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Fitness Has No Price Tag
Fitness | July 01, 2018
Contrary to popular belief, fitness doesn’t cost a dime. Fitness boils down to one’s effort and skill. And the only way to develop the two is through consistency. But why do some people insist that maintaining consistency is boring? Why is it that some people even go so far as to say there are “short cuts” around it? I think we all know the truth: clever marketing that dilutes the long, hard-earned efforts one makes to earn their results and changes them into a simple “cure all”. This could be a pill- take this and wake up to a flat stomach without ever changing your diet- or a piece of equipment- all you need is this device to tighten and firm your booty-, and suddenly you’ve replaced months of exercise with just a single product promising instant results. I’m sorry to break it to you, but this isn’t reality.
No fitness trainer ever got their body in 30 days. Even though the ZGYM has programs that are just as long, and I promise you that improvements- but not genie-in-a-bottle transformations- will be made, I think we can all agree that realistically, no one is going to turn into a Health & Fitness magazine model in such a short amount of time. Maybe if you’re already lean to begin with or have been working out for along time, but for the most part, no, not everyone is going to come out looking shockingly different.Anyone promising miraculous results should be questioned. Don’t believe the hype if someone claims their supplement can give you washboard abs and lean muscles. If that’s all they think it will take, then run the other way. The truth is, you’re going to have to make fitness a part of your lifestyle. A 30-day program is not a “one and done” deal. It’s more of a year-round practice. Sure, do the 30 days, but understand that you’re going to have to exercise sensibly and eat right for the rest of the year in order to really see lasting results.
Even if you do come out looking amazing, what happens once the honey moon is over? Reality Check: it’s not. Back to work. Sure, celebrate; take a day off, have a treat. But don’t expect the results to stick like glue. They’re only there so long as you can maintain them. And that’s another thing about many of these programs out there. They can’t be sustained. Do you honestly expect yourself to eat a 30-day “detox” and commit to hours of working out everyday? That’s why I also believe in making fitness a way of life, and not a pit stop. Meal plans are great; they can guide you for a short while, helping you to experience the benefits of whole foods (if they’re based on them, that is) and realize how eating healthy and exercising sensibly (there’s that word again) can both help you to achieve your fitness goals. But again, the dark side of them is that if they’re done unsustainably (i.e., the diet AND workout program are both extreme), then you’re not going to be working towards real results. It’s like popping a balloon. It gets bigger and bigger until suddenly it explodes from the pressure. And then it’s gone.
Fitness shouldn’t cost you anything. No pill can replace a lifestyle. Meal plans and fitness programs are alright, provided they’re sustainable and teach you how to make eating and exercising in a healthy manner a part of your lifestyle.
The un-sexy truth of it all is that nothing beats good old-fashioned hard work, determination; and most importantly consistency which is to me is the number one element of result oriented lifestyle. Fitness develops in the long-run, not the short term. You have to earn your results; cheaters wind up starting over again and again, never getting the picture.
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Private Member |
seattle, washington
There are people who have achieved amazing results in a very short time. Usually for movies and shortly after are back to normal. I think with consistency comes stability which in some ways is more important.
Private Member |
Chris Vancil The youtuber Keno Body did a video on that. Those actors are on steriods and performance enhancing drugs! Makes sense, how else does a fit 33 year old guy gain 50 pounds of muscle in 4 months!
Private Member |
switzerland
If you look at transformations like Christian Bale does on a regular basis (the Machinist!), it is incredible, but unhealthy. In the end, though, even with supplements (be they stereoids or “just” other stuff), while it might help, it will not save anyone from working out hard (Gyllenhaal for Southpaw for example). And I do believe that – if you do fitness as a full-time job, paired with an insane eating discipline, you will reach incredible results within a short period of time. But those results will not be sustainable….
Thanks for the article, Zuzka!
Private Member |
Yes I have seen that one, apparently he claims to have eaten only apples to lose all the weight. But did he mention the “extras” like the adderall that took away his appetite, but left his energy levels intact so that he could continue to work on the film without passing out from weakness? Or maybe the anti depressants like effector that wipe out appetite effortlessly? Or if he is like most actors, the oxycontin that got him the narrow cheekbones, and cocaine that equalized the tiredness? And the cigarettes. Sam with Jake Gylenhal, did he mention the HGH injections, or did he contribute it all to diet like most cheaters do? Would probably not help promote the movie if it seemed like something anyone could do. The results go away because they are off-cycle. Too much of those drug cocktails will burn out the liver, kidneys, etc.
