Fitness Tips

Erik's Weekly Fitness Tip | What If...?

 

What If?

What if I told that you don’t need chiseled abs, well-defined muscular definition, or even a Hollywood A-list star’s body to be fit, strong and healthy?

I get weekly questions asking:

  • How to lose weight
  • How to maintain weight loss
  • What is the best diet to lose weight
  • How do you track calories

First, I love to hear that people are trying to make changes to better themselves.  Second, I’m always happy to help because a small tweak here or there with an easy suggestion can give people a much better chance of success.  It’s a win-win for both us.  While weight loss is a great place to start to regain your health, it shouldn’t be your only focus.  Look I get it, who doesn’t want to look great naked or fit into their favorite pair of jeans?  Everyone does!

But if we look at a long-term health plan for you, looking great naked wouldn’t be at the top of the list of priorities to achieving great health.  Getting stronger would be first.  Your strength as you age will have a direct impact on how much you can do. 

There are the obvious reasons why strength training helps:

  • Denser bones
  • Stronger ligaments & tendons
  • Better balance
  • Maintains muscle mass
  • Decrease your risk of injury,
  • Allow you to continue to do yard work
  • Allow you to continue to do any activity that you love doing
  • the list goes on & on 

More Benefits

The benefits continue as confidence and mental fortitude grow.  “Only the strong shall survive” is a common saying in the strength community.  While the “bros” and “meatheads” spew these words daily…there is some truth here. If longevity is what you are after and by longevity, I mean quality years in your 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90’s I suggest you start picking up some weights.  Your muscles are the motors that move your machine (body), protect those muscles by using them.  I promise you, you cannot go wrong with improving your strength and with most people, strength training brings a positive change with your body composition. 

What Next?

After that your focus should be on better eating habits, portion control, moderate cardio, and mobility and flexibility work like yoga or pilates. 

Fighting Father Time is where my passion lies, I want people living life on their own terms without having to compromise anything because their body is the limiting factor.  I totally understand the pressures that everyone puts on themselves to look great.  It’s just that eating minimum calories for aesthetics, in my opinion, isn’t the best way to go about health and fitness.  I would rather see you eat a little more and have the energy to crush your workouts, feel great, and enjoy life without worrying about a little extra on your frame.

Image Credit: Eddy Klaus via Unsplash

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Erik's Weekly Fitness Tip | To The Over 40 Crowd

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Do You Fall Into This Category?

While everyone needs to be working out, it’s the over 40 crowd that needs health and fitness more than anyone.  

Why?  Because:

  • we are losing a small percentage of muscle mass each year 
  • we are experiencing weight gain 
  • we have loss of bone density,
  • our stress levels are generally higher 
  • mother nature tends to pick on those who neglect their bodies without having youth on their side to be the equalizer

What You Must Be Doing

The 40+ crowd needs to be moving, lifting, and not over-indulging on decadent food. Getting older is not for the faint of heart and can be a mixed bag.  Yeah we’re smarter and certainly care a lot less about things that aren’t important in the big scheme of life, but it sure would be nice to recover a little faster, sleep better, burn off calories quicker, and have the energy that we once had in our younger days.

Every phase of life has its challenges and its good fortunes.  With some hard work, a solid game plan, and some luck we you can turn the second half of your life into some of the best years of your entire life.

Become A Time Fighter

How?

The time fighter club welcomes everyone who has a willingness to exercise and eat healthy most of the time.  Strength training, pilates, yoga, walking or riding your bike all count towards earning your time fighter status.  Let’s not forget being consistent, pushing yourself, and having some fun along the way are all necessary ingredients. 

There of course will be great days and days that bring a challenge, you just need to continue to take action and always be ready for a brawl.

Credit to Phil Ambrose for the Time Fighter analogy - thanks Phil!

Image Credit: Erik Taylor

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Erik's Weekly Fitness Tip | The Wrong Metric

 

Don't Focus On The Scale

Every single person reading this blog has made this mistake - making our scale weight the main metric of determining whether we are successful or not.  I’m in no way saying that you can’t use the scale as a viable resource to help you see progression, because it is.  But the idea of thinking scale weight is the only source to indicate that change has occurred is the wrong way to approach better health and weight loss. 

There is plenty more evidence that there has been improvement in your health and fitness without having the scale to tell you so.  I get it, the scale gives you immediate feedback on whether there has been improvement or not. If there is great, but what if there isn’t? My guess is there is that sinking feeling that you are failing. 

The second thing that happens is you quickly forget all that you have accomplished:

  • you’re able to lift heavier weights 
  • you can sprint up a flight of stairs 
  • you watch your portions sizes 
  • you eat healthier foods
  • you consistently practice these better habits weekly 

These are all ways that you have made progress, none of which have anything to do with the scale.

Don't Set Yourself Up For Failure

Another major mistake is having an arbitrary number as your goal weight.  If this is you, you must reassess your thinking.  Setting an arbitrary number as the goal is a great way to set yourself up for failure and constantly being unhappy with your current state rather than being amazed with how far you have come.  Your ideal weight might be 10 lbs. more than the arbitrary goal weight that you come up with.  

Focus On The Positives

In my experience, when dealing with people whose number 1 priority is to lose weight, is that they need to win the mental aspect first, second, and third.  What I mean by this is people need continual positive feedback to keep momentum rolling.  That feedback can and will come from so many other areas if you take a second to see it.  STOP the freaking madness with the scale!

There are better and more positive ways to judge success:

  • How are your clothes fitting?
  • Has your blood pressure dropped?
  • Has your cholesterol (LDL) dropped?
  • Are you walking or running longer distances?
  • Do you have more energy?
  • Do you have more confidence?
  • Can you lift heavier weights?

These ways should help you feel much better and more positive than that damn number staring you in the face on the scale!

Image Credit: Erik Taylor

Call today for help with your fitness and nutrition goals 310.251.7420

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