Well I wrote this last week when it was actually bonfire night… but due to a glitch in the system it never got sent (OK, I admit I forgot to press the send button, and we all make mistakes, so apologies), but with Diwali being yesterday, I might still get away with sending this now 🙂.
Thing is, I’ve never been too bothered by Bonfire Night, but if you’ve got children, you’ll know it’s rarely about what you want.
That said, oftentime the pure delight on their face is reward enough for doing stuff you don’t want to do.
Including standing out in the freezing cold on an Autumn’s night, trying to explain why it’s just not reasonable to spend £8 on a flashing wand that’ll end up in the bin within 24 hours.
Watching the huge fire crackling and sending hot ash flying high into the air got me thinking about how our bodies ‘burn’ fuel for energy.
(And the common misconceptions around the type of training you need to do to achieve different results.)
Because if you think you need to “train hard” to change your body composition, you need to see this.
You see, when we have a client come into the Sportstest Lab for a run test, one of the things we’re able to analyse is how their body uses fat and carbohydrate for fuel at different exercise intensities.
And while it’s not worth sharing the full analysis, if we were to really simplify things:
At very low exercise intensities, we’ll only use fat as an energy source
At low-medium exercise intensities, we’ll use a combination of fat and carbohydrate
At very high exercise intensities, we’ll use purely carbohydrate as an energy source
That’s arguably an oversimplification of a complex process, but you get the idea.
When my clients first come to see me, they’ll often say the same thing:
“I’m training LOADS but still struggling to slim down.”
They’re often imagining their body like that bonfire, with the flames climbing higher as they work harder, burning more energy.
And while there’s some truth to that, if reducing body fat is your target, just flogging yourself on the treadmill or the bike isn’t the solution.
Not only is it not the most effective way to burn fat, it’s going to increase your chance of overtraining, injury and illness.
That’s why we always take a bespoke approach to a client’s training.
Because doing so means you only have to do the training that will deliver optimal results.
And in our increasingly busy lives, that’s more important than ever.
To find out more about how our coaching and testing services work, simply hit reply, give us a call on 0333 900 3330 or send us a WhatsApp today.