A few years ago, holistic training was one of the most popular choices among fitness enthusiasts around the world. But today it has faded into the background a little. Here, we are going to be looking at this training method and pointing out the main benefits and drawbacks.

While the industry is seemingly hell bent of discovering new training methods designed to get you in and out of your local gym in less time than ever before, it's important to remember that there are a few quite basic routines which still work better than anything which has been developed in the last decade.

Despite the constantly evolving world of fitness, the workout styles you can see on display in any gym or fitness magazine have existed for years. The industry operates on a fifteen year cycle, with old techniques disappearing from the public eye for a while and then making a comeback a few years down the line. So the next time you ask for tips on how to lose weight, bear in mind that the answer you'll be given could be older than you are. This can be seen already with kettlebells and fat loss boot camps.

If you jumped in a time machine and landed anywhere between the mid-1970's and the early 1980's you will have noticed that holistic was a word attached to many things. Ranging from medicine to exercise, this technique is universal and can be applied to just about anything.

The word holistic means varied. This means you're entire workout routine is going to switch between different styles and goals. This usually happens on a weekly basis and continues for a period of roughly two or three months before a new program is started.

Is there any actual benefit to this method of exercising?

There are two main advantages.

* Weight loss and muscle growth will be increased via a constant focus on new training sessions, never allowing your body to adapt.

* Your workouts will become more interesting as each week forces you to try something new.

That's why the main person who would benefit from using this technique is somebody who has always had trouble in the past with their ability to stick to a program. If you find that your fitness goals crumble once you've got past the three month stage, this is definitely something you should look at.

That's because it involves switching between different styles on a weekly basis. You'd be going from training with high resistance and low repetitions in one week, to suddenly doing high intensity sessions involving lots of work the next, followed by extremely low rep strongman style workouts. The constant variation is enough to keep most people away from the slightest plateau. This is great for both muscle building and fat loss.

Monitoring progress is the toughest part of this type of routine. As exercise enthusiasts switch between high intensity interval training, high repetition endurance work and strength based sessions every seven days it can lead to confusion when trying to monitor your progress.

Depending how important that factor is to you, you may actually really enjoy this way of exercising. Holistic training is one of the simplest forms of breaking a plateau and, therefore, it's usually one of the tried and tested methods which pops up whenever any gym user asks for tips on how to lose weight.