Training for a purpose

Photography by Nelson Azevedo

Hello! It's been a while, I apologise.

It's been a whirlwind of a month but I'm back in action. Between spending a week out at sea and frequent trips to Brisbane, I lost my routine for a moment.

A quick update on my end, I'm 3 weeks into comp prep and have a fractured ankle. Not ideal, but I'll work around it. I've had lots of people sending their love which I'm very grateful for! But believe me, I am very okay! There's absolutely no point in regret or sadness because that would not achieve anything. The story behind my injury is not very exciting... I tripped in heals and acquired an avulsion fracture; a common injury sustained by the inward rolling of the ankle in heals. The prognosis? 6 weeks in a supportive brace with limited mobility. The plan? Ruling out exercises which create strain on the ankle, such as deadlifts and squats, and focussing more on isolation work. My goal of competing in the IFBB still remains intact.

Enough about me, I want to speak about "training for a purpose". I am continuously baffled as to how many people have no f*cking clue what they're doing or why they're doing it! And better yet, I'm shocked at how many wannabe PT's are handing out dodgy advice! I see people doing sets of 10 or 20 in an exercise, why?? They don't know. They do it because their PT wrote them a program to wear them out and make them feel "tired", giving them the illusion of "well it made me feel tired so it must be working". Or "it made me sore so it must be working." I'm sorry but that's absolute horse crap. You do NOT need to spend 3 hours in the gym doing 100 sets of weights followed by mind numbing cardio to achieve results.

The peak week of ICN Italy Universe, where I became Miss Fitness Universe

I'll let you in on a secret. On a good day, I'll get through my workout in 45 minutes and I do absolutely, positively, NO CARDIO. EVER. I told this to someone the other day, they exclaimed that this isn't enough and they wouldn't feel tired enough after 45 minutes. My response? It's about quality, not quantity. Choosing exercises that best match your goals and executing them with a focus on progressive overload and good form is the key to building muscle. Not some whacky 100 set, jump around, flop around garbage.

I was also told the other day about a routine that involved doing 100 sets of squats. I asked why?? This person told me, "because it makes you tired so it must be good for your muscles". This couldn't be further from the truth! If you want to build muscle, you absolutely must achieve progressive overload.

Progressive overload is the process of gradually increasing weight, and increasing strength, thereby increasing muscle mass. You are telling the muscle to grow by providing a stimulus; the weight. By lifting the weight, you are telling the muscle "I need you to lift this heavy thing". Over time, the muscle adapts and responds by growing. It's no use lifting the same amount of weight every time you train, because by doing the same thing every day, there is no need for adaptation and the muscle stays the same. Moreover, if you are wasting time and energy on doing dozens of sets plus cardio, you won't have the energy to lift heavy!

Training in Italy

Now I'm not saying you need to "change it up". In fact that is the complete opposite of what I'm saying. The trick is to find the appropriate program and do that same program consistently for at least a few months, building strength over time. If it isn't working, the program isn't at fault, you are. You probably aren't challenging yourself to achieve progressive overload, or your diet is probably trash.

It's all honestly very simple, but the fitness industry has complicated things. I'll be making more posts about training in the coming weeks. I hope that you learnt something today, feel free to contact me if you wish to pick my brain further!

The Fit Nurse x