Everyday Fitness

With any new undertaking, it's one thing to read about and prepare for what you're about to do. It's another thing to do it. In actually carrying out a new task, trial and error finds what works, what doesn't, and what the whole experience means to you. Now when I say "any new undertaking" I mean anything; not just fitness related. Take a relationship for example: dating advice from your friends is no where near as valuable as what you learn from the date itself.

But I digress, let's get back to exercising. I guess you could say by now, I'm a gym veteran myself. It's been about 2 years of consistent working out. And if I had to sit a keen novice down and share my wisdom, here's some of the most important things my experience has taught me:

1. To both gain and lose weight, diet is more important than anything else. Eating whole/natural foods makes counting calories almost unnecessary; it's high sugar and fatty processed foods that tend to make you go overboard on calories.
   
2. We should be getting less carbs in our diets, and a lot more fat. The low-fat scare shifted everyone to eating more carbs and guess what; people got fatter.
   
3. Don't bother meticulously timing your meals; eat when you're hungry, drink when you're thirsty. Listen to your body.
   
4. Eating 6 meals a day is no better than eating 3 a day either. In the end, net calories is what matters.
   
5. You can gain or lose 10 lbs a week in water; don't mistake this for incredible fat loss when starting a new diet.
   
6. There is no such thing as spot reducing fat; your body burns fat evenly.
   
7. Health supplements are a business just the same as any other product. Their claims are exaggerated or outright fabricated to get your money. Coffee is and probably always will be the best (legal) performance enhancer there is.
   
8. If you want to get better at a particular activity or exercise, do that particular activity or exercise.
   
9. It's better to prevent poor health in the first place than try to reverse it. There's never a bad time to start working out though, no matter what physical condition or age. Muscle and fitness are easier to maintain once you have them; the road to get there may be more trying on your willpower.
   
10. Size does not equal strength.
    
11. Working out more often does not mean more results. Exercising less often can give better results; you need to lift heavy to get stronger, not necessarily daily. Plus you'll save time.
    
12. Gyms may have some useful tools you don't but a gym or equipment aren't required to be fit.
    
13. It takes a weekend to become a personal trainer; experience is what makes someone qualified to train, not a certificate.
    
14. It's important to be realistic with your abilities and leave your ego at the door; lifting heavier is worthless if you aren't exercising properly.
    
15. One of the best things you can do for your health is try new things, and see how your body adapts. Variability is what leads to growth.
    

I never miss a day at the gym but today I felt so tired I didn't go. This was the first time in 7 months that I ever missed a day. Will it cause me to gain fat because I didn't do a lot of walking today, maybe 60 minutes of activity all day? I took in less calories than usual... Is this ok?

This above quote from the BodyBuilding.com Forums, inspired by a similar conversation I had with a friend recently.

Alright alright, I know I made a big fuss about exercise being a part of your life, and not skipping days. However, there's a line that needs to be recognized. If you are legitimately too tired and sore from your last work out, your body may benefit from an additional days rest. So even if you're used to exercising say, Mon-Wed-Fri, maybe one time you just aren't ready to exercise Friday after Wednesday's workout. Maybe you need to push that workout to Saturday instead. And that's perfectly fine, because there's a lot of factors that go into recovery: what time of day you work out, the food you eat, other physical work you do outside the gym, how much sleep you get, etc.

Matter of fact, I like taking a whole week off every few months to give my body a complete rest; this is called deloading. Deloading can trick you though! It's like my mind equates post-workout soreness with being bigger and stronger. So once that soreness leaves by the end of a deload, I feel small and weak; don't let this fool you. Once you do get back to the gym, you'll hit the weights with the fury of an angry god!

Just something to think about. In health and fitness, there's a lot of myths out there about what one should do to reach their goals; regardless of what science says about the validity of these myths. This video says a lot about general public views on some pretty common health care topics as well.

This is a serious concern I hear from beginners. It runs along the same idea as women who don't exercise because they "don't want to get big muscles," and "look like a man." Simply put, this will not happen. If anything, this sort of thing sounds like an excuse not to try. So, why won't looking at a dumbbell turn you into this?

Well, it takes a lifetime of dedication to body building to achieve anything close to Ronnie Coleman's physique. It has to be your full time job. You need fabulous genetics that the average person doesn't have. It takes lifting hundreds of pounds. You need to stuff your face with as much food as humanly possible to the point of exhaustion. Not to mention it takes a whole lot of anabolic steroids and hormone therapies.

