How Long Before I Start Seeing Results?
Without a doubt this is the most often asked
question of everybody who is relatively new to weight lifting and
fitness. If only the asker new what a complex can of worms they had
opened by asking. Before I even attempt to answer, let’s look a little
deeper at the QUESTION itself.
Imagine for a moment that you have made the wise and informed decision
to start planning for your retirement. After a little research you
decide on a particular investment vehicle, contact a seller of such and
make an appointment to see them. Clearly the broker knows you have an
interest in doing the right things concerning investing or you wouldn’t
have made contact in the first place. So you go in and tell the broker
what your goals are and had them a check for whatever investment it is
and walk out. The next day, immediately after getting up you pick up
your phone and call your broker and ask “How are we doing? Do I have
enough to retire yet?â€
Their response would be to begin an explanation of how investments
work, compound interest and that if this was your understanding of how
it worked you chose the wrong investment vehicle, and that lottery
tickets are more your style. Or maybe they sold you on lottery tickets
after you arrived, which means your question is valid. And you are now
broke.
The very nature of the question, and the fact that it is asked means
that the concept of “weight lifting, weight loss and fitness†escapes
you. It also means that you are susceptible to the “Transform your body in 8 weeks†sales pitch
that so many peddle on the web. By the way, you are aware that THEY
KNOW this and that is WHY they use that line of advertising! You should also know that this kind of approach doesn’t work. At all. Ever. Well, okay, it works as often as someone hits the lottery, which is about one out of every gazillion people.
If “seeing results†fast was possible wouldn’t everybody do it? If you
could change your spending habits and save money for 2 months and then
be rich forever, wouldn’t everybody find a way to do that? Of course
they would. Same with muscle building. Or weight loss.
You don’t transform your body in 60 days and then game over. You
can make large differences in your body in as little as 30 days,
depending on what you are starting with, and then what? Stop? Why
start? If something is in rough shape, throw a coat of paint on it, and
it immediately looks better. Still in rough shape though. And the paint
will fade and wear off. Fast. Wouldn’t the approach of slowly fixing
what’s rough actually make more sense?
The point is if “seeing†results is important, you are missing
the forest for the trees. Your focus should be on learning how to build
muscle, lose weight and get fit, implement these methods on a
consistent basis and forget it. Results will come. And you will be able
to see them in your weight lifting log immediately and in the mirror
eventually.
It’s not a sprint, but a marathon.
