Fitness exercise has the function of enhancing physical fitness and improving exercise skills through accumulation.

All publicity advocating for quick results in fitness is an IQ tax. Whether it is improving physical fitness or improving exercise skills, the essence is a long-term accumulation of positive behaviors. There is no shortcut to skip accumulation.

I used to take care of a young girl who had just graduated. When she first came here, she couldn't even stand upright in a bodyweight squat. When she squatted down, her knees shook like a sieve. When she came up, she asked me if I could train to get a waistline in half a month and deadlift to 100 pounds in a month. She said that many bloggers on the Internet were doing counterattacks in 30 days. I didn't draw a cake for her at that time. I just said that you should come here three times a week in a down-to-earth manner and follow the standard movements. She was anxious at first. She almost dropped out of the class when she didn't see the waistline line after practicing for three weeks. I kept practicing for another two months. One day after taking a shower, she looked in the mirror and suddenly sent me a screaming message, saying that she actually had lines on her lower abdomen. What was even more surprising was that the bronchitis that she always got during the change of seasons didn't happen that fall. By the time she could really weigh 100 pounds, a full 8 months had passed.

I was browsing a fitness forum a while ago and saw two groups of people arguing with each other. The Efficiency Party said that finding the right training method and controlling diet would produce obvious results in 3 months. The Long-Termist Party rolled their eyes and said that those who have not practiced for a year are not considered beginners. The two groups have been arguing for hundreds of floors, and no one can convince the other. In fact, to be honest, both sides are right, but they are looking at different goals: the 3-month results mentioned by the Efficiency Party refer to visual changes such as losing three to five pounds of body fat and showing the beginning of muscle lines. As long as you really control your mouth and open your legs, most people can achieve it. ； But the "getting started" mentioned by the long-termist party refers to the fundamental improvement of physical fitness - such as the resting heart rate falling below 60, bone density significantly improving, not easily catching colds when the seasons change, and movement patterns forming muscle memory, so that you will not lose your waist casually when you pick up a weight. These things really cannot be saved in two or three months.

To put it bluntly, how can you pay off the poor physical condition you have accumulated over the past decade or so through staying up late at night, sitting in offices, and eating high-fat and high-sugar takeaways every day?

In fact, from the perspective of exercise physiology, this principle is very easy to understand: whether it is muscle growth, bone density improvement, or improvement of cardiopulmonary function, you must follow the law of excess recovery. Each time you train, it will cause a small benign stimulation to the body, and the body will repair to a higher level than before when resting. This time will take at least 48 to 72 hours. If you push yourself to achieve results every day and do not give the body time to breathe, then it is not fitness, it is clearly adding chaos to the body. I met a young man at the gym last week. He couldn't bench press 40kg after practicing for two weeks. He turned around and bought an "explosive strength crash course" worth more than 2,000 yuan. The person who took the class asked him to push his limit every day. As a result, he strained his rotator cuff on the third day and had to rest for at least three months. In fact, he was much slower than those who practiced slowly.

Not to mention us ordinary enthusiasts, even professional athletes from the provincial team dare not say that they have found the right feeling of power for a standard power clean movement without deliberate polishing thousands of times. I went to a sports school to meet a friend before, and I saw a teenage team member practicing air cleans in front of the mirror. They practiced for a whole class without adding any weight. The coach was watching beside him. If he crooked his wrist a little and moved his center of gravity a little forward, he would have to start again. The same goes for us ordinary people learning to swim or run. If we want to swim without choking and run without hurting our knees, the rhythm of breathing, the posture of landing, and the feeling of core tightening will not form muscle memory at all after two or three months of repeated practice. No matter how many tutorials we watch, it will be in vain.

Of course, some people say, I just want to lose a few pounds in a short period of time and wear a dress for wedding photos, isn’t that okay? Of course, if you eat boiled vegetables and run five kilometers a day for half a month, you can indeed lose seven or eight pounds, but most of the loss is water and muscle. After you take the photo and eat normally for two days, the weight will rebound immediately, and you may be heavier than before, and your basal metabolism will also be broken, which is not worth the gain. If you spend three months losing weight slowly, practicing strength while adjusting your diet, the fat you lose will be pure fat. Not only will you look good in a wedding dress, but you will also not gain weight easily after eating two good meals after marriage. Which one is more cost-effective? In fact, anyone with a discerning eye can figure it out.

I have been practicing for 6 years, but now I no longer like to set short-term goals of "losing 5 pounds this month" or "deadlifting 120kg next month". I practice regularly 4 times a week. Each time I can bench press 2.5kg more than the last time and run 100 meters more, I feel that I have earned it. During my physical examination last year, the doctor took my report and asked me if I exercised regularly. He said that my resting heart rate was only 48, my bone density was better than many 30-year-old guys, and my immunity was much higher than that of my peers. In which month did you say I did these assault training? I can’t even answer it myself. It’s just that in the past 6 years, I stretched carefully after every practice, tried to sleep for 7 hours a day, and rarely ate junk food every day. I saved it bit by bit.

Anyway, in the first class when I take new students, I will never pat their chests to ensure how much weight they can lose in a month. I will take precautions first: When it comes to fitness, the more anxious you are, the less likely you are to get results. Don’t always focus on the numbers on the scale, don’t always compare with the quick cases on the Internet, practice every movement to a standard, eat well and sleep well. Wait until half a year later to touch your tight arms and legs, and then look at the green indicators on the physical examination report. You will have all the answers.