You have spent the last year focused and determined to lose weight and tone up. You stuck with your exercise program and did not miss a single session. Your nutrition was on track with an occasional slip. You wake up and walk to the scale, as if this were your daily morning regiment your entire life. You look down as your yawning and squint your eyes. You take a step off to get back on again. Wiping your eyes as a splurge of energy rushes through your body. It feels as if you just got done drinking a double espresso. Your eyes focus on the number on the scale. You jump off with your arms flapping in the air. You did it, after a year you hit your goal. You have accomplished your dreams. The past year felt like it would take forever to come. All of the sacrifice and hard work has paid off. The smile starts to slowly slip away as your thinking to yourself. You now need to know how to maintain after you hit your fitness goals.
The last thing that you want to happen is to become a statistic. You do not want to regain all of the weight you have lost. You are feeling better than ever. You never want to go back to the old you.
Set New Goals
Are you truly happy with where you are at? Yes, you might be happy with the accomplishments that you have made, and you should be. Always be proud of every accomplishment, big or small. Take a good look at yourself. Is there anything that you would like to improve on? Do you want to tighten up your abs a little more? Do you want more definition in your legs? Do you want to be stronger or have more energy? I believe that there is always more to achieve. The hard work is already done, now it is time for the fine tuning.
One way to maintain your success is to set a new goal. This will keep you driven to stay on track of your nutrition and exercise. For example if you are looking to gain more definition to your legs because summer is around the corner, you will then add extra exercises targeting the legs and reduce the other exercise in you routine. You want to make sure that you are getting a full body workout. So when you are reducing some of the other exercises make sure you do not eliminate a body part. You can simply reduce the amount of sets you are performing for the exercise.
A sample workout targeting the legs might look like this:
Squats 3 sets x 12 reps
Leg extensions 3 sets x 15 reps
Leg curls 3 sets x 15 reps
Wide grip lat pull downs 3 sets x 12 reps
Incline bench press 3 sets x 12 reps
Dumbbell shoulder press 3 sets x 12 reps
Dumbbell curls 2 sets x 15
Rope triceps push downs 2 sets x 15 reps
Standing calf raises 3 sets x 15 reps
Planks 3 sets x 30 seconds
This is just an example of how this could look. Notice there are three exercises targeting the legs. The rest of the body parts are at a minimum of one exercise with minimum sets.
Minimum Workout
After working as hard as you did you might want to take a break from the intensity of the workouts. In this case you can do one exercise per body part two times a week. You will also need to incorporate 90 minutes of cardio in the week as well. This will help in maintaining your progress. Be careful of your caloric intake. If you are not burning as many calories during the week you will need to adjust your nutrition program. I recommend to my clients to weigh in every week. This will give you the information you will need to decide if you have to increase, decrease or keep the same calories that you are consuming.
Now that you are at your goal and you want to maintain you might want to find a sporting event for your cardio. Find an activity that you enjoy that will keep you active. You will be able to enjoy it more now that you are more fit.
Recap
* Stay active
* watch your caloric intake and adjust according to your outcome
* use all of the tools that you have learned throughout your journey
* listen to your body
* share your knowledge with others
* enjoy the new you
* set new goals
Best of health and happiness,
Dave Nevue
