Any self-respecting NIKE / fitness fiend will recognise the name Kirsty Godso.
The NZ-born Nike Master Trainer and highly evolved human is #goals. Her body is the Taj Mahal and her eyebrows are Brooke Shields-fierce.
Who better, then, to school us on our fitness faux pas and dish out some workout reforms? Read her tips below.
Read them 
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. Remember them . Embody them .WHAT YOU’RE DOING WRONG: SKIPPING WARM UPS
“A lot of the time, people say ‘oh I didn’t have time to warm up’. Well, it’s a bit like ‘do you have time for an injury?” says Kirsty. Warming up takes all but three minutes, and what you should be doing is “introducing movements that you’ll be doing at a lower intensity, so that once you start to work, whatever style your workout, your body thinks you’re ready for it”.
WHAT YOU’RE DOING WRONG: OVER-WORKING YOURSELF
Statements like ‘oh, I worked out three times a day’ have Kirsty all like
. “Especially when it comes to high intensity training, which people get really excited about because they know they’re burning more calories,” she says. It’s about quality over quantity, and doing too much exercise can often be counterproductive. “People are actually putting stress on their body, which causes it to release more cortisol [the stress hormone], and that causes your body actually to hold onto the fat, because it’s in panic mode”.
. “Especially when it comes to high intensity training, which people get really excited about because they know they’re burning more calories,” she says. It’s about quality over quantity, and doing too much exercise can often be counterproductive. “People are actually putting stress on their body, which causes it to release more cortisol [the stress hormone], and that causes your body actually to hold onto the fat, because it’s in panic mode”.WHAT YOU’RE DOING WRONG: REDUCING YOUR CALORIE INTAKE WHEN YOU DON’T WORK OUT
On the days you can’t workout – i.e. rest days, which for some of us is the entirety of winter, Kirsty says you should put even more effort into eating well.
What’s well? “Healthy proteins, good fats and good carbohydrates…stuff that’ll fuel you, so you can get the most out of your day.” One of the most common mistakes Kirsty sees is people eating less to make up for not going to the gym or working out that day, which is wrong dot com.
WHAT YOU’RE DOING WRONG: PLACING LIMITS ON YOUR ABILITY AND NOT MIXING IT UP
Statements like ‘I’m not a runner’ or ‘I’m not good at weights’, do not help. Kirsty’s commandment #445: Drop the labels. “Even if you run 250m, you’re a runner.” Another thing missing from people’s workouts is variety in their schedules, which you need to “keep you body guessing, otherwise it becomes conditioned and knows exactly what to expect”. Change up your training program every 4-6 weeks so you can achieve what she calls ‘muscular confusion‘ to make your body work harder. To feel the benefits of a particular workout, you only need to do it twice, not errrrrday.
WHAT YOU’RE DOING WRONG: PUSHING TOO HARD AND NOT LISTENING TO YOU BODY
If you’re hungry, EAT, if you’re hurting, STOP, if you’ve missed your period, PANIC – jks, but maybe go to the doctor. While there’s no hard and fast rule for rest days, it’s important to take a break, which might be one day or two or the whole of winter. More active rest days are fine, says Kirsty, just make sure you’re not sweatin’ up a storm.
WHAT YOU’RE DOING WRONG: WORKING OUT WITH NO CLEAR GOALS
It’s a common story. Human signs up to gym. Human is excited about it. Human goes to gym. Human works late, doesn’t have time for gym. Oh look, it’s December. Make goals, and put it in writing. Kirsty says “they’re so important to keep you focused so that you don’t hit that point where you’re like ‘I’m over this gym thing’ or ‘this running thing’”. Her advice: have a big goal, but be specific, and then have lots of small intermediary goals so you’ve got an idea of what’s next.
WHAT YOU’RE DOING WRONG: DOING CARDIO – WHEN YOU SHOULD BE DOING WEIGHTS – TO GET LEAN
Kirsty tells us this is a particularly common misconception among women who seem to opt for cardio to lose weight, when they should be lifting weights to sculpt up and get lean. “When people say they want to lose weight, what they really want to is tone up and for most women weights are going to be a real game changer to getting their bodies to what they want it to be,” she says.
Wanna meet this goddess in the flesh? Get her to troubleshoot your workout mistakes IRL? Make sure you register to find out when NTC Tour 2016 pre-sale tix are available –> do that HERE. Back to break records and start an endorphin outbreak, the Nike Training Club Tour event hosts professionally guided workout sessions of spin, boot-camp style drills and boxing, with live performances, FREE massages and more. More NTC content to come as Pedestrian pulls up its socks and prepares dig deep for an ass whoopin’.
Images: Supplied / Instagram.
