There is some confusion in fitness these days with respect to the importance of workout consistency and how it should be applied. Some trainers are promoting a “change your workout every time you come in the gym” mentality which creates an unacceptable vulnerability for risk of injury to the client. This is an undisciplined, even sloppy, approach to exercise sequencing. When there is no systematic workout plan, then you can expect a much lower quality of results. It should always be about the RESULTS of a program and this is the reason why many yoga styles such as Ashtanga and the original hot yoga routines base their programs on a set posture sequence.
Results driven fitness programs require consistency.
This is not to say that a fitness method never changes, it does and it should. But change should be a slow, sensible and methodic evolution of improvement for a workout method. This is the ONLY logical way for a fitness system to progress. The person practicing a fitness method should evolve and progress with their personal regime in this same way too. One master Ashtanga instructor puts it like this, “It is all about what is appropriate and practical, rather than blind faith, dogma, or just doing random stuff because I feel like it”.1
The HOTWORX 3D Training Method leans heavily toward the Ashtanga and the original hot yoga philosophy for consistency, and was developed out of yoga as a fusion with isometric exercises inspired from years of athletic training and other fitness practices. Therefore, HOTWORX isometric workouts can be described as a blend of strict yoga posture sequencing and athletic discipline.
HOTWORX, like Ashtanga, has a more athletic style and places a major emphasis on development of flexibility and strength through consistent isometric posture sequences. This is important because clients need to balance one with the other for flexibility with strength, as well as finding balance with exercise for the upper body/lower body, left side/right side, mind/body and so forth.
Like HOTWORX, Ashtanga appears to be a fusion style as well. It is believed to have evolved into a set practice based on influence outside of yoga. According to yogatemple.com, Ashtanga posture sequences were developed using a fusion of yoga and movement practices taken from gymnastics. “Based on no evidence to the contrary, it seems obvious to me that Prof. T. Krishnamacharya invented the Ashtanga sequences, borrowing many of his ideas from Western gymnastic training. I think that is a great thing that he borrowed from other systems and invented something very valuable, while still adhering to the traditional foundation of Yoga. It is Yoga for the modern woman and man.”2
Back to consistency now. Consistency is crucial to your workout results. This is why the HOTWORX 3D training method promotes REGULARITY of exercise flow and sequencing for a solid training method and not the latest whim. Know that above all else you should remain consistent with your workouts!!! Seek programs that value consistency.
Workout consistency is everything! Take yoga again, for example. The original style of hot yoga grew to incredible heights using the same exact posture sequence for every workout...but why!!? Results for the customer!!! That’s why. It’s all about results and workout consistency is the key to spectacular results!!!
Change is inevitable in everything we do, but it is how we create it and how we plan for it that makes the difference!
There are a thousand different ways to progress with the exact same exercise! For a workout type like yoga or Pilates, sameness equals “saneness”. Have you perfected your eagle pose!? Consistency is the key to fitness results my friends!!!
I am amused by people who pine for different exercises with the same workout type in every training session. It reminds me of a serial entrepreneur who can never find the right business to stick with, or a child that just can’t remain focused on one new toy for more than five minutes. Sticking to a solid fitness routine is imperative for high level results. Don’t quit. See it all the way through.
Some people, for whatever reason, have no discipline to a logical sequence and have no patience to allow for methodic evolution. They opt, rather, for an out of focus, schizophrenic approach to fitness in the name of “I’m bored”. “I’m bored” never accomplished anything! Those who are stuck in that mindset allow themselves to get bored because they have not yet graduated their fitness mentality. They can change, though, and when they do finally begin to understand how to “get their mind right” they will never get bored again, even with the most fundamental of postures such as the plank, for example.
The boredom excuse is a cop out.
I consider each exercise a challenge to make it my most successful set yet. How many of us can truly say that, “I have now perfected my Eagle pose to the point where I should leave it behind for something different?” Or, how many of us can say, “I have now done the most number of push ups that I will ever be able to do with the most perfect of form?” Now we should stop doing those two fundamental exercises, right? Absurd!
Graduate yourself!
If you find a level of focus and bring your mind into the game, you will then strive for progress in every exercise you do. From that point you will never have another “boring” set no matter how many times you do it! Accept that fitness takes discipline. Get your mind into it and make it fun through a constant competition with yourself. No more excuses, just results for your body and mind. Own it!
HOTWORX 3D Training with heat, infrared energy, and exercise promotes workout integrity through consistency with all of its workout types. I challenge you to perfect your form and intensity through each and every workout posture before you even think of moving on from it!!! Remain consistent!!! Don’t stop doing something because you don’t like it. When you master it, I guarantee you will like it. On the flip side, when you try to do everything, you will become the master of nothing, and there is your recipe for failure and lack of results.
In an article published by Australian Women’s Health in December 2019, it is argued that workout consistency is the most important factor in muscle development. The article by Lauren Williamson points to new research proving that it trumps variety of exercises and heaviness of weights. Most professional trainers, however, should already know the importance of exercise flow and regime consistency for measurability and results progression.
Consider this. “If your gym goal is muscle gains then consistency is more important than creativity, a new study has found.”3 Consistent exercise protocol performed over and over again is also what helps you to connect the mind to the body.
Trainers can’t help it sometimes, though. They have to show their creativity, but the fundamentals of exercise progression should never be compromised in the process. This is why consistency must remain the glue, or the integrity that holds an entire workout method together and ultimately yields awesome results for clients.
“Practicing each pose in the precise sequence, and receiving personal attention from the teacher, provides an organized learning method that is safe and steadfast.”4 For HOTWORX the personal attention and sequence precision is provided by means of private small group virtual training inside of a patented infrared workout sauna.
There can be no compromise when it comes to workout method integrity!
Do the right thing for your fitness. Commit to consistency. This requires training discipline. It is not easy, but as the old saying goes, nothing good in life comes easy.
