Consistently terrible F45 results

[tjdwns1291]

@agiosconstantinos I do agree with you to an extent. Yes, lots of people go to the gym and randomly "work out" without much direction or effort.

However, injuries are not exclusive to lifting weights at the gym. I got injured climbing rope when I used to do crossfit because i was tired and exhausted and my grip slipped. Nasty rope burn on my leg.

You can get injured doing anything physical. Doing functional fitness does not make you immune to injury.

 

[agiosconstantinos]

@tjdwns1291 I think “functional fitness” has become something in the culture in a way I don’t mean it.

I think that a lot if not most of programs already incorporate functional principles. Mobility, stability, off plane strength, emphasis on full body exercises. Resiliency in other words. That was not a thing in the past! And there are still people who adopt that philosophy.

I don’t mean climbing ropes. But I do mean pullups.

 

[insanelydisturbed]

@agiosconstantinos Functional training is bullshit in the sense that what may be functional for someone might not be for someone else. I didn’t train my long distance runners the same way i trained my college football athletes. Different sports different functionalities the same way with people in every day life

 

[agiosconstantinos]

@insanelydisturbed I didn’t want this to turn into a big debate. And generally I agree with you on your point.

But I don’t think that is what “functional fitness” is about, and I think to some extent a lot of modern workout routines have already incorporated a lot of the principles. And it’s a good thing. A lot of what functional fitness intended to address were a lot of the mistakes of the past, and I think this subreddit has enough people to remember those days.

1. Mobility is just as important as strength. This is already emphasized because you need mobility to have proper form. 20-30 years ago people had terrible form generally. And proper “functional form” was misunderstood. People were mistaught a lot of basic exercises that weren’t functional and also stressed ligaments and tendons. Pushup form is a classic examplle of a revision based on functional principles.
2. Major exercises to work multiple muscle groups. Deadlifts, squats, pullups, and similar exercises are now holy grail compared to machines to really isolate specific muscles and build 0 stability. This was not the case before.
3. The plans themselves. Training has become more balanced towards functional goals of leaving something in the tank. No pain no gain and utter exhaustion used to be the norm.
4. Emphasis on core and overall muscle stability. This goes back to 1 and 2 but most training is now focused on off plane resiliency and injury avoidance. Barbells, kettlebells etc. and other things that build stability once again vs. machines.

 

[tjdwns1291]

@agiosconstantinos I play with my kids just fine, and even play social sports, and my routine has been gym + cardio for years.

 

[agiosconstantinos]

@tjdwns1291 Gym can mean functional fitness. It just means focusing on exercises that enhance naturalistic movement.

Edit: I didn’t realize “functional” fitness was such a controversial idea. Ridiculous. Have fun injuring yourselves.

 

[tjdwns1291]

@agiosconstantinos See my other comment.

Injuries are not exclusive to lifting weights at the gym. You can get injured doing anything physical. Functional fitness does not make you immune to injury.

"Functional fitness" is not "controversial", more than it is just over-hyped.

 

[agiosconstantinos]

@tjdwns1291 I think we’re arguing over different things. I wrote a long post to another commenter about this. I do think most programs today are functional, but this wasn’t the case in the past. And there are still idiots who work out in a way that makes them weak and prone to injury.

 

[neveralone96]

@nasa321 I took a few F45 classes. Like Orange Theory, they're fun and a great cardio workout but the high-rep low-weight approach was too small for strength gains. OTF has strength classes now. Have you tried measuring your progress at F45 with a cardio test like your resting heart rate or V02 Max?

 

[kitten22]

@neveralone96 No one cares about their VO2 max. They want to look good naked, feel good running around with their kids, and have energy to participate effectively in their lives.

F45 will get you into better shape aerobically.

If OP wants to add skeletal muscle mass and look better in the mirror, her resting heart rate isn’t a metric worth caring about.

