Gulf News speaks to two athletes to find out whether or not they like to track their workouts and calorie intake with a side by side debate.
Yes, you should track
Fiona Fransisca, Regional Training Coordinator and Trainer & Presenter at Les Mills
What makes your workout interesting these days? For many, it’s a competition with themselves. It’s knowing whether you are working hard enough from one day to another, or if you have recovered enough from your previous training, to checking your heart graphs. Or knowing that exact moment when you hit the red zone!
How do we measure all of these factors to keep us motivated? Heart rate monitor trackers are increasingly becoming the answer! There are many in the market at the moment for us to choose from. Depending on the features, function and even the look, people are now using heart rate monitors as a watch they wear daily, in or outside of the gym.
A heart rate monitor are a useful tool to gauge the effectiveness of our workout. Aside of checking the amount of calories burn, we can also track the progression of our fitness.
Heart rate trackers like Polar, give you multiple functions depending on your fitness goals. Athletes, personal trainers, instructors, avid gym goers or fitness newbies can all benefit from what heart rate trackers have to offer. They’ve also partnered with Les Mills, and it’s made logging on to any Les Mills classes via the Polar Flow app easy.
No, you don’t need to track
Alex Cox, Master Trainer and instructor at Flywheel Dubai and Personal Trainer
Have a goal. Definitely. Always. Meet it head on. Achieve it then move the goal posts and set another goal. Simple. Live in the now but planning for the future. Life is what happens when you’re making plans and fitness goals should be included in that. I love to set targets for myself, to keep improving personally, professionally, emotionally and physically but where does it end?
The day you look in the mirror and are completely satisfied is the beginning of the end. Always strive for more. Don’t expect perfection, just try be better than yesterday and a whole lot better than last year. I’m not suggesting that people shouldn’t be happy with who they are, quite the opposite. True power comes from beliefs, dreams, ideology and character, definitely not how much you can shift on the leg press. Nobody will ever reach true perfection, but every day they can get closer. Counting every calorie, every carb, watching every step, and counting every mile may mean you lose sight of what is really important. Life is about the journey, not the destination. Make the most of what you do while you do it.
I make sure that I do what I enjoy doing. Find something you love and you have way more chance of achieving greatness. Too many people get caught up tracking their mileage and nowhere is this more the case than with runners. I never had a great love for running, I’d lose interest after 10-15 minutes, but put me on a football field with 21 other people and a ball and I wouldn’t stop for 90. Sure, running is only a great way to lose weight if you happen to love running. It comes down to motivation. I have run with plenty of clients over the years, some of them are now marathon runners or triathletes, but plenty of them never got the bug. To these people I would say this. Find something else, find something you love, but ask yourself why. If you can satisfy they why you’re much closer to the how.
My body is my second most important tool. I’m a trainer making his living by training, coaching and exercise. I practice what I preach, look after myself, eat fairly well, exercise very well and have a good work life/personal life balance. You’ll notice that it is my second most important tool and that is largely down to the fact that my mind is the first. My body is the vehicle but my mind is the driver. WHY is the most important word and without asking why (and getting a good answer) you will never achieve. I would spend half an hour with every newcomer to work out the “why”. Some are self-motivated, most need help, but they don’t necessarily know why. If your reason for doing something is meaningful the chances are you can’t put a numerical value to it. The intrinsic value is so much more important. It’s about a connection to your heart and soul… not your mobile tracking app.