The typical gym go-er like me will never reach this level without divine intervention. Neither will any woman who doesn't take her fair share of steroids. This isn't an overnight transition either; as I said, it takes a lifetime of dedication. Doing one extra set of curls won't accidentally cause you to wake up with 225 lbs of lean body mass. If you ever reach a point in exercising where you like your build, then stop pushing yourself to lift heavy weights; do a lighter comfortable amount.

No more excuses not to workout!

I say "steroid" because it isn't a steroid by scientific definition. First of all, myostatin is normally made in the body to stop muscles from growing. So the idea is this: block myostatin from working and you get muscle growth. This most certainly turns out to be the case. Clinical trials involving myostatin inhibitors are intended for treating diseases of muscle wasting, like Duchenne's muscular dystrophy.

However, the obvious implications in competitive sports are hard to ignore. Myostatin inhibitors have the potential to achieve the desired results of anabolic steroids with none of the traditional draw backs. We've found cases of animals, and even the odd human, who lack myostatin in their bodies. A perfect example is the Belgian Blue breed of cow. Look at that beast! Scientists have been able to engineer mice with similar genetic changes as Belgian Blue cows. This link shows normal mice in the first column, genetically engineered mice in the second column, and mice treated with a myostatin inhibitor in the third column. Follistatin is one of the current therapies in development to block myostatin.

So what about human examples? There's little Liam; here's an exerpt from another blog:

"He could do the iron cross when he was 5 months old," said his adoptive mother, Dana Hoekstra of Roosevelt Park. She was referring to a difficult gymnastics move in which a male athlete suspends himself by his arms between two hanging rings, forming the shape of a cross.

Liam has the kind of physical attributes that bodybuilders and other athletes dream about: 40 percent more muscle mass than normal, jaw-dropping strength, breathtaking quickness, a speedy metabolism and almost no body fat.

Liam can run like the wind, has the agility of a cat, lifts pieces of furniture that most children his age couldn't push across a slick floor and eats like there is no tomorrow -- without gaining weight.

Liam Hoekstra was hanging upside down by his feet when he performed an inverted sit-up, his shirt falling away to expose rippled abdominal muscles. It was a display of raw power one might expect to see from an Olympic gymnast. Liam is 19 months old.

It makes you wonder how many Olympic athletes have altered myostatin genes...

Alright, what I'm about to write is the one thing you must know to lose weight. Promise to keep this guarded with your life... Okay, here it is:

Calories eaten < Calories burned = Weight loss

That's it, that's all there is to it. You need to eat less calories than your body needs in a day, and it will make up the difference by burning fat. I hate seeing so many ads on countless websites claiming you can get ripped in 2 weeks, and all you have to do is pay them $XX.XX for their product to do so. That's actually what inspired the title of this post; sort of a tongue in cheek way to lead into things.

• No magic pill, herb, or formula will do it for you.

You don't even have to exercise to lose weight, but it certainly helps. And why not do so to reap all the additional benefits of working out? Now, down to the heart of the matter. In order to eat less calories than you burn in a day, it helps to have an idea of how much you burn! A useful BMI Calculator site can help you work this out. First of all, find your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) with one of these formulas:

Pounds and Inches
Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight) + (4.7 x height) - (4.7 x age)
Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight) + (12.7 x height) - (6.8 x age)

Kilos and Centimeters
Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight) + (1.8 x height) - (4.7 x age)
Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 x weight) + (5 x height) - (6.8 x age)

Your BMR is how many calories you would burn if you sat completely motionless 24 hours a day. Which realistically, isn't how we live. Even if you watch TV all day you still get up to eat and go to the bathroom! So, you multiply your BMR by a certain factor depending on your level of activity:

1. If you do little or no exercise : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
   
2. If you do light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week : BMR x 1.375
   
3. If you do moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week : BMR x 1.55
   
4. If you do hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week : BMR x 1.725
   
5. If you do very hard exercise/sports or a physical job : BMR x 1.9

Whatever your resulting number is, eating less calories will cause you to lose weight. Eating more calories will cause you to gain weight, if that's your goal. Remember, a pound of body fat is worth 3500 calories. If you can eat 500 calories less than you burn each day, that's 1 pound a week. That's a reasonable and easily reachable goal. Even though quick results would be nice, trying to lose too much too fast can really put a strain on your body and lead to binge eating, ruining all your hard work. Staying realistic will keep you on the right track!

