Fitness from Humble Beginnings (but just start!)

Take a moment and think about the fittest person that you know. 

What does well rounded fitness look like? Being well rounded means that it is not just a single facet. Focusing on just running, or lifting weights, or yoga develops a component of fitness while leaving out the areas that are unaddressed by that training mode. 

A reliable regimen will: 

-build and maintain valuable muscle, 

-provide stamina and endurance, 

-train the body to recover from demanding physical efforts, 

-cultivate the ability to move the body through natural ranges of motion as well as having enough strength to lift external objects or loads, 

-nourish the body with fuel for energy and keep the body at a healthy body weight and muscle/fat composition 

Whew, that is a tall order! 

It can be hard to imagine a program that can do all that which doesn’t impose a demand on time, effort and commitment. Odds are that the fit person that came to mind has made decisions on what to trade off in exchange for being healthier and fitter than average. Those trade-offs may appear very foreign to you right now, but with time and practice those things you let go of, in order to have something better later, won’t seem like such a loss. 

Getting and being fit does take time. Both in terms of length of time to achieve it (affected by the individual’s starting point) and also setting aside the time during the days of each week. We must be on guard from the temptation of something for nothing. There is a price paid to be fit. 

 

The work one must put into it needs to get a priority much higher than is typically seen by most. Left to the scraps of our time and energy, the work will usually not get done. A fit body might be maintained just working out twice per week but it is very hard to reach a noteworthy level of fitness at that frequency. 

How much time does one need to set aside? It depends on how much of a change from the present one is looking to get. Just looking at the CDC’s recommendations for physical activity we find:

-Adults need at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week, such as 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.

-Adults also need 2 days of muscle-strengthening activity each week.

And there are benefits to getting more, even up to 300 minutes each week! Sadly, most adults are not even getting close to the minimum recommendations.  

So if someone wanted to make a change and start to improve, how would that look? 

The Cadillac version would be to sign up at a gym, attend 5-6 days each week doing a combination of strength training with variations of moderate to vigorous intensity movement, and follow an eating plan that focuses on adequate protein and vegetables, healthy whole food source carbohydrates and dietary fats, in portions that don’t support excess body fat. Having friends that also share the same goals and values will help provide a social connection to stay on track. Joining a CrossFit gym along with getting nutrition accountability coaching will accomplish this quite well. Yes, it is an investment but it can really pay off.

Let’s go to the other end of the spectrum, with having no real exercise habits, intentional eating, nor perhaps the funds to join a gym. This person may not be able to see putting aside an hour a day for exercise. Here I would suggest picking one element of activity and one element of nutrition to start. 

Daily Activity: begin with the practice of showing up. Even starting with setting a time each day and walking up and down your stairs for 10 minutes, while not sounding like much, is still 70 minutes more each week than doing nothing because one can’t do everything. After 2 weeks of doing this it is easier to make it 15 minutes each day since you are already the type of person who shows up daily to do 10 minutes. This is now ~105 minutes of exercise each week. 

Next, on 2 of those days, start to add some bodyweight movements or calisthenics. Two to three rounds of 5-10 reps of unweighted squats, push-ups, wall slides will incorporate most of the muscle groups in the body. This is the start of resistance training using the body as the weight to push against. With consistency, the body will get stronger and need more resistance. 

Strength training is good medicine in which the dose increases with time. 

The next step could be to invest in some dumbbells or at least put some weighty items into a backpack that can be held and pushed and pulled. Eventually, a barbell will make training much more efficient and effective, either at home or a gym. You will likely find that your sessions are taking a little longer, going from 20-25 minutes or 30-35 minutes. Odds are you will find that this is still manageable, or you might need to split them up in the day. 

Daily Nutrition: begin with a small simple change, like having protein at 3 meals or eating 4-5 servings of vegetables or fruit each day. Take this one practice and do it every day for 2 weeks. Sounds too simple or too small? Prove it by doing it every day for those 2 weeks and then report back how easy it was 😉. Once successfully done, choose another healthy eating habit to practice. Try eating slowly or stopping before you feel full so you can learn to identify your body’s cues for hunger or satiety. Or replace packaged convenience snacks with fruit. Increase the daily vegetable servings. Add another protein serving to the day. Start to prep and bring snacks or meals to work instead of eating out or hitting the vending machine. Take 2 weeks to practice and troubleshoot each of these and keep doing them while you add the next new habit. Just with the habits listed here could take you about 16 weeks. That could add up to significant change in just 4 months, especially if done alongside the daily exercise practice. 

Maybe you are not at the extreme end of inactivity and nutrition. That’s great! This is just to show that a humble start can still lead to improvement by showing up to practice a little bit of fitness each day. 

Perfection is not realistic, so there will be occasions when your best plans take a hit. This is life and it’s OK. If you can say you do these things more often than not, you will have some surprisingly resilient fitness skills. And you will start to see the above characteristics of a well rounded fitness regimen showing up in your life.

If you need help to find your place on this fitness continuum or want to move to the next level, you don’t have to blaze the trail all by yourself. You can set up a time to talk to one of our coaches for free HERE and see what a good next step can be. It will be worth it, you only get one body so your health is one of your best investments!

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