Fitness By Greg - You Are A Work In Progress...For The Rest Of Your Life!

Commit to fit! This is what is important. The weight will take care of itself. A personal trainer can show you what to do, but they cannot feel what you feel when you do it. Your ability to absorb this attitude into your psyche and permanently imbed it is key to the ongoing development of your body. From this point on, please understand that you are the benefit of yesterday. This is true for every day of the rest of your life! You are a work in progress. Movement > Muscle use and resistance > Rest and nutrition > Repeat = Physical change Don’t fall in love with your scale. Brainwashed by “Lose Weight” advertisements that promise this is going to happen, guaranteed, with a certain method makes people think that weight loss is the alpha and omega of wellness. Don’t let the scale become your most prized and used possession. In reality, no one knows what you weigh, unless to tell them. However, people seem to feel their weight is tattooed to their forehead, and everyone can see it, but ask yourself this. Do people compliment others on the amount of weight they have lost or how their physique has changed? The mirror doesn’t lie, but the scale can. Instead of micro-managing my weight as an indicator of fitness success I much prefer to devote my concentration to my workout schedule, my adherence to it, my intake of food and water, rest, waste elimination, etc. I will say this about food. Try thinking about when you eat, instead of what you eat. If you take the exact same quantity and quality of food that you currently consume in, let’s say 3 large meals and then divide it into 5 or 6 meals which are spread out in your day your body will react differently in digesting, distributing nutrients, storing fat, etc. “Eat what you want, exercise like hell!” has been my mantra for many years. It’s a general attitude about nutrition which accomplishes two major things. One, the burden of calorie-counting and worrying about carbs and other buzz words like that is lifted somewhat. Two, you don’t have to be a scientist, a mathematician, or a genius of any sort to figure out when more cardiovascular work is needed to eliminate body fat. The truth is that muscles need to be stressed in order to grow stronger, consistently. Simply put, the more stress put on the muscle, the more that muscle will benefit. The more consistent the stress, the more consistent the growth of the muscle. The stronger the muscle gets, the more and different training the muscle needs to become stressed. Consistency is key. Exercise (Muscle stress) > Recovery (Rest) > Nutrition = Body Change. Another way to say it is to exhaust the muscles, rest the muscles, and feed the muscles. It’s a simple formula, but it takes consistency to train your body to a routine of gradual change over your lifetime. Feel your muscles. It is important to know how you are doing on each and every workout and every workout movement. Every movement doesn’t consistently have the same growth cause and effect every time you make them, and the best way to know what is going on is to feel the muscles. Isolation makes the flexation. Never subscribing to the whole body approach to exercise I separate my body into muscle groups. I use eight groups to focus on, Calves, Leg biceps, Quads, Glutes, Back, Arms, Chest and Shoulders, and Abs. What should I work on today? To alleviate having to think about that on a daily basis, I plan a week at a time what muscle groups and cardio sessions I will be working on, and I plan it every Sunday. It’s not how much weight you use, but how you use the weight. I can make some of the lightest weights feel like a ton simply by slowly making the movement happen and maintaining a flex throughout it. Do it slowly and properly, mentally focusing on the muscles and you will be surprised how little weight you need in order to fatigue a particular muscle group. Don’t fall in love with the movement - Fall in love with the feeling! Each exercise movement is intended to “work” certain muscle fibers. Many movements can actually benefit several different muscles while looking exactly the same in form, depending upon your focus. Act like a kid, not like an adult. Ever notice that kids don’t care about physical stress or strain when they are having fun. They are very physical, with great energy, extreme flexibility, and no worries. We need to recapture that way of life. Each generation has been shirking their duty. Our problem is this. When we are young, no one has to tell us to move for our health, because we have so much new energy to expend. Health interests and concerns seemingly are a non-issue, as it relates to children, and nobody inculcates in us at that age, the idea that we should exercise regularly and specifically in a way to maintain a lifetime of healthy practices. Anything that causes a moan or a groan is worth you working on. Let me correct that statement. Whatever makes you moan and groan is exactly what you need to work on. Life itself is the best teacher of what muscle group and movement to be worked on needs stretching and strengthening. Size up your posture. There is no value high enough that can be placed on the importance of posture, in lying, in running, in walking, in standing, in sitting, in, well life in general. Give yourself permission to be fit. One of the hardest things to do is admit to others (and to yourself) that you have changed some of your behavior. Particularly, if it’s a “forever” change. Remember, it’s a journey, not a destination. So it goes with your journey of fitness! Only you can feel it, but others will see it.