Highs and lows in fitness training

[Lark]

I've been training for a couple of weeks now, I lost half a stone in the first three weeks but now my weight loss has slowed and I'm also thinking that I cant do as much as I was doing previously in terms of cardio (although I can lift a little more, still cant lift a lot). I'm starting to properly divide and adhere to differences in terms of cardio days and cardio and weights days to let my muscles recover better.

I train almost everyday, I think I've missed about three days so far, I just figure that I can make time for twenty or thirty minutes a day at the moment.

Has anyone else experienced something like this in their training? When do you know you're on a training plateau and is it a matter of motivation or technique to try and break out of it?

 

[Stanton Moore]

Try this:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/how-1-minute-intervals-can-improve-our-health/

It's not easy, but it will shed fat and get you fit.

 

[LucidLegend1984]

You gotta eat low carbs for a few days, like 3 or 4 days then on the 4th or 5th day eat high amount of carbs.

Also,

Try different types of exersices and what is called supersets. Supersets are two or more exercises completed with little (15 - 45 secs) rest inbetween the two. Check out bodybuilding.com Beest website on Nutrition and exercises.

 

[wolfy]

You haven't been training long enough to hit a real plateau. Keep doing whatever you're doing. And in answer to your question on technique or motivation, I think it is technique and tactics and then your motivation and drive to actually do it.

 

[Metamorphosis]

Like wolfy said, you haven't been at it long enough to hit a plateau. When it comes to cardio, especially, I would chalk up a plateau or decline over that period as just a bad day/days. Nutrition, hydration, motivation, etc. could all play a role. It can take awhile to improve.

 

[Lark]

Something I've been amazed at is how much satisfaction the inital weight loss merited, I was and am still overweight but the weight I'm struggling to shed now doesnt trouble me as much as the weight I've lost already, if that makes sense. Although I would add that I'm aware now of just how much more weight I've got to lose and that its deposited all over my body. I really had no idea.

I also think that a lot of the fat I've burned off or replaced with muscle has got to be in odd parts of my body, my shoes were more lose the first big reduction, then my shoulders when measured were not as big as they had been previoulsy, how mad is that? I also think I noticed weight loss from my back, from you're back?! Can you believe that fat sneaks around there and deposits itself?

Madness. If they'd had gym trips or equipment at school I'd have benefited a lot more from PE than I did, stupid picking for stupid games of football stupidity. Put me right of sport for far too long.

 

[EvidenceOfRedemption]

Motivating yourself to maintain a modicum of fitness is no place for cost-benefit analysis. Let your body enjoy the exercise and don't bother thinking you can analyze it.

If you must think about it, consider that we have taken something as necessary as daily exercise and removed it from our sub-conscious daily habits. We don't antagonize over filling our gas tank or taking out the trash because we're not weighing out the cost-benefit of doing or not doing these type of things. Exercise belongs amongst the top of things we ought to believe we need to do every day without thinking about it and if you must think about it, focus on putting it back where it belongs amongst the other things you do not even consider optional.