a fat person can have the same BMI, but completely different body shapes and fat percentages. BMI can be determined without any analysis. Here is a simple calculator.
Determine your BMI.
According to Joe Warner, editor of Men's Fitness, four hours of training per week is enough to achieve the results shown in the photo below.
Source: mensfitness.com
Warner on by example proved that you don’t need to spend hours in the gym to look physically strong and pumped up. He himself is an office worker, like many readers of the magazine, wiping his pants at his desk, with an eternal lack of free time. The main thing is to plan your classes, and then you will achieve tangible results.
Before starting training, Joe weighed 72.3 kilograms, there was almost no muscle mass on his chest, but he had a noticeable tummy (the proportion of fat tissue was 16.5%).
Source: mensfitness.com
Trainer Nick Mitchell of Ultimate Performance helped Warner develop a workout program for the busy man. It provides classes for an hour 4 times a week (in the middle of the day on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday), and for each of these hours you need to give 100%. Otherwise, says Warner, there will be no point. He also advises adding activities to your work organizer so that later there is no reason to skip them.
Source: mensfitness.com
As a result, in 12 weeks he lost 8 kg of fat (up to 5.5%), but at the same time he “gained weight” to 74.3 kg. Warner says that of the 10kg of muscle mass gained, most of it came from the chest and arms, which were the focus of the exercises. The shoulders have become visually wider.
In addition to physical activity, Joe followed a specific diet that included lean meat, lots of vegetables and foods rich in slow carbohydrates(for example, sweet potatoes - yams). Breakfast is purely English - bacon and scrambled eggs. Before lunch, he snacked on nuts, and for lunch he ate tuna salad with peppers and olives. Before dinner, he drank yogurt, and in the evening he ate steak and fried potatoes (not regular ones, but the aforementioned sweet potato). It is better to abstain from alcohol, but you can still have a glass of wine on the weekend.
