I was watching tennis highlights in the company of some good friends. Some of the top competitors in elite women’s tennis darted around the court exhibiting first class athletic prowess and corresponding aesthetic proportions to match.

One of my companions, decidedly less athletic than our on-screen entertainers, suddenly exclaimed: “Could I look like that in a month?” At about a size 12, she is physically active and in good general health. She might not be tearing up centre court at Wimbledon any time soon, but I would consider her a fairly fit and physically capable woman.

Unsure if her question was rhetorical, I nonetheless took up the challenge of answering it the best I could. Could she really transform her figure into appearing just like that of an elite athlete in just one month? Is it even humanly possible?

This is just the challenging questions a fitness professional loves to get his/her teeth into. Put two fitness professionals in a room to discuss this, and you’ll surely see some fireworks.

To say, “Yes you can!” would be somewhat of a disrespect to athletes of that calibre everywhere. They have trained and prepared their bodies over the course of the best part of their lifetimes for the rigours and specific demands of their game. However, it must be said, there is a difference between preparing someone for the rigours of elite sports performance and training someone to simply improve their appearance.

Just because an elite tennis player might train long hours every day honing her game, it doesn’t mean we would need to put in the same time to achieve a similar appearance. We can look like athletes, but it’s a different matter altogether performing like them.

So could a normal person shed enough body fat and build enough muscle mass to achieve the appearance of an athlete? With the right guidance on training and nutrition, yes, they most certainly could.

If they don’t resemble a top athlete, they could certainly look a lot more athletic than they did before. Could they do it in a month? This is where the debate gets a little more interesting. So many men and women request this.

If a timeframe to get in shape isn’t explicitly given, then the next best question is often: “How quickly could I do it?”

Results and how fast we achieve them depend on several variables. One of those variables is genetic potential. Some of us improve faster than others; that is a simple and often unfortunate fact of life.

The next crucial variable in this case is how focused we are or exactly how much time and effort we are willing to put into it. Are we going to give up after a week? Are we going to sneak in that odd naughty snack? Could it be done in one month?

If we could indulge in an intensive and expertly planned programme that consists of all the required training, combined with all the time needed to organise and prepare the diet, and the right attitude and will, it is truly surprising what is achievable.

Depending on the individual and their capacity to stick to a harsh regimen, dramatic changes can indeed be seen in as little as a month. Military training programmes stand testament to this. Where intensive physical training is involved, you can take any intake of recruits of all shapes and sizes, put them through several months of hard training and reasonably expect them to come out the other end completely transformed. How do they do it?

Dramatic changes can indeed be seen in as little as a month

The methods used by military and some police units around the world have been replicated by fitness professionals in bootcamp or ‘fat camp’ programmes.

These programmes are live-in affairs, affording the organisers with total control of participants’ activity levels and diet. When employed effectively, these programmes can indeed produce dramatic transformations.

They might consist of up to three physical training sessions a day, designed to tax the general system without overtraining or straining specific areas to cut down on injuries, as the risk of injury in such situations is indeed generally high. The diet would also be carefully controlled and participants denied any sort of access to naughty or unhealthy treats.

There is one problem, however, with results that are obtained too quickly. The quicker results come, the quicker they tend to go or the more temporary in nature they tend to be. Sudden weight loss, for example, can often be attributed to dehydration and not the actual loss of body fat.

In the case of a boot camp programme, the participant can indeed expect to lose real fat. However, the risk here is that after leaving such an extremely controlled environment, the participant is perhaps more likely to stray given their newly re-acquired freedom. Resuming old habits will quickly get you back to where you were before you started.

Effective programmes therefore should consist of that crucial educational component if they are going to last. Throughout the programme, participants should be educated about how to eat, how to shop, how to cook and plan a healthy eating programme .

They should also be educated about how to increase everyday activity levels through a variety of methods. By the time they leave the camp, they should be raring to try out their new healthy living strategies.

matthew.muscat.inglott@mcast.edu.mt