Most men and women start resistance training and aerobic training because they want to change the way they look. They want to build muscle to change the shape of their body. They want to lose fat to reveal a tighter, harder physique. Normally, they want to do both to get the most physical changes for their efforts. So they go out and look for muscle building and fat loss workout programs.

And that's their first mistake!

Bodybuilding programs combined with long, slow aerobic exercise has failed time and again to produce the strong, lean, athletic bodies most men and women are after. Don't believe me? Just walk into any commercial gym and see how many people there have successfully reached their physique goals. I guarantee you it won't be much, because they are using the bodybuilding and aerobic exercise duo.

To get a better understanding of what I mean, let's reverse engineer your workout program. By that I mean, let's look at the result you want first, and then figure out how to get it. This approach promises to be revealing.

Now, in order to make this process as simple as possible I'm going to use some generalizations. When I ask most people what they want to end up looking like as a result of their workout program, very few say bodybuilder or marathoner. And when I say very few, I mean almost NONE.

The fact is, most people want to look like some form of athlete. They want a strong, muscular, lean, athletic body. They want the kind of muscle and low body fat that exemplifies a high performance physique.

So, why are they training like a bodybuilder and marathoner? Good question!

I propose your train like an athlete to get the good looking body of an athlete. Sounds like a simple solution, but I can't tell you how hard it is to get "regular" people to adopt athletic training. They would much rather focus their efforts on things they can see, like building muscle and reducing fat. And this ultimately leads to failure in reaching their physique goals.

Have you ever heard the expression, "A watched pot never boils". If you've ever been in hurry and tried to cook pasta you know what I mean. If you stand over the pot waiting for the water to boil, it seems like it never boils. However, when you are busy doing other things, the next thing you know, the water is boiling.

The same thing happens when you are trying to transform your body. If you focus on the things you can see (building muscle and fat loss) it seems like you are not making any progress. However, if you concentrate on something else (performance), the next thing you know the physical changes you wanted are staring back at you from the mirror.

So, here's what you need to do to finally reach your fitness, fat loss and physique goals: train like an athlete. And by that I mean, train for performance. Train to get stronger, more powerful, faster, more flexible, more agile and coordinated... and the next thing you know, you'll have the body you want. Athletic training is not just for athletes. It is for every man and women who what the physical attributes of an attractive athlete. (And in my experience, this is most of us!)

So, stop watching the pot by training like a bodybuilder and marathoner. Divert your attention to performance based training and focus on improving your athletic performance. You body will naturally make the physical changes you can see in order to improve performance. This means, building strong muscles and burning performance robbing fat. And that, my friends, is how you finally get the body you've always wanted.

Don't you want the strong, lean body of a champion athlete?