It’s certainly easy to displace blame and veil the reality of your struggles with the classic “the program doesn’t work” excuse, but if you’re not honest with yourself, you’ll more than likely continue to spin your wheels in pursuit of effortless results.
Here’s the thing: results aren’t effortless. They quite literally demand your effort and commitment.
It’s worth stipulating that we promise results when you consistently adhere to our guidance. So if you find yourself in a frustrating slump with respect to body composition or performance goals, we urge you to carefully consider our top five potential reasons you’re not seeing results:
1. Your training schedule is inconsistent.
If you’re not following our recommended 4x/week training protocol, the conversation can probably end here. For optimal results, we always recommend a 4x/week MAD schedule. Our purposeful programming is structured to create the perfect weekly training balance, which lends to insanely effective and indisputable results over time. While you can always anticipate a great workout when you sporadically pop in, you’ll leave those guaranteed results on the table with an inconsistent training record.
The exception here is for those of you who may be leveraging MADabolic as a cross-training modality to your primary sport or athletic discipline (runners, cyclists, power yogis, etc.). In this case, you’ll benefit from at least 2x/week in tandem with your primary training.
For those 1x/weekers out there…this may be a tough pill to swallow…but this training frequency is more or less useless. Training with us 1x/week will just leave you chronically sore and without the consistent exposure you need to build meaningful strength!
Need help creating the perfect week of training? Check out this post, or hit up your local trainers – they’ll always help guide you in the right direction.
2. You’re overtraining.
If you’re overtraining – either by implementing two a days (ex: MADabolic in the morning + heated vinyasa/cycling/running in the evening) or training 6-7 days in a row with us, you’re inflicting more damage than you likely realize.
We cover the nitty gritty about why recovery is so important in this post, but bottom line: overtraining is a recipe for injury, chronic inflammation, burnout, and serious plateaus in progress. Did you know that your body undergoes training-related and aesthetic changes when you’re RESTING? If you never give your body a chance to recover, then you’ll be hard pressed to reap the rewards of all the hard work you put in on the floor.
3. You’re not challenging yourself in weight selection or pace.
Wait…didn’t we just tell you to scale back in weight and pace? Well, yes…but this area applies to a different crowd.
Getting complacent in your output is another potential pitfall in the grand scheme of your results. Once you’re moving efficiently with the same weight throughout specific movement patterns, consider that your cue to try picking up something heavier!
Regardless of your primary goal being aesthetically or athletically-driven, scaling up (safely) in weight selection kills two birds with one stone. While the performance benefits are hopefully evident here, the aesthetic benefits may be less obvious. Know this: the ability to move more weight stems from gains in muscle tissue. And the more muscle tissue we carry, the more efficient we become at burning fat and supporting a lean, athletic body composition. If you’ve yet to read up on why MADabolic is in no way designed to make you bulky, educate yourself here.
4. You’re not moving enough outside the gym.
The hour you spend working out certainly matters…but so do the other 23 hours of your day. If you find yourself relying on your MAD class as your form of daily movement, it’s likely that you may be too sedentary when you’re not in the gym. Simply walking more and increasing your NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) can make a big dent towards your progress. Consider introducing regular 5 minute strolls throughout your day. Parking further away. Taking the stairs when possible. Opting for a standing desk if you spend much of your day behind a computer. There are plenty of creative ways to conveniently move your body in low impact ways…it usually just requires a touch of mindfulness.
5. You’re not being realistic with your nutrition.
“You can’t out-train a shitty diet.” It’s cliche, but couldn’t be more representative of the truth.
If you’re convinced your nutrition is on point (AND you’re training with us 4x/week), we invite you to take the time to very honestly evaluate your habits.
Are you eating mostly high quality, nutrient-dense foods? Have you been chronically under-eating in line with your activity level? Are you adequately hydrating? Do your weekends look starkly different than your week days? Have you tried our nutrition app, powered by Macrostax, on for size?
Answering that weekend question alone can be a real eye-opener. While “it’s just two days” (sometimes three), if your weekends are consistently packed with booze, eating out, more booze, late night pizza runs, and the like…you’re taking in way more than you realize. And we’ll remind you that body composition is completely driven by energy balance (calories in/calories out). The weekend still accounts 30-40% of your week (depending on how long your weekend is), which can very quickly add up and hold you back from reaching the results you’re expecting.
Next time you engage in one of your “standard” weekends, track your intake (if you haven’t already). It might trigger the light bulb you need to quantify why you’re feeling stunted in your progress. Don’t get us wrong…we’re not trying to sponge up your fun. The #MADlifestyle is definitely a social one, and there is absolutely room for reasonable admissions of pizza, wine, and cookies within the scope of your healthy diet. However, if a regular blow out weekend is something you’re not willing to let go off, you just need to be aware of the sacrifices.
Consistency swings in both directions.
We’re big proponents of consistency and how it impacts progress. But it swings in both directions. While consistency in a solid training and nutrition routine is where you’ll yield results, consistency in a sub-par training and nutrition habits is where you’ll likely encounter road blocks.