I do not idolize celebrities and actors because they are people that are no different than me, and I refuse to be fooled by advertising. In America we are bombarded with it, like we are supposed to fall down and worship and throw money at a celebrity/model/ceo that looks good or made money. The false images are used to trick people into feeling bad about themselves so that they buy a product, like that skinny tea Black Chyna and the Kardashians currently promote for instance. Or the butt workout videos Kim Kardashian used to sell, when her butt came from Simon Orian. Or Gatorade or wheaties, like every sports star ever has promoted. If you lived here you’d understand, it gets old real quick, and I feel the need to point out the cheating. Also why I like Zuzka so much, she is transparent and professional and her advice always works.
Private Member |
I mean just consider it for a moment, if you had to work out vigorously, at the level of one of Zuzka’s Summer Shred of JRCX workouts, for 3-5 hours a day as these actors like Tom Hardy and Jake Gylenhal claim, how do you think you’d feel? I’m young and at a pretty high level of fitness, one 22 minute Summer Shred workout will leave me sore for at least two days, with sore joints I need to recover with mobility therapy, and I will need a lot more sleep and food. Tom Hardy and Jake Gylenhal are a lot older than me, and somehow they are made of something different that will let them not get tired and recover enough to do it every day of the week? They aren’t going to get injured, throw their backs out, tear a tendon, pull a hamstring?
And same with Christian Bale, he will be able to starve and lose a ton of weight, and still be able to show up to work every day, and do the mentally involved work of getting into character, filming for 12 hours a day, and he’s not going to pass out? He’s not going to get hypoglycemic, he’s going to be able to starve himself for months at a time?
What are these middle aged dudes somehow not as lazy as every other man their ages, and have bones made out of titanium? Blood made out of mercury? Able to turn off their biological needs to eat, and still able to walk? I’ve had the side effect of anorexia from some diabetic medications before, it absolutely sucks. I could barely string a sentence together, walked like an old woman, and was extremely sad because my brain was starved and couldn’t make the neurotransmitters. I also lost a lot of muscle, food made me sick, I couldn’t read my eyes were too tired to move. And Christian Bale did a whole movie in that state? Yeah, okay. Hollywood ain’t shoot, its all cheating. America is woke, movies theaters are not making money anymore, like the National Football League, which is also full of doping and dirty activities.
Private Member |
seattle, washington
I wasn’t trying to create an argument. There are also military bootcamps that just focus on building muscle. I don’t think every trainer working with actors uses drugs to train. My point was stable consistent work is better than punctuated fitness in the long run.
Private Member |
I wasn’t arguing, I was just breaking down the stories and seeing the holes. I think it is really important to know what is real and what is a lie. Especially since all these people Americans are told to idolize are turning out to be not only cheaters, but criminals too lol.
Private Member |
seattle, washington
You over generalize. Some people use drugs and other means (surgery, etc) to look fit, but not everybody.
Private Member |
It is possible. You gotta realise, during those months, all that those people do is train like crazy for hours every day with a proffesional, eat the perfect diet for muscle building and losing weight, sleeping lots and everything that they need to do for those results. Plus, for men it is way easier to have a body transformation, I don’t know the exact biological reason, but for men this process is much faster than for women. And no, not all of them use steroids. Many do. But not all.
Private Member |
I used to believe gaining a lot of muscle was possible, until I found the right information. Maybe it is, but I would need to see it on a case-by-case basis when it is proven that someone is gaining muscle by diet and training alone. Men can lose fat quicker compared to women, but that is if they started out overweight/ with fat to lose. Training like crazy leads to injury, I think it’s more of a marketing ploy to set a trend in fitness. I know Crossfit caught on like crazy after the movie Man of Steel cuz that actor used it to get that insane amount of muscle, apparently. A ton of professional dancers/athletes have opioid addictions because they have to work through the injury. With a quick google search you can find a ton of interviews of ex or current sports stars talking about their drug abuse because of the pressures of the sport. Anderson Silva, who was the reigning champ of American UFC, got busted for a crazy amount of steroid abuse. You remember Lance Armstrong, he was probably the worst that ever got busted! Bodies just don’t do that on their own!
A youtuber named Jordan Camilla has a really good video on this. When people’s bodies break down and they look really old before their time it’s a pretty good indication that steroid/drug abuse had a lot to do with it. Someone that does things through diet and exercise alone, like Zuzka, is actually really few and far between, I’ve come to realize.
Private Member |
jacksonville, nc, united states
I love this post. Living life well is an art form…and creating great art takes discipline, tenacity and inspiration (whether that comes from your own mind or something else). No, it’s not easy or fast…and I hear this all the time about a lot of subjects in life besides just working out and eating well-“but it’s so hard”. “That’s going to take a long time”. blah blah blah. The way I look at it is to forget about the ‘work’ involved and just do it! You want something, get it done. Don’t talk about it, Be about it!
