Happy Monday Everyone!
Hope you all had a great weekend. Today marks our first day back at the studio and we welcome back all our campers and personal training clients. Whether you have been training over the shutdown period, or been having a rest, we are here to get you back on track and work with you to reach your health and fitness goals and dreams.
In today’s newsletter I wanted to talk about WHY you NEED to be exercising and HOW you want to be exercising
The WHY
Here is the thing, exercise is SO much MORE than just losing weight. Exercise
- Reduces blood pressure
- Reduces cholesterol levels
- Increases the concentration of high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good” cholesterol in the blood)
- Reduces chances for coronary heart disease
- Increases efficiency of heart and lowers resting heart rate
- Makes heart muscles stronger
- Improves contractile function of the heart
- Strengthens lungs
- Improves respiratory function
- Improves cardiovascular endurance and performance
- Provides more oxygen to body, including organs and muscles
- Provides more nutrient supply to the body
- Reduces chances for stroke
- Helps to alleviate varicose veins
- Increases metabolic rate
- Stimulates digestion
- Makes digestion more efficient
- Stimulates intestinal movements, resulting in better elimination of wastes
- Reduces chances for colon cancer
- Strengthens and develops muscles
I could go on but you get the point
Here is the thing though. I believe the biggest benefit to exercise is our ability to become more resilient, bulletproof and ultimately antifragile
Antifragility is a property of systems that increase in capability to thrive as a result of stressors, shocks, volatility, noise, mistakes, faults, attacks, or failures.
Often things come up in our everyday lives that can be pretty challenging, the internet breaks, we forget to hit save on an important document, a friend gets sick, we lose our job or a horrible virus takes hold.
When bad shit happens, it is all too easy to fall into negative coping behaviours – self victimisation, reacting in anger, self blame, slipping into depression or simply losing hope and giving up.
Exercise is the thing that gives us the ability to handle these situations better. Exercise builds our muscles but it also builds our coping mechanisms.
Simply put, when you exercise you are placing some form of stress upon yourself – you’re lifting a weight that’s on the edge of your comfort zone, you’re running and it’s hard, every part of your body wants to stop and give up BUT you override and push through.
Facing the battle of exercise prepares you to be better in the battles of everyday life.
The gym is a metaphor for everyday life and the obstacle really is the way
For me, this is the number one reason I train. Don’t get me wrong I still enjoy the benefits of being lean and strong but exercise feels good and as a mentor once told me – ‘’it feels good, to feel good’’
I would argue that exercise is life’s best medicine.
When tired it gives you energy
When feeling down, it gives you hope
When suffering from dis-ease, it can have the power to bring you back to ease.
How to exercise?
The how of exercise is a pretty big rabbit hole and much is beyond the scope of this post. That said, here is what I have to say…
Yoga, pilates, gym training – it’s all just movement and the foundation principles are the same or at least they should be in theory.
Foundational principle 1 – First Move Well, Then Move Often
Quality of movement always precedes quantity. Regardless of whether you are going to the gym or choosing to exercise at home it is well worth investing in some form of coaching from a professional.
Even if it’s only for a couple of one off sessions, an external set of eyes, some objective measure of movement and some great cue-ing can make the difference of you reaching your goal vs you getting hurt or injured.
Foundational principle 2 – Protect, Correct and Develop
This is guided by the Hippocratic Oath – first do no harm and then progress in the direction of independence
Protect – Avoiding anything that could cause pain. Pain is a signal to change. It’s your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right.
Correct – Because we humans sit too much, scroll too much, drive too much and type too much, we unfortunately all have some form of limitation or dysfunction within our movement patterns. Now everyone is different. You might have an ankle limitation but I may have a hip dysfunction. A good coach Yoga, Pilates or PT will be able to assess this and give you the corrections to align yourself, off-setting some of the daily wear and tearing of our bodies.
Develop – Get better – get faster, get stronger, get leaner or whatever reason you have for exercise.
Foundational principle 3 – System (the Recipe)
A haphazard approach will always lead to haphazard results. Having a system of standard operating procedure takes you from where you are to where you need to go.
Think of it like a recipe. I have a friend that makes the ‘best’ chocolate cake. He has been mastering the craft of chocolate cake making for 20 years. Now I am a pretty average baker. And there is no way I could make a chocolate cake of such distinction. That is, unless I had a specific plan to follow.
Yes, even I – Paul average baker could make a pretty amazing chocolate cake if I knew exactly what ingredients, how much of each, when to put them together, when to whisk, when to stir, what temperature and how long to bake for.
Following a recipe of someone who has done it, achieved it, spent time mastering it, can and will get you to your outcome.
Conclusion
I am not going to fill you with fluff, I am going to get straight to the point
You need to be exercising. Yoga, pilates, the gym, running, walking, whatever. As long as you’re moving you’re good.
Get some professional coaching. Seek out someone that is qualified vs instagram shredded. Someone that resonates with you and you can see yourself working well with.
Coaching is a relationship and with all relationships there are three levels
1 – you meet my needs
2 – you meet my needs and I met your needs
3 – your needs become my needs
At Results Personal Training we pride ourselves on level 3 relationships. Your needs and goals are our needs and goals.
Paul “average baker” & Krystie “follow my recipe” Miller
Ps – we have a small handful of spaces left in our fitnesscamps. If you want to come and train in a safe space – 3 meter distancing, low volume of people, equipment that only you touch and no one else, expert coaching and a bunch of super warm friendly people
Email us at fitnesscamp@hotmail.com for more details
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