One of the biggest pitfalls that many of us almost inevitably fall into soon after we begin an exercise routine is that we often develop a seemingly insatiable compulsion to invest excessive time and effort towards building a healthier body. On the surface you might rationalize that this is a healthy compulsion since you are doing it to facilitate further self development. However, when you start looking at it from a bird's eye view; you will find that your the compulsion to invest excessively more time and resources towards improving your physical appearance and overall health could actually become a factor that detracts significantly from other essential life factors. When you find yourself investing upwards of 2-3 hours a day towards exercise while allowing yourself to adhere to an extremely controlled and restricted diet; you will soon realize that your personal relationships, career and overall quality of life will subsequently diminish. When you find that you are less involved with your career goals in favor of extended workout sessions; or more likely to opt out of a social outing because eating out does not chime in with a limited diet then you know that you have developed an addictive attitude towards your fitness goals. You may very well develop an eating disorder; and further the risk of injury and adrenal fatigue in the process. At this stage you have crossed the point of utilizing fitness as a means of adding value to your quality of life; it has now become a detriment or even a liability. At this point, you have developed an obsessive attitude towards body image and if you fail to achieve your goals; you might just fall into phases of depression and turmoil which of course will affect all other life factors.
So you might be asking the question 'How much is too much?", this is important because it is still within your best interest to invest sufficient time, energy and resources to elicit dramatic, lasting physical change. Effort is still one of the most important factors that affect physical transformation and change. The amount of time that you dedicate towards your workouts each day does not determine the effort or intensity produced in each session. In fact there is most likely a strong positive correlation between excessively long workout sessions and decreased effort and intensity which would diminish any benefit of attempting lengthy sessions in the first place. It is much more realistic and likely that you would spend up to an hour to ninety minutes walking, cycling or light jogging as opposed to the same length of time tailored towards of short sprints, plyometrics, near maximal or even sub maximal resistance training. When you factor in that adding a progressive component towards resistance training, or short explosive movements that require high energy output will likely become unsustainable for longer, drawn out sessions. As you find that your body adapts to the demand by growing stronger; you will also find that total workout time will lessen particularly when performing exercises and movements at increasingly higher intensity than you previously did. Using this knowledge, we can agree that spending more time in the gym is indeed unfavorable and although shorter sessions may seem counter-intuitive at first; you are much more likely to yield greater returns for your investment by performing them.
While one of the biggest misconceptions to permeate the fitness industry is that you need to perform ridiculously long workout sessions; another big one is the belief that one should always eat 5 meals a day; every 2-3 hours in order to avoid muscle wasting and to maintain steady blood glucose levels. This myth originated from the 1970s-1980s when supplement companies sought to market their products to capitalize on the growing fitness craze. Ironically this myth eventually made it into nutrition textbooks and became common knowledge. While the research have shown that intermittent fasting; which is to eat all your meals in a specified window of time ranging from anywhere to 6-12 hours yield relatively little benefit; it helped to demystify the notion that you need to eat frequent small meals in order to facilitate your body composition and fitness goals. Meeting your nutritional needs is of far greater relevance than the timing by which each meal is eaten. This creates tremendous flexibility in how you can go about planning your meals. This means that you don't necessarily have to focus much on how you go about preparing your meals or timing them for that matter; you are essentially able to eat whenever it is convenient for you. Although eating whole organic foods should also be the basis of your nutrition when it comes to optimizing health and longevity; you should also understand that you don't need to omit any particular food type as long as you meet your nutritional requirements in order to facilitate a body composition goal. This means that occasional 'junk food' can be acceptable depending on how you go about allocating your total daily calories.
Now that we have a better general understanding of how this information can be utilized to optimize progress made in the gym; it is important that you re-frame your attitude towards fitness. Being able to consistently make measurable progress by exerting high effort and relative discipline overtime will eventually enhance your mental capabilities which will also improve other areas of your life. Being able to effectively manage your time and resources takes discipline in and of itself. Working out 7 days a week for multiple hours on end does not take as much control and discipline as using a moderate approach. This is because a moderate approach; which allows you to exert high effort and make measurable progress does not negatively impact you on a deep psychological level. You do not develop an unhealthy attitude towards your studies, career, relationships and of course eventually exercise and food. Rather; by somewhat limiting your time and resources in favor of effort will result in increased long term motivation and discipline. You will eventually learn to understand what it means to dedicating an hour a day; 3-4 days a week for the rest of your life to maintaining a good physical condition. You will also understand the discipline it takes to maintain a healthy control over your meal portions, without omitting any particular food type for as long as you like. When you develop an addictive compulsion towards fitness and begin to take things to seriously is the point where you lose discipline and self restraint; and it will inevitably affect your life in a deeply negative way. Instead I urge you to do the opposite. Prioritize everything above a fitness regimen. Focus on your studies, career path; romantic relationships, family and friends. Challenge yourself to try something new, possibly learn a new language or adopt a new hobby. However; do so under the pretense that you can also dedicate a few hours a week to a fitness regimen; and when you do, only focus on becoming better than you were the day before.
Tips:
-Always prioritize the most important things in your life first. Never sacrifice your career goals to get in shape for the summer.
-Engage in various new hobbies and activities.
-Develop new skills and abilities. Building a healthier body is just one aspect of total self development.
-For sustenance and consistent progress in the gym, limit your workouts to a moderate length of 60-75 minutes 3 times a week or shorter, brief 30-45 minute sessions 4-5 days a week.
-Don't become obsessive over food choices; exert some degree of flexibility and control.
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