Hello. I hope you are having a great day. Understanding the 3pillars needed to achieve a healthy and maintainable body weight is the subject for today.
If you are reading this, you are taking steps toward a healthier lifestyle, or you are contemplating doing so. Either way, there are a few things that must be in place to make your goals a reality. Reaching and maintaining a healthy body weight requires diet, exercise, and behavior modification. I am sure you already guessed diet and exercise, but behavior modification is just a critical to your goals. The ability to identify and alter destructive habits is key to success.
Pillar 1: Exercise
Many people grind away for hours doing various types of exercise. I know clients who are working out 3-5 hours a week in the gym, running or walking at home, and adding various other activities to lower body weight. All those things are great if you can do, but why such volume? If you like doing that or you are training for some event, then ROCK ON! But, there may be a problem if you are doing that much volume to maintain or modify body composition. Here is the short version. All competitive athletes train hard, but they train in very specific cycles to prevent injury and burnout. They do not rely on the physical training alone. They understand it is part of a greater picture. The average person does not need that much training volume. It is safe to assume most non-athletes training this way are doing it to burn as many calories as possible for weight management. I would bet money they are also training this way because their diet is lacking in some area. This is a method to compensate for poor dieting. The “I ate ______ calories yesterday, so I have to burn them off” mindset. There are a plethora of reasons this type of thinking is bad. Chief among them is turning exercise into a punishment for less than ideal eating choices. I’ll cover more about that in later articles.
Exercise should be enjoyable and maintainable to achieve your best results. Most current research suggests the average person should strive for 2.5 hours a week of vigorous or moderate exercise, adopt informal and formal training routines, and make the sessions fun. Doing exercise that you enjoy will make the journey sustainable for months or years. Remember, consistency is paramount for reaching your goal.
The best results come by using large muscle groups and full range of motion exercises. Simple and effective is the hallmark of a safe and dependable routine. Another big bang for your buck method is to combine a lower body strength exercise with an upper body high energy exercise (and vice versa). Dr. Arthur Steinhus reportedly created the original method (called the Peripheral Heart Action). The logic behind the science is to allow one group of muscles to rest while another group exerts effort. This type of circuit training helps slow the build-up of lactic acid (which some people contribute to muscle fatigue). The result is greater muscle endurance and better workouts. Again, super simple to do with a maximum benefit.
If you don’t want to dedicate too much brain power towards developing an exercise program, then go K.I.S.S. (Keep It, Super Simple). Start by walking a little each day and add one block every third day. Before you know it, you’ll be walking several miles a week. Here is another one, join a recreational sports club. Playing on a volleyball team, kickball team or any organized sport will count toward your weekly fitness marker. Also, the team practices and games will help hold you accountable. One of my favorites is to play Ninja Turtles with my 2-year-old grandson. He is Leonardo, and I’m Raphael. Together we slay all the monsters hiding throughout the house, running around from room to room, hiding in closets or wherever we need to attack the monsters. Keeping up with the energy reserves of a 2-year-old is a pretty good challenge (plus he loves to spend time with Pops).
Well, next week will cover the second pillar of a healthy body weight, dieting.
