Can You Lose Weight With Holistic Training?

By Howe Russ


Every ten years or so, an old style of exercise comes back into the foreground. From kettlebells to high intensity interval training, the fitness world loves a comeback. One of the items doing this right now is the art of holistic training.

You could be forgiven for thinking your local gym didn't want you to train, such is the fitness industry's obsession with developing new methods to get you in and out of there in less time each day.

Despite the constantly evolving world of fitness, the workout styles you can see on display in any gym or fitness magazine have existed for years. The industry operates on a fifteen year cycle, with old techniques disappearing from the public eye for a while and then making a comeback a few years down the line. So the next time you ask for tips on how to lose weight, bear in mind that the answer you'll be given could be older than you are. This can be seen already with kettlebells and fat loss boot camps.

The height of popularity for holistic approaches to exercise was probably the middle of the eighties, where everybody from action movie stars to athletes were adopting this technique in a bid to keep their workouts at the cutting edge of science.

The word holistic means varied. This means you're entire workout routine is going to switch between different styles and goals. This usually happens on a weekly basis and continues for a period of roughly two or three months before a new program is started.

Are there any real benefits to this method, though?

Actually, there are two huge benefits.

* A weekly change in your program will stimulate new gains and fat loss.

* Your workouts will become more interesting as each week forces you to try something new.

If you are one of the many gym users who suffers from an inability to stick to a program once the novelty has worn off, or if you simply find it hard to break out of a plateau once your body has adapted to your exercise routine, then this method is perfect for you.

That's because it involves switching between different styles on a weekly basis. You'd be going from training with high resistance and low repetitions in one week, to suddenly doing high intensity sessions involving lots of work the next, followed by extremely low rep strongman style workouts. The constant variation is enough to keep most people away from the slightest plateau. This is great for both muscle building and fat loss.

However, nothing is perfect. There is one potential negative to this idea which could prove to be a deal breaker. It is very, very hard to monitor your progress when you use this concept. Think about it, by switching from high rep workouts to low rep workouts on a weekly basis it can become impossible to determine whether your major lifts have improved or not.

If that's a highly important thing for you then you might want to consider using a different approach. All in all, however, holistic training is something which appeals to most folks and can be used whether your goal is to learn how to lose weight or how to gain strength.




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