Hi loves! I wanted to talk to all of you beauties about something that is affecting you guys daily and that’s that some of you aren’t seeing progress in the gym. I’m not going to lie, you won’t see immediate changes overnight. I mean, it even took me a while before I started to see real results and that’s because it’s only natural – our bodies aren’t machines, after all.
But there could also be other things stopping you from making the progress that you’re working so hard for. I get a lot of you telling me that you’re doing the same workouts I am (which is AMAZING by the way!!!) and many of you have even participated in my challenge (again, GO YOU!!!) but you’re not seeing much of a difference :(
So, I’ve put together this little list of reasons why you might not be getting the results that you not only work your butt off for, but you deserve.
Not Enough Rest
Being enthusiastic about working out and wanting to do it every single day is an amazing attitude to have and it’s even the attitude I want all of you to have. The problem with being overly enthusiastic is that you may be working too hard and not allowing your body the proper time to rest and recover.
In order for your muscles to grow and take shape they need time to recover. Every time you work out, you’re making little tears in your muscle fibers – which is amazing because that’s what creates more muscle. But if you don’t take time off, those tears don’t have time to heal and you’re just re-tearing them the next time you work out, which actually hurts your progress.
You should have at least 2 full days of recovery for your muscles a week. You can still be active during those two days, but no lifting! Give your muscles time to repair!
Poor Nutrition
No matter how many times you’re going to the gym, it doesn’t mean a thing if you’re filling your body with junk right after. Eating fried, greasy, fatty, and sugary foods all the time will hold you back from making any real progress.
Your muscles need protein in order to grow and if you’re not giving it that, you won’t see any results. You should be eating roughly one gram of protein per pound of body weight. So if you’re 125 pounds, you need 125 grams of protein a day.
Keeping your body filled with REAL foods will help keep you full, give you all the nutrients you need to fuel your body, and you’ll simply feel way better all the time. Remember this: FUEL your body, don’t just FEED it. www.jenselter.diet
Not Working Out Regularly
I totally get that you might feel more motivated some days to hop out of bed super early and rush into the gym, but if this only happens once a week and you don’t go any other days, you won’t see any progress.
Believe me, I understand wanting to sleep in and skip the gym. We all have those days where we’re just not motivated to go – me included. But if you really want to see progress, you have to be consistent in the gym and fight through those days! Some motivation tips in my next blog to come :)
Being Unrealistic
I know that you want to see progress in your workouts and watch your body transform right before your eyes, but the thing you have to understand is that it just doesn’t happen that quickly. It takes time for your body to drop fat and put on muscle and it takes time for you to see those changes.
You may not be seeing progress in the gym because you’re not being realistic about the outcome. My body is years in the making! I repeat, it took me years to get this body. I felt the exact same way at first, but once I got realistic about what I could expect to see, I started to see those tiny changes that add up with each visit to the gym.
You Just Can’t See it!
How many times do you look in the mirror at your whole body, just waiting for those abs to peek out or your butt to suddenly burst into a bubble butt? When you look at yourself every single day, you just aren’t physically able to see the progress you’ve made! It’s like being able to see how much our hair has grown overnight, we just can’t.
I bet if you took one picture a week as a “before” and compared it to one the next week, there would be progress in those pictures that you aren’t able to see just in the mirror. Then compare that picture to one several weeks down the road and you’ll be floored by what you see! Maybe it’s not that you’re not making progress, but rather that you just can’t see the progress you’re making.
I know how discouraging it is not being able to see progress when you’re working so hard for it! This is completely normal and we all go through this struggle from time to time. Keep a look out for a new blog about breaking those bad habits that can also play a huge role in your inability to see progress in the gym.
Hopefully now you can see what you may be doing wrong and fix it so you do see the progress that you all DESERVE!