Getting back to basics with fitness

One of the biggest issues that occupies our waking hours is our quest for greater fitness and a better body. Educating yourself on the issues associated with general fitness will help you attain your fitness goals effortlessly. This week, we take a look at some of the fitness factors that you need to pay attention to besides the exercises, sets, reps and technique.

1) Getting educated:

You have decided to embark on the journey towards better health – be it to lose weight, increase your stamina, tone up or increase strength. However, no destination can be achieved without a map or a guideline. You need to research the best ways to achieve your goal and prepare an action plan accordingly.

It is also necessary to talk to experts like one’s doctor, nutritionist and personal trainer. The experts can advise on one’s physical and medical limitations, the diet to be followed and the best methodology to be adopted for attaining better health. A better understanding of the relationship between diet, exercise and weight loss, the body’s metabolism, safe forms and levels of exercise all go a long way in charting a successful action plan and helping achieve one’s fitness goals with greater ease and less chance of injury.

2) Goal-setting:

There is a difference between thinking wishfully of your ideal situation and having a goal and working in a systematic manner towards achieving it. This principle applies to every ambition in life, be it a dream job or weight loss. Make the goal- setting principle a part of your life by adhering to the following points:

a) Set specific and realistic goals on paper, keeping your general health, age, family history, medical condition, current fitness levels and your target fitness level in mind. Also chart your current statistics like height, weight, BMI, key body measurements and keep it as a base yardstick.

b) Include your lifestyle details in mind when setting your goals as your sleep patterns, your stress levels and social life are all things that can impact your exercise plans.

c) Make a list of your challenges and advice from your doctor, nutritionist and trainer and then draw up your plan of action.

d) Include dietary guidelines also in to your goal chart, keeping your regular eating habits in mind. You shouldn’t follow a tough diet where you end up starving all day to get fit. Consult a dietician and follow a healthy diet and a lifestyle that will help you improve your physical fitness. Ensure that you get enough calories from food to keep your energy levels high and blood sugar levels maintained to help you with your workouts and daily tasks.

e) Make sure your goal chart is detailed and includes a comprehensive schedule. Break up your plan of action into short term and long term goals and set clear time frames for achieving your goals. This will help you in staying committed and it will prevent you from making excuses to avoid exercising as you have clearly blocked out time for your workout on each given day.

3) Functional fitness:

Functional fitness, like those available in TUFF and XFit, is a form and level of fitness that will enable you to handle real life situations. We have faced situations or known someone who has muscles worthy of Hercules but who has thrown his back out of joint after lifting a suitcase off the airport luggage carousel. How can someone so tough get hurt doing such a mundane task? Simple - most people train in a gym to achieve their dream body shape but their body is not trained to handle real life situations. Whereas functional training is about training the various muscle groups to work together in an integrated manner. Beyond improved core strength and muscle integration functional training also results in joint stability and reduces the possibility of injuries.

Functional fitness requires you to use your core muscles and strength and support your own weight when you lift anything. In fact it is always a good idea to begin your tryst with functional fitness by learning to balance and control your own body weight. Lack of control of body weight means that while one can use a machine and bench press 500 pounds, they will not be able to control their body to do a one legged squat as their muscles are not trained to work together. With time you can use tools like stability balls and add weights to your workout. This of course doesn’t mean that you ditch your gym machines. It just means that you work with your trainer on your functional fitness too.

4) Weight loss vs. Inch Loss:

Most people join the gym to lose weight. However it would be more advisable to start a fitness regimen to get healthier. Weight loss, a toned body and a great musculature will automatically follow. However people still measure their progress not by focusing on improved health or stamina but by measuring weight loss. Additionally for most people weight loss is the equivalent of slimming down. Slimming down however doesn’t require you to lose weight, as it can also happen when you lose body fat and inches and gain muscle. However people tend to get demotivated when they don’t see their weighing scale reflect a change. Hence it is essential for one to understand the difference between losing weight and losing body fat and focus instead on converting body fat permanently into muscles. In your fitness journey, your body fat will be converted into muscles as you are exercising. The weight scales might be misleading and that’s because your body fat is being converted into muscles. The muscles weigh more than the fat and it may look that you have increased weight but the fact is you are actually building muscles.

While the scale can be your friend when used judiciously, it is also possible to measure progress using other yardsticks, like the fitting of your clothes, inch measurement of your girth and performance tracking. To obtain maximum benefit, use both methods of measuring progress, thus obtaining the bigger picture.

5) Backsliding:

You embarked on a fitness regimen and you have been meeting all your short term goals for the last couple of weeks. Then a bout of cold or flu or the annual audit resulted in you missing your workout for a week or two. Social commitments further delay your return to your fitness schedule and before you know it you are too demotivated to begin again! Don’t be too rough on yourself. Everyone slips up once in a while. The important thing is to get back into your routine as soon as possible. If you have missed out on your workout for more than two weeks, then get back into schedule in a gradual manner. Within a couple of sessions you will be back at your old level of fitness.

The best way to avoid backsliding is to schedule your workout keeping your social calendar in mind. Find a fellow fitness fanatic to get healthy with – this way you will be motivated to stay on course because you will not want to let your partner down and you would not want to be shown up by your partner. Sign up with a gym or a personal trainer who can help you stay on track and motivate you when you are low.

6) Stress and weight gain:

In today’s fast paced life stress is a given. What is not a given is the ability to handle and manage stress. Those who want to get fit and stay fit need to pay attention to their stress levels as stress exerts a huge influence on one’s weight. Stress causes the human body to move into the flight or fight mode, resulting in adrenaline and cortisol being released in to the bloodstream. Stress causes one to experience an increase in appetite and sends out mixed hunger signals and these eventually lead to weight gain. Stressful times lead to people turning to food for comfort and results in emotional eating.

While we cannot do away with stress completely what we can do is change the way we react to stress. We have to adopt relaxation techniques like meditation and go for yoga and even Pilates classes that stretch our muscles and tissues and help release the stress. It is very tempting on really tough days to choose to stay in and binge in front of the television. But these are the days when you absolutely must workout. Surely you must have noticed that on days when you are tightly wound up with stress, a jog will do wonders to lift your spirit and you will return home feeling lighter and energized. Also remember to warm up before you exercise and do some pranayama or breathing exercises before starting on the main part of your workout.