Then there's exercising once in a while. It's a good thing, we must suppose. It's like putting money in the bank, once in a while. In a while, in five or ten years, you might be able to take a vacation. That's a good thing. Same with exercise. Surely there must be some good thing about making yourself tired once in a while. Whatever that advantage would be. It doesn't seem clear how randomly stressing your unconditioned body every three or four months is safe or reasonable. But there must be benefits. Lots of benefits. And hardly any of the bloodclots and chunks of cholesterol that are pried loose from your veins won't lodge in your brain ... er, hardly any will lodge. And those flabby muscles won't spasm and those brittle tendons won't tear. Hardly ever. Yes, overall, exercising violently once in a while is a really good and smart and prudent thing to do. Y'think?
And then there's training. The gradual and progressive stressing of your body according to an intelligently designed plan. So that the body has time to adapt, to grow and strengthen not in some haphazard way, not as if you were fleeing wildfires or in a war or some other catastrophe. You know, rational. Warm up. Start slow and easy. Gradually increase intensity, both per session and over weeks and months. Don't overtrain. Work toward specific, measurable goals. Schedule down-time, then set new goals.
Just about everybody on the planet has said to themselves, I'm gonna git in shape! Yet hardly anyone is in shape. Hmm. It's not about inspiration. It's about motivation, by which we do not mean wanting to do something. Motivation has in it the idea of motility. Motion. It's not about emotion. Emotion is great, and if that will cut it for you, go for it. But that rather makes the issue of working out one of mood. Shall we be subject to our moods? Oh, I don't feel like working out today. To which there is hardly any response. Yes, you do too feel like working out today? That's just a lie. You'll work out or I'll shout at you unpleasantly? How rude. You'll work out or else? Sounds like a civil rights violation. Quick, call the ACLU.
Part of the problem is that folks don't have a clear idea of what being in shape means. It really isn't about shape. It's about improved function. There are, after all, the mirror muscles -- the prettyboy muscles that the teenagers see in the mirror and think that's all that matters. So you see these dudes with the big manly pecs and the soft curvy womanish backs. Androgynous. These boys do indeed have the shape they think they want. But they're not really in shape.
To put it simply, it's about a few simple movements.
Whatever you push, you should pull. Muscles work in opposition to each other. If you don't work both functions, you'll get imbalanced, which means you will get injured. If you do crunches, do back extensions. If you do pull ups, do overhead presses. If you do bench presses, do rows. The upper body does only two things: it pushes and it pulls. So push and pull. Easy.
But two-thirds of your muscle mass is below your waist. So work your legs. Squats, box jumps, runs. Avoid those leg machines -- we may talk about why, some time. If you do use them, consider that when you walk up stairs, you're carrying all your weight on one leg. So why would you do leg presses with 40 pounds?
The point is that the weight room, or weight training, isn't about moving weight. It's about hormones. The clearest way to send the message to your brain to get the hormones working, is to use a lot of weight. Hey brain, I'm really working here, better make me stronger. This is why lifting a pencil a thousand times doesn't give you big muscles. No matter how big your sexy biceps are, they're still relatively small muscles. By engaging major muscle mass, like glutes and quads, the signal to the brain is clear enough to be overwhelming. Your neck will get stronger, just from the extra hormones in your blood.
For weight training, then, it's really about simplicity. Squats, deadlifts, chinups and overhead press, dips and rows. Curls? Please. Don't. What do you suppose chinups do? Wrist to shoulder ... why, that's just like curls!!! But you're also hitting the delts and the back and the abs and the shoulders and all the little stabilizer muscles in the forearms. It's a smart and natural movement. Curls are for prettyboys. People will be so impressed with my massive muscular manly macho guns. Grr. And just overlook the fact that I have deltoids like a twelve year old girl.
There is no natural movement that curls mimic. Muscles do not function in isolation. It's a nice theory, and if you really want to work out according to the Frankenstein theory, one bodypart at a time, by all means do so. And it does indeed work, the generally ineffective bodybuilder model, if you have the genetics for it, and the steroids. But for normal people it's not such a great idea. Don't believe it? Look at the average guys in the gym. They've read the magazines and are doing the prettyboy workouts, and not making any real progress.
Do as few movements as is reasonable, work with real time-intensity while you're working, give yourself time between workouts to recover and build, and stick with it. Do more every workout -- either a little more weight, or another rep up to your goal. When you hit your goal reps, of say ten, time to add weight. If you can only do eight reps, keep that same weight and do nine or ten the next workout. Then add weight. Simple. It's not the only way. Maybe it's not even the best. But it's really good, and that's good enough, compared to all the garbage ways of doing things. Before you can be elite, you have to move through adequate.
Strength training makes your bones denser and your skin thicker. It ups your HGH and testosterone levels. It makes you measurably more youthful. It regulates insulin and increases your metabolic rate. You use a hundred calories per day, for every pound of muscle you add. That works out to 8 pounds of fat each year, burned just keeping your new pound of muscle warm. Pretty good deal.
Strength is important. But it's only a part of overall fitness. That's why we're called FitWorks, and not StrengthWorks. We don't call ourselves EnduranceWorks or SpeedWorks or FlexibilityWorks either. FitWorks, because it's about the complete package -- doing everything, and doing it well. Sounds like a good thing, right? It's not like we invented the idea, of competence. It just seems that way sometimes. Be sensible.
Be excellent.
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