 

[agoodmeasure]

@nasa321 Creatine will help with muscle growth, as well as making sure you eat enough protein - you probably aren't if you are not tracking it.

 

[curtswill]

@nasa321 Muscle gain happens when you put your muscles through INTENSE work. Not sure what F45 is but probably not that

 

[chickaboom]

@nasa321

1. Those scans are notoriously inaccurate. BF% can be off by a lot.
   
2. F45 workouts are not efficient for muscle building. Muscle is built with progressive resistance training. F45 does have resistance based classes but the programming is just not right for actually building muscle.
   
3. You only gained 6lbs. Consider body weight can fluctuate by 3-5lbs daily just from food and hydration. Adjusting for fluctuation you might have gained like a single pound.
   
4. You didn’t even mention your caloric surplus or protein intake so we don’t know if you would build muscle even if you were following a proper program.
   
5. There is no different advice for women. It’s the same. BF% will be higher compared to men, tracking weight is a bit different due water retention changing through the menstrual cycle. Other than that the principles are identical. Programming for women usually looks different than mens’ only because women and men tend to care about growing different muscle groups. For example women generally put more emphasis on glutes, men emphasize traps, that sort of thing just because of social norms.

 

[nasa321]

@chickaboom Thank you for the thoughtful comment. I just wanted to add here that I have noticed physical changes - my abs and legs are more defined, my thigh muscles are rock solid, and I have been able to go heavier with weights. My husband also says I look much more toned FWIW. I guess my confusion and frustration is that it’s not reflected on the body scan. I don’t just want to automatically assume the scan is wrong and make excuses. But I will start tracking what I eat more closely

 

[rillian]

@nasa321 Nobody builds significant muscle with F45 classes. Yes there is some resistance training but it's piss poor. If you want muscle, get into the gym and lift, even if you dont enjoy it. Your desire for muscle has to outweigh your distaste of the gym.

Your cardiovascular health is almost certainly significantly better though, which is a great indicator of lifespan/longevity.

 

[romanticcode]

@nasa321 As a former head trainer and studio manager of an F45, I’ll echo what many have said- although you’re likely working very hard, F45 workouts are NOT good for building muscle. I used to do 2 or more F45 workouts a day, pushed super hard, but the style of them is not conducive to muscle gain. You’ll burn calories, sure. The cardio workouts are good for endurance and heart and lung health. They are fun and fast paced. But they won’t get you great results. It wasn’t until I started working out at a traditional gym and actually lifting heavy, following a program- AND dialed in my nutrition- that’s when I saw results.

 

[predestinedforglory]

@nasa321 I think F45 is mainly conditioning. They don’t use progressive overload so any muscle growth is incidental not intentional.

 

[seventeen76]

@nasa321 F45 is good for “exercise” but not maybe not the best for “training for specific goals”

 

[jesusflowerchild]

@nasa321 Maybe you think you're burning a lot but you're consuming more calories than you're getting rid of so you're either going to break even every time and maintain or you'll continue to just gain fat because you aren't tracking your macros.

 

[aranyi_zsolt]

@nasa321

InBody scan

It's a notoriously inaccurate metric that can be thrown off by food/water intake.

I’m obviously really frustrated, and I know fat loss is mostly calories, but what I’m struggling with is how I didn’t even gain a pound of muscle after 5 months of working out very intensely.

As others have said, F45 is the wrong training regimen if your goal is to gain muscle mass.

What the hell am I doing wrong?

You can't expect a cardio program like F45 to generate muscle growth. It would be like doing bicep curls every day for six months and then complaining your bigger biceps didn't improve your marathon running time.

Does anyone have any advice (especially looking for advice from women or specifically for women’s bodies / hormones etc etc)

Do progressive resistance training with either weights or bodyweight (calisthenics) if your goal is growing muscle. The only special thing about women's bodies vs. men's is that women's body compositions tend to have higher fat numbers (because boobs, uterus) than men and no amount of training can really rectify that.