Time is money. Time is valuable. And the way things are for the common person now-a-days, there really isn’t a lot of time to waste. What if you were working out around 3 days a week, 1.5 hours, that’s 4.5 hours a week, 18 hours a month, and 108 hours in only 6 months. What if all that time, was wasted? What if in all that time working out, you weren’t actually doing anything to get any results or progress? All that time wasted, and no physical changes. Wouldn’t you want to know BEFORE you waste all that time?

Well, there ARE, in fact, things that DO waste your time working-out. There are things that are COUNTER to your goals. There are things you do that make you take 2 steps back, when your workout only gets you 1 step forward. You don’t want to run out and spend hundreds of dollars on gym gear and clothing, only to stop using it a month or so later.

WORKING-OUT LESS THAN 3 DAYS A WEEK

This is one of the key reasons why people don’t see any physical changes or any strength progression. They don’t workout enough to trick their body into thinking they need more muscle, faster metabolization, and more body fat burning. Two days a week isn’t even that good, according to studies. So anything less than 3, there is a 95% chance, you were literally wasting your time in those few moments where you try to workout. So, instead of giving up like a coward, FIND A WAY to do AT LEAST 3 days a week. Undertraining renders no drastic athletic results.

Solution: Workout more than 2 days a week. Get a gym membership and use that financial obligation as a motivator to go to the gym since you are paying monthly for it anyway.

DIET DOES NOT MATCH FITNESS NEEDS/GOALS

You can go to the gym 4 or even 5 times a week, but if your diet doesn’t support your goals and bodily needs, than the gym is rendered useless with a useless diet. Your diet feeds your goals in a sense. If you want to burn body fat, your diet can support that along with the workouts. If you want to build muscle, you need a specific diet for that as well. If you just want to lose weight, the quantity and quality of food matters. If your diet does not compliment your workout routine and support your goals, you are wasting time and emotional energy on whatever diet you think you are trying to do. If someone asks you, ‘how big is your calorie deficit?’ and you don’t know, than you are probably wasting your time.

If your goal is to lose weight, just drop in total weight, than your diet does matter, a lot. You can lose all the weight you want without even going to the gym, just from your diet alone. But knowing HOW MUCH to eat and WHAT to eat matters. If you eat too much trash food, you won’t lose the weight you wanted to lose. If you don’t even know if you even have a calorie deficit, odds are you wont lose the weight you wanted to lose either. Thus, you are wasting your time and energy on an idea that won’t achieve any results. YOU can change that. So CHANGE IT before you waste time.

If your goal is to lean out and get cut and ripped, than your diet will have to be in tune to your bodies needs. But, without a high amount of protein, all your muscle gains will melt away with your fat. Losing muscle is counter productive. If you are not tracking your Macros, odds are you are wasting your time here too.

Solution: Track your diet and count your macros. Download “Carb Manager” or another calorie tracking phone app and start counting calories so you can KNOW if you need more or less.

EXERCISE DOES NOT MATCH FITNESS GOALS

If your goal is to just lose weight, power lifting may not be your go-to workout. If you want to gain massive amounts of muscle, doing body weight workouts or super high rep, low weight exercises won’t help you. The TYPE of exercise matters. It is very possible to do an exercise that has no benefit toward your specific goals, and thus, you’d be wasting your time at the gym. It might give you a short-term emotional and mental boost, but eventually you won’t see any changes physically and you’ll lose motivation anyway. So, before you just run into a gym and start doing all the machines, research WHAT KIND of machines to use. Make your first day at the gym a victory and success toward your goals and not just a ‘well, I hope this helps‘ workout. And, for godsakes, just ASK a fit guy at the gym for ideas.

Now that you asked the fit guy at the gym some workouts to do given your specific goals, you want to make sure you do them correctly as well.

Too light weight, super fast movements, and a ridiculous amount of reps may help specific athlete’s in some other sports, but for the average male trying to tone down, burn body fat, and look good in swim trucks, that sort of working out won’t help and you’d be wasting your time. Too many or too little reps, too little or too heavy weight, incorrect form, incomplete movement range, these are all factors that impact how beneficial that exercise will be. And, again, if you are not sure, ASK THE FIT GUY WHO CLEARLY KNOWS WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT. This leads us into the next and last issue that leads to most people just wasting their time.

Solution: Research what TYPE of workout BEST fits your goals and research HOW to do those types of workouts correctly and most beneficially.

TOO INTIMIDATED TO ASK FOR TIPS AND HELP

The gym, full of gym sharks and gym bullies, is an intimidating place for people that don’t or have never worked out or have been part of any athletic program. To make themselves feel better, they lie to themselves about how much they really know and what they think will or will not work. They use the reasoning, ‘I heard somewhere that…‘ and then they hold to that idea because it makes them feel comfortable and justifies their own efforts. All to avoid talking to people, admitting they have no idea what they are doing, and to avoid feeling vulnerable; they’d rather waste their time and just claim ‘they tried‘.

You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars a month on a personal trainer. Just go to your local gym and say Hi to the fit person that you’d like to achieve similar goals. Clearly, because they have achieved being fit, they might know something you don’t and they might be willing to give some pointers and answer questions.

Stop judging fit people! Stop body shaming lean men and women! Some of them, a lot of them, didn’t look the way they did the year before. They had to bust their ass at the gym to achieve those results. The difference is, they weren’t wasting their time with their diet and workouts; and you don’t have to either.

Solution: Identify someone (a real, normal, person at your gym and not some moron celebrity on TV) with the physique you would like to achieve and walk up to them and ask a question before, after, or between sets. You’ll find out real quick that gym culture is extremely open and inviting; they just love to get fit and be healthy without wasting time.

THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF WASTING TIME TRYING TO GET IN SHAPE:

1. WORKING-OUT LESS THAN 3 DAYS A WEEK
2. DIET DOES NOT MATCH FITNESS NEEDS/GOALS
3. EXERCISE DOES NOT MATCH FITNESS GOALS
4. TOO INTIMIDATED TO ASK FOR TIPS AND HELP

If any of those 4 elements are in your health and fitness life, I am sad to tell you, you are wasting your time. Good news, there is a solution for each one of those time wasters. But the change and implementation of any solution is completely and soley on you. Everyone has drama in their lives, everyone has a busy life, everyone has all the same possible excuses, but only the people who aren’t wasting time are those who don’t have time for excuses.