Exercise is an incredibly important part of leading a balanced lifestyle and helps keep your body strong and healthy as you age. While the level of physical activity you do can ebb and flow at times, prioritising movement multiple times a week has benefits for your body as well as your mind.
If you’ve recently changed up your exercise routine in order to see a physical difference in your strength or the way your body looks, you might be wondering when this change will be noticeable. And, while it’s an incredibly common inquiry, it can be hard to give a definitive answer.
The short answer is that it depends on a myriad of favoured, which is why it’s essential wellness is looked at through a holistic lens, says Tom Hose, founder, managing director and senior trainer at FoxFit Fitness For Female, which has locations in Sydney’s Redfern, Melbourne’s Cremorne and Brisbane’s Aspley.
“For example you can’t out train bad nutrition, nor can you train your way out of poor sleep hygiene,” says Hose. “The key is to prioritise all aspects of wellness — movement, nutrition, sleep and mindset.”
That said, there are some ways you can look at your work out results. Ahead, Hose breaks down some factors that might influence when and how you might see the effects of exercise.
It Depends on the Goal
“I have found that if you don’t have a clear understanding of your ‘why’, this will have a negative correlation with goal attainment,” says Hose. “Reason being is that when you go through periods of low motivation, which we all do as humans, it’s easy to fall off track”
Hose says he often sees this in his clients. To combat it, he suggests you invest time into understanding why you want to improve your wellness. It might be as simple as ‘I want to keep up with my children’ or ‘I want to improve my self-confidence to back myself in that job promotion’.
Whatever this is for you, spend time understanding why you want to improve your fitness. This will not only help you measure results, but also help you keep them up.
Some Benefits Are Instantaneous
While we all want to see exercise results overnight, the best quality results are attained over time through the right program and, again, taking a holistic approach to your wellbeing, says Hose.
“The key is to celebrate the small wines that will keep you on track long-term,” he says. “It might be simply the small fitness progressions, like faster pace compared to your last run or improved endurance in your HIIT circuits.”
“Whatever this is for you, celebrate each small win, as these small milestones accumulate into significant improvements in the long-term.”
A General Guide
If a general guideline is what you’re after, you might look to Hose’s way of viewing exercise results.
“In my opinion, the byproduct of a healthy body composition and feeling of wellness is represented by wholesome habits,” he says.
“The most obvious result is the ascetic extrinsic benefits, though the intrinsic can be the most powerful. For example, reduced chances of metabolic syndrome, increased stamina and focus, improved sleep quality and positive self-perception that steeps into every aspect of life.”