Private Member |
maryland, usa
Hi everyone. I need a bit of remotivating. Over the last 2 months or so I have completely fallen out with exercise. My husband and I just moved so while I have not been doing “exercise” I have been getting fitness in. This post reminds me there isn’t a quick fix, but I’m afraid that just after 2 months I’ve lost it. Food hasn’t been tasting that great and I’m struggling so hard to get back into my routine again.
I’d love to try one of the meal plans but it’s not in the budget since moving. I am struggling to find that *spark* I once had because not working out and not feeling energized by my food – and more importantly FULL – is not a path I want to continue to go down. I appreciate this article because it is “tough love.” Although I could do the Intermediate/Advanced workouts, my body is too weak and so is my mind, if I am being honest. I feel worried I’ve lost everything I’ve worked so hard on. While my figure is in tact, I don’t feel good in it.
I’m going to do today’s beginners workout and it feels like I am starting all over again. And hopefully everything else will begin to fall into place again; sleep, energy levels, mood, and being able to feel full and energized by food. I find myself constantly looking in the pantries and fridge after eating because I’ve forgotten how to put together healthy, calorie dense foods. I eat but it is low calorie foods.
Thanks to you who is reading this. 🙂
Private Member |
You should have muscle memory so it shouldn’t take too long to come back. The only way to get back to “sleep, energy levels, mood and being able to feel full and energized” is to do it. I am the same way. It’s hard to get past that inertia. But not exercising is not good for my well-being. I need endorphins. I try to get past it by telling myself to do the workout no matter how crappy how I feel or how I crappy I do it. Even if I just do one rep. I showed up and did it. Try to do that one rep with good form. So the habit starts to reform. Z’s workouts aren’t very long so there aren’t a lot of excuses to not get it in.
Private Member |
maryland, usa
Thank you, Erin! <3
Private Member |
I experienced a very long stretch of not exercising regularly after 5 years of consistently working out.
I had surgery and was not aware of the months of fatigue to follow. I always had so much energy, even if I had been told I would be tired, I could never imagine feeling like I did for 6-8 weeks. I was not going to be able to work out the way I had been for 6-8 weeks, which I thought would drive me crazy. I probably would have been ready for a nap just for changing into my work out clothes!
I fell out for over two years, with 2-3 completely failed attempts to start again.
Don’t lose faith in yourself! I know that if you are at the fitness level it takes to work out with Zuzka that you will get back to it. I imagine it is like so many other difficult and worthwhile activities. I know it is hard, but try to keep the inner dialogue positive. I felt so bad and certainly disappointed in myself, but think about the fact that you got yourself into the great shape you are still in even while you are not exercising! Percentage wise that already makes you an unusually motivated athlete!
The more you realize, think and know this the quicker you can get back into your routine.
Private Member |
maryland, usa
Thank you for your kind words, Jess! It really means a lot. It is a nice reminder that I am not alone. Have you been able to get back into your routine?
Private Member |
Yes, but it took so long. I lost track, but I am sure over 2 years and less than 3. That is why I felt I should reply to your comment. After so long and a few failed attempts to get back into the routine, you start to doubt yourself. I am now 45 and since I have finally been able to be consistent about a year now, I have been able to do this higher intensity interval training. I feel stronger than I was at 35. In fact, I am sure I am stronger. I was doing the same amount of work but with longer rest periods over 30 minutes. I was always convinced that Zuzka’s workouts were too difficult for me. I know that if you were doing these difficult workouts prior to this minor setback you can and probably will get back, but don’t lose faith in yourself. I am also a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer. I don’t believe you would have lost a significant amount of strength. It may feel that way, but I think you will feel just as strong as before in a very short period of time after you resume.
Private Member |
maryland, usa
That is great you got back on track! You are right in that my brain is the weak part. I did a yesterday’s beginner workout and I had to keep talking to myself saying I can do it, I can do it. While I don’t want to do Zuzka’s advanced workouts again (those became WAY too intense) the intermediate is my goal which is where I feel I am most challenged. Then, pepper in the beginners workouts when I want.
I appreciate your detailed response and with you being a certified PT, I trust your advice 🙂
Private Member |
That sounds like a great plan, These workouts are not easy, including anything labeled beginner.
Private Member |
Yahoo for surfing!!! @zuzkalight if you ever come to Maui let me know and I will take you surfing, boogie or swimming 🙂
Private Member |
austin, texas
I love this article. Thanks Z!!!