In this 2006 report, Statistics Canada puts 2/3 of Canadians at overweight or obese. That should sicken you. There's no end to the list of negatives involved in being overweight. Your mood, physical health, appearance, and overall quality of life; not to mention the inevitable burden on society when it comes time to take care of your failing body.

Also, research shows that overweight people are most often viewed as lazy, incompetent, overindulgent, sloppy, slow, and unintelligent. None of these things may be true about an overweight person, but it's how they're most often stereotyped. And that won't help you get ahead in life.

Seriously, two thirds! Since when did abnormal become the new normal? As a society, over eating or poorly taking care of one's self shouldn't be tolerated. Obesity needs to become the new smoking. Like it was put in the movie "Super Size Me" I believe; we might leer at a smoker and say, "what are you doing? Don't you know smoking is bad for you?" The same needs to happen with poor eating, as insensitive as it might seem to some.

I'm no psychology major, but I've heard of research that suggests people are more likely to act a certain way if they risk facing the scorn of their peers, rather than behaving that way for their own good. Sounds like the case to me; overweight people have a hard time kicking the habit for their own sake, and they may not feel pressure to have to. That's because being overweight is tolerated in day to day life, since we're supposed to be accepting of other peoples' appearance. But obesity is more than just appearance. It's killing our species.

Let's get it right Canada

Adapted from an AskMen article, and a few other odd sources:

10. Better sleep
Regular exercise has been shown to improve the quality of sleep.
9. Better aging
Working out maintains skin and muscle tone, flexibility, and aerobic capacity as you get older. Exercise also helps prevent age related conditions like osteoporosis by maintaining bone density.
8. Better health
Working out improves immune function, and stimulates immune cell production or function.
7. Better mind
Exercise does more than just boosting your body. Working out has been shown to increase memory, reaction time, and concentration. Studies show activity stimulates parts of the brain associated with attention and goals.
6. Better confidence
Ask yourself this: do you feel better about yourself after working up a sweat, or melting into the couch eating a bag of Lays. That body and strength you're working towards is definitely a confidence booster.
5. Better stamina
It may seem counter-intuitive, but working out actually gives you more energy. This helps you get through the day and help stave off naps, which can ruin a good night's sleep. If you find you don't have the energy to drag yourself to the gym, do it anyway. In a few weeks getting to the gym won't be a problem with all the added vitality.
4. Better mood
Working out relieves tension, making you feel less jittery and anxious. Endorphins released after exercise improves your mood, and causes a state of relaxation. This can help with motivation, making it even more likely that you'll eat right and make it to the gym next time.
3. Better sex
It's been proven; working out increases the drive and satisfaction of sex. Even a little regular exercise helps increase blood flow, endurance, and hormone levels that contribute to sex.
2. Better body
As if this one isn't obvious enough. On top of the physical looks, people who work out have a lesser chance of suffering from heart disease, strokes, obesity, diabetes, and yes; even cancer.
1. It's fun!
Go for a nature walk, take salsa dancing. Whatever you like doing; do it.

The way I see it, gyms has three basic parts to it:

• Cardio machines:
  This is where you find treadmills, ellipticals, stair-climbing, exercise bikes, and rowing simulators to name a few. The cardio section is where you want to be if your goals are losing weight and improving endurance.
  
  
• Weight machines:
  This is where you find unique machines for specific motions, with adjustable stacks of weight for resistance. Weight machines are a great place to start if you're new to working out. I'm not going to focus much on these because most of what you can do with machines, you can and should be doing with free weights instead.
  
  The reason? Machines are built so that you move through a guided track, only working the primary muscles. With free weights, you need to use stabilizing muscles to keep the weight on track, on top of the primary muscles. Imagine you're holding a weight in your hand and lifting it straight up above your head. Not only do you push the weight in an upward motion, but you also keep it from falling forward, or falling off to the left or right, etc.
  
  
• Free weights:
  Probably the most versatile section of the gym. Free weights can be used for building muscle, increasing strength, and defining your body. It's really unfortunate that more women don't take advantage of free weights, and the biggest reason I hear is because they're afraid they'll get big man-like muscles.
  
  This simply isn't true.
  
  For one, it takes intense training with heavy weights to gain size; using lighter weights instead will shape the muscle that's already there, giving you a defined and fit look. Primarily though, women don't have the testosterone it takes to put on that kind of mass.
  

