Training/exercise is a stress you put on your body.  When you recover from that stress, your body adapts or increases fitness. Remember that without recovery, your body is put under constant stress, to which it cannot adapt. 

Think of your fitness goal as a finished house.  You can’t snap your fingers and have a home.  You must build it brick by brick, and day by day.  Each time you stress your body and recover, you’ve added a brick.  Keep in mind that just as training occurs brick by brick, so does detraining.  When you remove the stress (training/exercise) from your body, you lose the adaptations (fitness) that came along with that stress.  In other words, starting and stopping training programs is the same as building and tearing down the same room over and over.  You’ll never finish your home.

Similarly, building too fast can cause problems as well.  You wouldn’t frame a house until the foundation was set.  In other words, be patient, recover and build at a sustainable pace.

Once your house is built maintenance must be performed regularly if it is to remain beautiful or even livable.  The same is true for your body, if you want to keep it beautiful or even livable.

When you allow excuses to get in the way of your goals, your house will suffer and deteriorate.

Train consistently and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the progress you make.  Would you rather live in a house built with care day by day, or one hastily thrown up quickly, left sitting to crumble and then rebuilt time and time again?

Jamie Ness has been personal trainer since 2013, and currently provides services at the College Park gym in Winchester. He has nine years of track and field/cross country coaching experience ranging from middle school to NCAA Division I. He is an NSCA certified strength and conditioning specialist and received his master’s degree in kinesiology and health promotion from the University of Kentucky in 2012.  For more information, visit http://nessxv.wixsite.com/jamie-ness-training or email jamie.ness@uky.edu.