[ Editor’s Note: Fitness author Jon Benson shared this letter with me and gave me permission to share it with you. ]
If I had to pick out the number one reason most people fail to achieve good results in the gym, guess what it would be?
Over-training. Exercising too much.
Sounds counter-intuitive, but trust me: It’s quite real.
Folks write to me all the time and say…
“Jon, I don’t get it. I cannot lose bodyfat and I’m running six days a week for an hour and training in the gym five days a week for 45 minutes!”
My answer back is usually:
“You are training 4x more than me, and I’m a fitness pro!”
Look, do you take 21 aspirin for a headache, thinking the more you take the faster your pain will go away?
No?
So why apply the same logic to fitness? Only a certain amount is required. Beyond that, you are spinning your wheels.
One more thing: 75% of your progress will come in the kitchen, not in the gym or on the treadmill.
As for me, I would much rather eat smart and train less than train all the time and be forced to eat 6-8 times a day just to recover from it all.
That makes no sense to me at all.
You?
