Truths about Fitness
I have been a fan and a participant of the fitness world for over two decades now and there are some things that continue to show up as true even when I try to run away and avoid them. Sometimes, the ideas that I’ve had or the things that have caught my attention are really bad, but luckily they never last long and are quickly replaced by things that have stood the test of time for myself and others. Honestly, I’m glad that I don’t have to navigate the mucky waters of health and fitness now as a beginner with the amount of information overload readily available. Over time, people have become more dogmatic and their training and nutrition plans have become more religious than health and fitness. First I would like to clear up some definitions.
Health: a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
Fitness: the quality of being suitable to fulfill a particular role or task.
Using these definitions, we can see that health is a state of being while fitness has a goal or task tied to it. I always view my health as my baseline metrics like blood work, resting heart rate, blood pressure, and sense of calmness. My fitness on the other hand is being able to deadlift 500lbs or do 10 reps of bodyweight pull ups. I think with this, it’s important to understand that much like our economy, information in the world of health and fitness goes in cycles. One year eating high protein will make you live forever and then the next, it’ll take years off your life. These battles are never ending and keep popping their head up. Let’s look at some truths that have stood the test of time and shouldn’t be argued against. I say they shouldn’t be argued against because there are people who love to challenge anything that works in order to gain an advantage in search engines.
Little and Often over the Long Haul
This comes from one of my favorite people in the world of strength, Dan John. Find things that you enjoy and can do frequently so that you can build up your work capacity over time. If something is so extreme that you lose 20lbs in a month, but then you decide to take the next month off because you’re miserable and you gain 22lbs back, then it wasn’t effective and you’re in a worse position than prior to starting. This is why I love having people walk. Everyone should walk and the barrier to entry is almost zero and can build upon easily.
Protein, Fruit, Veggies
A little over a year ago my wife and I hit a roadblock with our nutrition and we couldn’t figure out what was happening. After a few weeks of examining our grocery bills, meal plans, and how we felt I noticed something. We weren’t eating how we ate when we felt our best. We both thrived taking in 1 gram of protein/pound of bodyweight. We went back to this approach and within two weeks we couldn’t believe a simple oversight made such an impact. It’s two fold because when you’re full from eating steak and chicken, potato chips aren’t as desirable.
Strength is King
As we age, we lose strength and our ability to do things for ourselves. When people go to physical therapy, it’s to gain strength. You don’t have to obtain world class strength, but the higher your base level of strength as you age the better you will be. People hurt because of a weakness, not because an area is too strong. Having strength will outperform every longevity hack that you can purchase.
Sleep, Sleep, Sleep
When people have babies, they work to get them on a sleep schedule as soon as possible. As we become adults we throw that out the window and then we’re constantly out of rhythm with our energy and hunger. Turn off the tv and give yourself a bed time and a wake up time. This was the most amazing thing I’ve done in my adult life thanks to the suggestion of my wife.
Train your Heart
Your heart is a muscle and should be trained like all of your other muscles. Walking daily is a great way to address this. We should add in 1-2 higher intensity aerobic activities at the end of a workout or on their own each week. The same way your muscles adapt to weight on the bar, the heart adapts to small bouts of stress. Start slow and increase slow over time.
Less is More
In a world demanding more of everything, try being more effective with less. Less exercises, less variety, but much much more intent. I remember after bench pressing 600lbs, I was stuck in my progress. My wife pointed out that I couldn’t do 10 push ups and struggled to do pull ups. After two months of making push ups and pull ups a focus, my bench started to take off significantly. I had been wasting time looking for the special exercise I wasn’t doing when I had forgotten my foundation.
Train Hard
I mean really hard. There’s always different levels of hard training. Once you learn to tap into that, I don’t think you’ll ever lose the ability, but it takes practice to maintain. When people would come to Westside Barbell, they were always amazed at hard the training was. Sometimes the secret is in sweat and determination. If you ever think you’re training hard and focused, go train with someone at a high level, even if their exact discipline is different. There will be a lot to learn from a new perspective.
Know Your Goals
It’s always interesting that people look online searching for the answers before they have clearly defined their own goals. Asking someone to answer the question you don’t even know yet is ineffective. If you want to lose 20lbs, ask yourself why that is, how your life would change, immediate challenges, and work arounds for those challenges. Then determine a time frame for these goals. This gives you a large outline to succeed.
Nick Showman
Showtime Strength & Performance