The Missing Link – Intensity.

You would think that with all of the information on fitness and exercise currently (and freely) available on the web, we would be experiencing a boom of fit, trim bodies; that Arnold and Rae-look-a-likes would be spilling out of every building across America, yet nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, we’re experiencing an epidemic of obesity.  Diabetes rates are on the rise, yet paradoxically more people are exercising now than ever.

It’s a strange phenomenon.  Step into any local gym and you’ll see more people crowded into them than ever before (my colleagues tell me that the New York Sports Clubs and Equinox clubs are literally packed to the gills, financial crisis be damned).  So with this bevy of super-secret exercise information and booming gym attendance, where are all the hardbodies?  What’s the missing link here?

The missing link is intensity.  Intensity = effort.  Work hard, and you’ll be rewarded with results.  Don’t work hard, withhold your efforts, and you can expect little in the way of results.

It’s not about how many exercise books you’ve read or about how many push-up variations you know.  It’s about paying your dues, workout after workout.

Those gym bunnies lifting two pound dumbbells for endless reps in body scultping classes?  Wasting their time.

That guy you see bouncing on the exercise ball and calling it “ab work”?  Wasting his time.

Effort is the name of the game.  Without sufficient effort, your body has no reason to improve – after all, if it can “weather the storm” as is, why should it?

Ross Enamait (who, in addition to being a supremely conditioned athlete, is a genuinely cool human being) says it best:

Athletes went to the gym and busted their ass.  The results followed.  That’s it.  Nothing fancy.

It’s always best to have a good plan.  But the best plan in the world isn’t worth squat unless there’s effort involved.