From the Benches – “Stepping ahead at a time when we are asked to stay still”

Committing to regular exercise is important to building and maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle. However, regularity alone affords no guarantee that your body and mind will fully benefit from such exercise, unless your training program progressively challenges your body.

This is due to the body’s innate need for its boundaries to be continually challenged to absorb and grow, and as such, it is why the best training regimes always seek to push your boundaries in new ways, each and every session you do.

In contrast, a regular training regime that is comfortable and stable will leave your body and mind unchallenged, and to solidify to this level of normality it is subject to within its current routine.

The following example affirms this point –

• Assume you live at a house approximately 1km from the bus stop that you take to work every morning.
• You then elect to use this distance as an opportunity to build in some cardio into your daily regime by sprinting to and from the bus stop each day.

At the beginning, your body is challenged by the two 1km sprints each day. It gains significant benefit from the challenge of this high intensity regime, and in response, your muscles and cardiorespiratory capacity improve and grow to meet the demands of your new routine. However, in time, the benefit of this new regime regresses as your body becomes accustomed to the intensity of the workout and will eventually reach a point where there is no improvement gained.

At this point your routine is at a crucial juncture, where you can either improve the distance (e.g. sprint further to the next bus stop) or accept this as your routine. If you choose the latter, you cannot expect to see future benefits to arises, however, if you choose the first option, you will be pushing your body again and you will see the growth of the body in response to the next challenge.

Therefore, it is important for us as individuals to continually push and challenge our bodies within our exercise regimes, to progressively improve and break down new barriers that we set ourselves. How do we do this? Well, we must –

• Continue to increase the intensity and duration of our exercise regimes
• Track our performance to ensure we are meeting the required workout
• Build in those goals that drive our improved performance

Together, these three components shall ensure we all continue our physical and mental growth through exercise as a function of our healthy lifestyle.

However, how is this measured and monitored at Peak Physic Studios? And crucially, who is accountable to your improvement and performance in the studio?

Firstly, I highly doubt that there is any secret to the technology our studio has adopted to measure our individual performance, as we all wear our MyZone monitors each day we set foot into the studio. This is the crucial element to our ability to measure your performance and monitor the intensity of your workout during your sessions. The MyZone monitors are our tool to read your body as it performs, and our ability to do so manifests itself in the colourful collage on the two giant screens on the wall with yours, and many others, names on it each session, and at the moment while we train at home, upon our own screens. Additionally, the MyZone also measures ‘effort points’ which allow us to remain motivated while are at home, and ensure we push ourselves to meet the targets we set ourselves.

Secondly, it is a joint effort of accountability between our excellent trainers and yourself when you are working out on the studio. You must be upfront and honest with the trainers to your goals and targets, and from there they are more than willing to set you a program with the required intensity and push to ensure you meet it. It is through honesty, and a commitment to the struggle, that the MyZone monitors will accurately relay your performance, in real time, to the trainers, who can then do their job in making sure you push when you need to be pushed, and to keep the intensity throughout the whole session to ensure you maximise the utility of it to your body. Because, as we all know, when you and the trainers work productively in unison – it all just clicks together and you get that really good feeling inside that you know you are on the right track to improving yourself.

Thirdly and finally, just keep setting new goals and pushing the boundaries of your own body when you hit the studio, and embrace the challenge, and together with our excellent trainers, you will continue to see and feel those benefits come through your body and mind. I acknowledge the challenges we currently face during the national lock-down imposed in response to COVID-19, however, the limitations we face at home can be overcome by the on-going commitment to abide by our routines and continue to dial-into the twice daily sessions offered by Miguel and his team.

Together, these three key ingredients will ensure you are able to maximise the physical and mental gains of regular exercise.

From everyone here at Peak Physique Studies, we hope everyone is doing well during this challenging period. We are here to support each other, and ensure that as a community, we get through this period, both physically and mentally, strong.

                                                                                                Thank-you,

Miguel & The Team, 

Peak Physique Studios