Thursday, June 24, 2010

Intro to Diet and Exercise Part 2: FIT 101


While you are reading this blog, I want you to think about the last time you took yourself out of the chair and participated in a physically taxing activity…Now I want you to ask yourself "How did this help me in the long run?" The truth is, most of our society is "plagued" by preventable diseases. These diseases stem from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, types of cancer, musculoskeletal disease, etc.... True, certain biological make-ups make certain individuals more prone to these diseases. However, fitness as a whole can be thought of as a deterrent for these health issues.

Old age is thought of as a disease. On the contrary, old age is just division of telomeres in our cells. This division is natural and unpreventable. However, preparation for old age creates what is known as successful aging. Right now, weight-lifting and running, yoga, Crossfit, Pilates, etc…are all ways to enhance successful aging and quality of life. If someone is diagnosed with diabetes at age 18, I am willing to bet they will have a much harder time growing and staying active. Physical fitness is not only good for our current health, but it continues on through our aging process.

Long story short, exercise prepares the body for factors that affect how we live and age. Proper preparation for external and possible internal factors puts us ahead of the curve in survival and longevity of life. Get up and get moving.

So how does someone start a fitness program? What's the best way to "get up and get moving"? First off, let's begin with the statement that something is 100% better than nothing. Meaning that we would rather have people getting up and doing anything to better their health and fitness than doing nothing because they are unsure what the best way is to start moving toward their goals and better health. With that being said, the rest of this post will show people what the Ape and I think is the best way to move towards better health, longevity, performance, or whatever you goals may be.

Before you pick the style of training you want to use, start a fitness program, lift a weight, or run a mile, you have to know what you trying to move towards, you have to know what your own goals and expectations are going to be from the fitness program you choose to follow. This is very important; training without goals is just working out. If you don't know where you are trying to get to, it's much easier to get lost and give up. Write down you goals, make them real. I know a lot of gyms and trainers out there that make their clients write down their goals on a big white board. This is NOT for the amusement of the trainers, this is to make the goals real. It's no longer just a thought in your head that only gets verbalized when you're in front of your trainer or have had a few Irish Car bombs.

Once you've figured out what your goals are, whether they are based on performance (Crossfit, Powerlifting, Weightlifting, Football, Rugby, Life) or based on body composition (Weight Loss, Weight Gain, Body Building), then you can figure out you plan of attack. Your "Plan of Attack" is how much Strength, Skill, Mixed Modal Met Cons, or Cardio you need to do in order to obtain your goals. Someone who strictly wants to be the best Powerlifter they can be shouldn't be spending the majority of his time running long distances or doing 40min long Mixed Modal Met Con sessions. Someone who wants to compete at the Crossfit Games shouldn't be training the same way that a Body Builder or a person concerned with Body Compositions is training. Figuring out what's the best mix of these types of training is best for you is the tricky part, and one that is always going to be debated about. My personal opinion is that it comes down to what you are genetically wired to do. Some people are predisposed to being better Endurance athletes and barely have to train to be able to run forever, but really struggle with gaining strength and power. Others, it seems, can just walk into a gym and look at a barbell to get stronger, but have to bust their ass to gain any kind of endurance of stamina. This doesn't mean that if you are naturally an endurance athlete that you can't get ridiculously strong or vice versa, it just means it might be a little tougher for you to get there.

One of the biggest problems I see with people after they pick a plan of attack is that they get stuck in a routine. No matter what your goals are, keeping things constantly varied is a good idea and will get you a lot farther along than sticking with the same routine month after month will. This doesn't mean that you don't need a plan; it just means that your plan shouldn't be the same thing day in and day out for months at a time.

One of the other ways I find to keep you on track is to log EVERYTHING! Kevin Montoya of Crossfit Flex Gym in Lakewood, CO has a great notebook he makes and sells. It allows you to track not only your workouts but your warm-ups, your sleep, your nutrition, your mood for the day, if you did any extra strength, skills, or cardio. It even has some help with nutrition and a place to log PR's. Granted it is geared towards Crossfitters, but can be used or simply an example of the depth of tracking that someone needs to do IF they are serious about getting to the goals they set out and sticking to their plan of attack.

The next step of starting out is actually doing the work, and doing it safely. Pulling a muscle, tweaking your back, or any other injury you can think of can potentially side line you for a long time. Obviously this is not good, and won't help you get where you want to be. The best suggestion the Ape and I can give is practice form. When we first started most of our warm-up time and some of our TV watching time was spent working on form, so that when we did the movements in a workout with weight, we weren't going to hurt ourselves. Practice won't make perfect, but it will make you safer, more efficient and the lifts more effective. This will increase the power output, or your intensity for any of you that have been to a CF level 1 cert, exponentially. Another piece of advice that I had to learn the hard way, DRILL THE HELL OUT OF THE BASICS!!! The more sound you are in the basic movements of your sport the better off you'll be. For you Crossfitter's out there that means Air Squat, Shoulder Press, and Deadlift like it's your freaking job when you first start out. To this day I still work on my squats, presses, and deadlifts almost on a daily basis. No one can practice the basic movements enough PERIOD!

The other aspect of safely making it to your goals, is to know your limits when you first start out. No one became the best in their field overnight. Mikko Sallo and Jason Khalipa didn't wake up the morning of their Crossfit Games qualifiers and decide that that was the day they would start Crossfitting. When you first start out you should be focusing on your form and your recovery methods. Get familiar with Foam Rolling (myofasial release), stretching, contrast baths, dial in your nutrition, and the most forgotten form of recovery, get enough sleep.

After you've determined your goals, made a plan, and while you're religiously practicing form, and drilling the importance of recovery into your head, you have to learn to attack your weaknesses. If you suck at something do it, A LOT! This is really hard for most people because the things they are bad at are also the things they hate doing. Best advice here is simply get over it. Doing the things you suck at is the best way to get yourself to your goals quicker. If you just do the things you are good at you aren't going to get anywhere. This is true no matter whether you want to be a Body Builder or a Crossfit Gamer or anything in between.

Even though you should be doing the stuff you hate, you should still find a way to enjoy what you are doing. If you get a sense of dread and are having to force yourself to train every time you head to your gym, we have a problem. I'm not saying that your workout shouldn't be hard, you should be scared of them, but you should enjoy doing them. If you hate every second of every work out, you are not going to stick to it. Find friends, a gym, an affiliate, or a trainer that you like and enjoy working out at/with. This will increase your chances of enjoyment even on the days where you have to do the things you hate.

I hope this answers more questions then it makes. If you do have any questions, please feel free to post them to comments or email us.