This Blog is wrote with the view of those who participate in sport and those who are starting the new year this year like they were last year.
This is the time of year when many people turn their thoughts toward physical fitness, some for the first time. Many options are available, and anytime there are many options, there will be a certain amount of confusion. I shall attempt to help you order your thinking regarding fitness programs, and help you decide how you’d like to approach the problem of getting in better shape than you are now.
Physical activity is what The Irish Heart foundation wants you to get some of each week. “Physical activity is anything that makes you move your body and burn calories” Essentially, not sitting or lying down is physical activity. But even elderly people can take a more productive approach to their physical existence than mere movement for an arbitrarily recommended period of time.
First Step “Move” . Take the stairs, walk at lunch, after work. Rule of thumb every 1 hour down is 10 mins up!
Moving on up the ladder, Exercise is physical activity performed for the effect it produces today — right now. Each workout is performed for the purpose of producing a stress that satisfies the immediate needs of the exerciser: burning some calories, getting hot, sweaty, and out of breath, pumping up the biceps, stretching — just punching the physical clock. Exercise is physical activity done for its own sake, either during the workout or immediately after it’s through. Exercise may well involve doing exactly the same thing every time you do it, as long as it accomplishes the task of making you feel like you to want to feel while you’re doing it.
No definite plan, throwing weights around, running a bit, lifting a bit and you feel good after the session .
This is all good but is not necessarily a good method in the long term for reaching your goals due to fatigue, inappropriate recovery, no progressive overload. Good to Maintain where you are at.
Exhibit- Bootcamps, train to fail mentality.
Training
(separating the good from the bad)
Involves a Structured Plan, A Training coach, Periodization, Movement, Mobility , Stability and strength progression.
Did you ever hear the expression ” looks like Tarzan and plays like Jane”. Social Media has a huge influence on us a as a society today and how the young athletic population train. I would like to make the point to young sports people that this is not the way.
Hypertrophy training is Dumb , It itself is not (everyone needs Body Armour) . Ok of course it takes some effort and motivation. My example of why it can be valuable is a fast athlete can fatigue and get slower during a game but a strong well built guy will not shrink during competition or game time and functional hypertrophy is a good foundation layer.
Back to the point. The Process of Hypertrophy is Dumb, I mean it is not hard to build muscle. All it takes is time and to eat like a horse . Traditionally hypertrophy is working with sets of 3-4 with a rep range +8 for (adding weight) and hitting every muscle in a split routine or a whole body with large body parts (chest, back, and legs) seeing four or five exercises each for a total of around 20 sets workout.
Train like this alone and let me know where you are in two years?
Can these guys run a mile , What’s there Functional movement screen like?
These are the majority of plans we see daily on the net, any forum, covered with a semi naked guy with pearly white teeth and a great filter at that . If all you want to do is look good naked then work away but if you play sport or run ,where Strength , power, mobility and flexibility, injury prevention and skill itself of the sport .Id say 90% of those programme’s are not for you.
Training for speed, power, mobility and functional movement is much more complex and yes you can build nice defined muscle too.
For athletes and people with a definite performance objective in mind, Training is necessary. In this context, Training is physical activity performed for the purpose of satisfying a long-term performance goal, and is therefore about the process instead of the workouts themselves. And since the process must generate a definable result at a point in time removed from each workout, the process must be planned to produce this result. Training may also be the best way to achieve the goals that many people seek through Exercise.
Running a marathon, lifting in a weightlifting meet, or competing in any demanding sport requires a specific type of physical adaptation for that activity and thus different training. Completing a marathon and lifting weights for a single heavy effort are very different physical tasks, and you can’t be very good at both — at least not at the same time.
Most people are not competitive athletes, do not see themselves as competitive athletes, and have no definable objective other than losing some weight and being “in shape,” . So most people are perfectly satisfied with Exercising, and Exercise is all most people actually need, especially if their goal is just to get in shape and stay that way.
Programs like , Bootcamps CrossFit, or anything available on DVD that promises to keep your muscles “confused” are also Exercise. Any program that features random exposure to various types of physical stress cannot produce a specific physical adaptation, past a certain point that occurs relatively quickly. Their function is to burn calories, get your heart rate up, and make you sweaty and tired. They may do their job of providing Exercise quite well, and again, this may be all you need from a fitness program.
But certain people rapidly outgrow Exercise, and for them Training is the logical next step. People who respond well to the improvement that always accompanies the initial stages of any program that is adhered to faithfully quite often see the possibility of continued progress.
Training may also be the most effective way to get the results that most people use Exercise to obtain, especially if that goal is more than just maintenance. Carefully planned activity with the specific purpose of losing weight, for instance, works better than just doing the same exercises with the same weight for the same length of time on the same days of the week for months on end. Once you set up a plan that continually increases your strength and your endurance, and that also controls your diet, you’re Training, and your goal is now being prepared for, not wished for.
Wherever you might be in this process , just starting to think about getting up out of the chair or wondering why you’re not making any progress no matter how hard you try . The correct approach to the problem involves understanding where you are along the spectrum of your physical existence, and making the correct decisions about what to do next.
It may be that Exercise is all you really need, but Training may be the best answer to the problem.
Before you undertake a new exercise regime this year. Set your goals clearly.
Begin to Ask Why you’re doing what you are doing. Know the benefits, know the downsides.
Are you bodybuilding, are you exercising or are you Training?
There’s a science to Training correctly, there is research and specific methods to do it better, there is certainly not a one size fits all method. That’s the key really, what is the best way
Don’t be here at the exact same point next year starting all over. Maybe its time you need a trainer with a plan. Its an investment yes but it is also you health and you’re mental health with that. I know what I would invest in if I where starting out!
Stay Strong!