od Gusep » pát 01. lis, 2013 12:03
Text z newsletteru anglickeho UltraFit magazinu, velmi vystizny v dnesnej dobre mega-brutal-hardcore-wod-kruhacov:
Back in the 1986, singer Billy Ocean released on of his greatest hits album - When the going gets tough, the tough get going. I don’t think for a minute that Mr. Ocean wrote this song about health, nutrition and exercise but as a theme, it couldn’t be closer to the truth.
Whenever I talk to lapsed exercisers, they are all very keen to tell me what they USED to do. I’ve heard about ultra-tough workouts, extreme training regimes and super-strict diets but, it’s very rare I hear about long-term consistency.
Fitness – play the long game...
The thing is, when it comes to exercise and nutrition, it’s all well and good going for it 100% for a few weeks, months or even a couple of years but all that effort doesn’t amount to a hill of beans if you can’t keep it going more-or-less indefinitely.
I don’t know why but it seems to me that very few people who embrace fitness extremes actually stick with it long term – and by long term I mean for the rest of their natural lives. Of course there are exceptions like the chap I saw on TV recently who, at the age of 75, was still playing competitive football or my friend's father who is a nationally ranked distance runner despite being almost 80. For every one of these amazing examples, there are 20 who have fallen off the fitness wagon and never managed to re-mount it! I’ve lost count of the number of overweight ex-bodybuilders I’ve met over the years who still love to reminisce about their glory days but don’t even set foot into a gym anymore. In one case, one of them actually owns a gym so go figure that one out if you can!
Ex-competitive sportsmen and women are just as bad. How many times have you seen photos in newspapers of once-legendary sports personalities looking like physical train-wrecks having completely stopped exercising? I understand that when sport is your job you might want to stop training so hard when you don’t need to but is there really any reason to stop exercising completely and become a slob? I don’t think so!
Celebrities – fit one week, fat the next!
Actors and pop stars are no different. My wife reads those trashy women’s magazines (I won't quote what she says about my magazine's of choice!) and I must admit I often take a quick scan at the pictures. I’m often amazed at how many celebrities are one week preaching from the fitness pulpit and the next week photographed looking like they live on beer and chips.
The problem with extreme approaches to fitness is that they are so far away from the homeostatic norms that more often than not they encourage an all or nothing approach. It’s almost as though followers of very extreme regimes, like prisoners in a jail, think they deserve time off for good behaviour! Sadly, you can’t store fitness and it’s only through sustained effort over a prolonged period of time that you will see lasting changes in your health and fitness.
To a certain degree, I’ve been at the wrong end of the exercise spectrum a few times during my sporting pursuits. As a young triathlete, I trained twice a day for months on end. Initially I was okay, racing well and feeling fit but inevitably, my body broke down, I got weaker, slower and was frequently ill. I eventually dropped out of the sport altogether despite having shown some real competitive promise. Now, over 25 years later, the thought of running more than 5km still makes me shudder. Had I exercised a more cautious approach, I may well still be tri-ing today.
In some ways, my intense flirtation with endurance sport may have been a blessing because it sent me to the polar opposite training modality of strength training – something I love more and more as each year of training rolls by.
Exercise and nutrition: Moderation and consistency rules!
As I’ve gotten older, I have developed a much more balanced view of fitness and exercise. Extremes are okay if you have a specific goal in mind but if you are in it for the long term benefits, I strongly recommend a more conservative approach to getting and staying in shape. Remember, you have to be in it to win it. You can’t absorb fitness by osmosis – you actually have to turn up week after week to earn the benefits that exercise has to offer and if this means adopting a more moderate but sustainable approach to exercise then so be it.
I’ve used a lot of homilies in this editorial but I think there is room for one more – A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step. In other words, if you are going to complete your journey, you need to take it steady! If you sprint like the clappers at the start, you probably won’t cross the finish line.
Whatever you choose to do to keep yourself in tip-top condition, make sure that it is sustainable. Not just for a week or a month but year-after-year-after year. That way you’re more likely to still be in great shape in your golden years rather than catch yourself telling people how fit you USED to be in your youth!
Wishing you a happy, healthy and active weekend,
Patrick Dale
ultra-FIT contributing editor and author of "Military Fitness" and "Live Long, Live Strong" and “No Gym? No Problem? The DIY Workout Bible”.
Gusep