If you’re trying to lose weight, whether it be 5lbs or 50lbs, stepping on the scale regularly isn’t a bad idea. In fact, you should keep track of this # to see progress over time. However, if weight loss is the only # you’re looking at, it’s going to be a long and boring process. And if it’s boring, what are the chances you stick with it long enough to see the desired outcome? Unlikely.
Instead, at my gym Rampage, we focus on performance measurements. No, we’re not talking maximum performance that you’d be measuring at a high level sports institute for athletes trying to make it to the pro’s. We’re measuring every day physical abilities that adults posses and can improve upon.
Here are a few examples:
- How many push-ups can you do in 1 set without breaking?
- How fast can you run (or jog, or walk, or both) 1 mile?
- What is the most weight you can press overhead 3x with a barbell?
- How much weight can you deadlift (pick up off the ground) 5x in a row?
- How hard can you pull the handle on a rowing machine in 7 pulls?
These are just 5 of 24 “Benchmarks” that we test at Rampage. Every one of them is scalable for every fitness level. We spread these 24 benchmarks out across a 6 month window, so that in a full year you will repeat each of them twice.
For our members, we also meet with them individually every 4 months to discuss their current goals, progress and any roadblocks they may have encountered. During these meetings if they can say that they’ve been improving on some of their benchmark tests, we know that their fitness is moving in the right direction.
Ok, so why not track weight loss?
Because it’s not fun. And, if you’re improving in multiple areas of fitness across the board, chances are that if you have weight to lose, you’ll be losing it. Although it’s understood that you must be eating well in order to maximize these gains. For help with that, you can chat with our Nutrition coach about getting 1-on-1 assistance here.
Lets say you test the 1 mile run, daunting I know, we encourage people to not skip this day, and you have to walk multiple times during it and it takes you 13:32. Then in 6 months you test again and you only have to walk once and you shave off 2 minutes. Then 6 months after that you’re able to jog the whole mile without stopping and you do it in 10:05. Excellent!
Along with this, you tested your push-ups and maybe you needed to use a 24″ tall box as an assistance in order to do them with good form, and you could do 6. Fast forward 12 months and now you can do 8, on a shorter box (20″) – which is much harder). Getting Stronger!
Let’s throw one more in here for fun – the deadlift. Everyones favorite lift. You tested your strength on the 5rm (rm = rep max) deadlift and you got 135lbs. This means that, with good form, you picked up a loaded bar of 135lbs 5x in a row. Six months go by and you add 30lbs to it, now at 165, and another 6 months go by and now you’re able to do it with 200lbs. Huge progress!
So in 1 year, if our hypothetical person shaved off 3 minutes on their 1 mile run (aerobic endurance), got significantly stronger on their push-ups (upper body strength) as well as their deadlift (lower & full body strength), chance are they don’t look the same as they did a year prior.
And what does almost every person who joins a gym actually want? To look better.
The person who is continually improving their fitness performance is also going to see drastic change in the way their body looks. When you are training your body to become fitter, keeping excess body fat is not in it’s best interest so you’ll start losing the weight without even thinking about it. Tracking performance data is much more enjoyable than staring at the scale as your only means of “am I getting better.”
The amount of joy we see in people every time we have a Benchmark Day and people PR (pr = personal record) is so much greater than what we’d witness if they were simply stepping on a scale and seeing the # go down by 1lb.
We know people want to lose weight, and we’re helping them do that. By providing the data on what your fitness abilities are over time and how they’re progressing, you’ll be more likely to stick with exercise long enough to see real results.
If this sounds interesting to you, and you wouldn’t know where to begin if trying to do it on your own, that’s what we’re here for. You can click here to come in and talk with one of our coaches to see how we can create a plan that works for you.