A Lifetime of Fitness
Mark Baines MS, PFT, CSCS, PES
Healthy people are more productive. They are absent less from work, have fewer injuries, fewer physical problems, and function better under stress while having a more positive outlook. They tend to live longer and healthier lives. In December of 2001, the former surgeon general, Dr. David Satcher identified excess body weight as an epidemic that contributes to about 300,000 deaths a year. Excess weight also threatens to overtake smoking as the No. 1 contributor to preventable deaths in the United States. The U.S. Center for Disease Control reiterated Satcher’s statements, stating that a lack of exercise is the 2nd leading cause of death in the U.S.
Physicians and health care professionals have recommended increased physical activity as a means of improving the health of sedentary people for the past 300 years! So why are we still unhealthy? As continued progress in industrial mechanization during the later half of the twentieth century continues, health problems at the work site have increased dramatically. This has been proven as a direct result of a lack, rather than an excess, of physical activity. With the decline in physical activity, there has been a dramatic increase to exploit the very limits of human mental performance, with a resultant increase in mental and emotional stress.
If we had a Dow Jones indicator of our collective lives, individual physical labor would be several hundred points down and mental and emotional stress would be several thousand points up and climbing!
What is the most common excuse for not exercising? “I don’t have time”. Where do you find the time for fitness? We smile when people ask how we find time for those things most important to us. It’s easy when it’s important.
Do you check your weight often? The number on your scale is just that…a number. Numbers are far from the only truth. The health standard for bodyweight is the Body Mass Index or BMI. If your BMI exceeds 24.9, you are considered overweight. Keep in mind that I am six feet tall, weighing 190 pounds at 8.5% body fat with a BMI of 25.4. I’m overweight. Therefore, the BMI may not be an accurate measure of a healthy individual.
It is common for Americans to gain about 1 pound a year. What substance that pound is composed of is up to you. It is the body composition that is of greatest importance. Whether you think you are healthy or not, if you don’t know your composition, have it checked. Any more than 2 pounds of fat loss and 1 pound of muscle gain per week is unhealthy and should be avoided. If you lose more than that, say goodbye to vital body fluids and muscle, not the desired body fat loss. When your body is starved and needs calories it eats the muscle first (following liver glycogen of which few individuals have much in reserve). All you have to do to pave the way toward eating muscle is stop eating carbohydrates. Your body can neither metabolize protein nor fats properly without adequate carbohydrate present within your body. Oops!
Three Things You Must Devote Yourself Toward
1 - What you do...Cardiovascular and weight training…You need both to preserve and improve heart and lung health (cardiovascular) and build and maintain healthy tissue (muscle, skin, bone, organ function). The answer to how long depends on how hard and how smart you work (Pilates, and yoga are GREAT, but they are additions and not substitutions for cardiovascular work and resistance training). If you must perform your cardiovascular and weight training back to back, do the weight training first. If you work out longer than 1½ hours hormonal levels decline and progress declines if not entirely stagnates. Weight train first to maximize lean tissue gain and burn fat efficiently. If cardiovascular work is done first, precious energy is lost for weight training and lean tissue building with a decrease in burning of fat calories and depletion of carbohydrate stores. More muscle means more calories burned and a higher metabolism!
But when should you work out?
In the morning? Here you will keep your metabolism
running at a higher rate, burning more calories
throughout the day.
Around mid-day? This has shown to increase mental
alertness for the next 4-5 hours of your work
day.
In the evening or after work? Your body reacts
the most positively hormonally 8-10 hours after
you wake. Here you will have the greatest opportunity
for muscle and tissue development. Choose which one works best for you and fits your
lifestyle and goals.
2 - What you ingest...You say you "looooooove" food? Good, now learn to love good food. Taste lasts a few seconds while the results will last you a lifetime. It’s too hard to eat well you say? Then please don’t complain about your body. When you drastically cut calories (carbohydrates, protein, or fat) your body thinks it is doing you a favor storing fat to be used as fuel later. Eat a balanced diet. This does not mean 33/33/33 any more than it means no carbohydrates or no fat. If you are on a diet that does not pay careful consideration to your WEIGHT, BODYFAT, and DAILY ACTIVITY LEVEL please make sure to recycle the wasted paper.
3 - What you think about… We are but products of our own continuous thoughts. Whatever we choose as our focus, becomes our reality - immediately. See yourself as healthy, slim, and energetic and the picture will aid you in your endeavors. Most people fail to change their lifestyle simply because they feel it is too far out of their reach. You must first see it and believe it FOR YOURSELF if you are to achieve it.
The words quick and easy must leave your vocabulary, you work hard, and you know how hard it has been to get where you are, to make a living, to raise a family, to find time and the means to enjoy life, and being fit is no different. Try this analogy...You are on a flight from Los Angeles to Washington DC...You know how long the flight is...Trying to shorten the flight will only result in a rather long fall... and an even less comfortable landing.
Drastic changes often have disastrous results. Resign yourself to the reality that fitness is a lifelong process. Every time you bail out, you risk never making your destination. There are no shortcuts. They never last. A muscle builds layer upon layer. So too must you work day after day, and you will never look back. You’ll never regret it. When was the last time you truly appreciated something you achieved with little to no effort? Continue on your path to ultimate success.