Honestly, if you're new to this scene and have no idea what to do at first, just mess around and find some exercises you like. Building a routine will come in time. If have any questions on how to use any of the equipment don't be afraid to ask someone. You want to be safe and prevent any injuries. I know where I'm at, most people that go to the gym are just loving life and won't hesitate a second to help people out. On that note, one of the many benefits to working out is the endorphins; human-made morphine that get's released during strenuous exercise. This loving life feeling is also know as the "runner's high." I'd say aim to be at the gym for at least an hour three days a week, or more. I find it works best for me to get up a little early and hit the gym before class. Some people prefer to go after work, while they're already up and out of the house. Maybe you're a "before-bed" gym go-er? Not to be overlooked, weekends present a pretty open schedule for fitting in fitness. Pick a time that suits you best, and that you won't have a problem making consistently! Expected posts in the future: 1) Starting to eat right

The first thing I want to make clear is that being active can't be a hobby. I believe this is why most people fail at living a healthy lifestyle. Staying active has to be a part of who you are just as much as your personality. It has to be a part of your day just as much as going to sleep at night.

So what can you do about getting some physicality into your day? Most people realize you can sneak in simple heart-healthy exercise doing things you already do, just doing them differently. For example:

• You're going to get to class/work; why not bike?
  
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator whenever you're faced with the option.
  
• If you're going out for lunch, why not leave the car behind and walk instead?
  

Once you get in the mind-set of changing the way you do mundane things, no doubt you'll find even more ways to squeeze in activity.

Ultimately though, it's also a good idea to invest in a gym membership. Don't get me wrong! Walking and taking stairs are better than nothing. However, I push the gym for a few reasons. The weather doesn't always permit biking to work, for one. But most importantly, normal daily activities like walking can't compare to the efficiency and versatility of working out at the gym. Now I know gym memberships are notoriously at the butt of sitcom jokes, but you're not going to let it go to waste, right?

Try this for yourself; keep a log of how you spend every hour of your "average day." You'd be surprised at what you find! In my case, I didn't plan my time what-so-ever. I would sputter around aimlessly on my computer and procrastinate from doing anything productive. Not for lack of motivation--mind you--but by not laying out goals for the day, it went down the drain. Eventually, I found that having a mental idea of what I'd like to accomplish in the next hour or two kept me focused, and freed up an enormous amount of time I'd otherwise waste sitting around thinking, "what should I be doing?" It's not like you have to keep a play-by-play itinerary; it's as easy as actively thinking about what you're going to do with the "here and now." 


Remember, you want to make working out a part of who you are. So for the next little while, finding exercise that you find fun and enjoy is key. Now, the gym can be a foreign and scary place for some people, but don't let intimidation get the best of you! I'll give a basic guide on getting started in my next post.

Expected posts in the future:
1) Learning your way around the gym
2) Starting to eat right

Who has time to make proper meals and get to the gym these days?

You do!

No really, you do. You just don't realize it yet. Too often we put taking care of ourselves on the back burner. We're distracted by our studies, by our work, by our social lives. But let me ask you; who is all that time and effort for?

You!

Well, our social life benefits our friends too, but for the most part all of this hard work we do for ourselves. So why is it that taking care of our bodies ends up on the bottom of the list?  Spiritual philosophy aside, our bodies are the very core of our existence. Your body is what allows you to live, and taking proper care of it determines how long (and how well) you live. It only makes sense that we give our bodies as much effort--if not more--as we do any other responsibility.

Think of our ancestors; did they spend half their day chasing that next big promotion? No, they spent their time chasing gazelle to nourish and strengthen their bodies. Quite frankly, I picture those spear-throwing-loincloth-wearing neanderthals face palming at what monkey's we've become. Monkeys soullessly submitting this idea society whispers in our ear; that time is money and we just don't have time to be healthy.

Now, I'm not saying go quit your job and run around half naked chasing deer. My point is, you can't let your social obligations distract you from taking care of yourself. You need to find the time to stay active and eat right; trust me, that time is there! Not only is it incredibly rewarding, but it's actually quite easy. You just need to know how. That's what I hope to accomplish with my blog; to let others know a few simple ways to make numero uno, numero uno!

Expected posts in the future:

• Starting to get active
• Learning your way around the gym
• Starting to eat right