Foundations of physical fitness – My view and definition.
The word “foundation” have many meaning to many people, though many the end result is somewhat the same.
It entails some form of low level support for building something else . Take for example foundations for a wall is the steel bars(re-bar) that are inside to hold the concrete, and it is as strong as how many bars are there to reinforce the wall.
The foundations of physical fitness is no different from a building; gravity affects us all and no matter how many ways you cut it, its going to lead back to same thing.
I won’t go as far as to speak about athletic community and specific sports because as of now, I have not specialized in any sport as of yet but I train the general population more. So I have a better understanding on the average Joe or Jane on the street, whom for some apparent random reason wanted to get fit.
First of all, I don’t try to make up my own rules and views on the definition of fitness. I try to fit the definitions within conventions if its reasonable and for more obvious reasons, that its just common sense.
I view physical fitness as the ability to do a physical activity well – short, sweet and most of all simple. I don’t want to use big words which makes no sense at all, things like broad time and modal domains whatever…
So what is physical activity for an average office worker like? – wait that was a rhetoric joke, because it almost nothing.
Clicking on the mouse and staring at the screen 10 – 15 hours a day, and another 2- 3 sitting front of the computer/television screen before finally hopping into bed. Maybe, just maybe once in a while, your boss dumps you a huge stacks of file or some pretty chick/handsome dude needed help with carrying some stuff, and you’ll volunteer.
Doing nothing at all, won’t cause problems right? I mean you did nothing but sit on your ass all day, what problem can there be?
Well quite a bit, depending how bad it is. The best part is that when the idea of getting fit suddenly pops into their little sedentary minds, the first thing they do is engage in some vigorous form of sports or put on a trainers and start jogging 2-3 km then start to think they can do a marathon already…
Don’t get me wrong, I believe something is always better than nothing but when most sedentary slugs do this, they’re actually trying to build the top of the building without laying the foundations, building the ground floor or the floors underneath the roof.
No one with common sense will try to build a peak without a foundation; a roof without anything to support it, stuff don’t just float in the air. Yet, this is whoever who have no clue where to start does. Maybe not so common sense after all.
I know alot of people will say, “Don’t be a wuss…just do it!”
Which is fine if you’re 15 to maybe mid 20 but when you get older, things that you damaged while doing physical activity don’t heal as fast and you need to work to pay bills or your mortgage.
Before someone quotes me out of context, and “over” comprehend my point and start putting words into my mouth -
- All I’m saying is that, unless you get paid while injuring yourself, then fine go ahead and stop reading.
- If you can run your life with a sprained ankle or a bad knee, more power you!
- If being in pain all the time with injuries is your fetish, then what can i say?
If you don’t have such luxuries, fetish or method to work around it then read on…
The foundations of fitness is laid with bricks of strength -
As I said before – you’re up against gravity; your friend, nemsis and alibi all rolled into one.
Gravity is the one thing that makes the difference of a 150kg (mostly fat) vs a 50kg man landing from a jump. I don’t have to expand the magnitude of a “Richter scale experience” by the 150kg man on his ankles, knees and joints.
He could even kill a person if he landed on the right spot.
If your joints/muscles are not strong enough to take such abuse, it is impossible to hold up a structure (your body) with ample support.
Getting stronger is the first priority to cardiovascular conditioning, because seriously… how far do you need to run everyday from your MRT station to your office? Or bus stop to home/flat?
I’m not saying that cardio is useless but in terms of priority, conditioning would depend on the kind of physical activity needed for your everyday life. Doing simple metabolic conditioning in terms of body weight circuits and supersets is ample for a beginners as long as its low impact and moderate intensity.
But a full on 5km run or a hard interval training all the time isn’t the solution in the beginning. Getting stronger is, and if you get stronger everything else will improve together with it.
Strength is the key element to anybody’s fitness, without it you’re just fighting a losing battle with gravity.
When in doubt, do less -
There is a saying – “what doesn’t kill, makes you stronger.”
That is almost true on most parts but what doesn’t kill you also may cripple you. What cripples you make you crippled, period. Unless you plan to compete in the para-olympics, then ignore what I wrote and stop reading.
Laying the foundations of your fitness need not be a competition to fuel your ego, just because you can do 10 doesn’t mean you have to do 100 to prove your worth.
Although I am a firm believer that practice makes perfect and practice is at least 25 reps or so as a minimum however it must be with good form and done with quality movement.
If you’re killing yourself by forcing repetitions and doing bad ones, do less of it because you’re doing yourself a disservice by teaching yourself the wrong things. Also if you’re not doing it properly and with too much volume of work/load, you’re going to injure yourself.
Less sometimes is more, exercise is like a drug; ample dosage provides a cure, too much and you’ll over dose on it.
Always train with movements and not muscles -
I’m not going to go as far as to say that muscles are not important, because they simply are.
But going to a gym and then doing only bicep curls isn’t going to improve your life and fitness level a whole lot. We don’t use the bicep a whole lot in everyday life.
There are different planes in space that we move our bodies – front and back/ up and down / left and right.
As a newbie, your biceps or chest muscles should be the least of your worries. It is like tweaking the rims of a car when the problem is the chassis and the axial that rotate the wheels if you catch my drift.
Sure you can argue that the rims are equally important but you need not worry about that now, that can come later when your foundations are strong.
So aim for full body compound movements – Squats/Deadlift/ Chin ups / Shoulder presses/ Bench presses / Rows – Oh quick question – Does the chin up have a bicep curl within the movement?
These are the basic and most fundamental movements everything else spans from this and are variations, if you can’t master this then all the “functional” exercise in the world won’t save your life.
Most of it is too exaggerated and reeks of B.S, seriously…what is so functional about moving your mouse around the desk? But thats what you do for a living…
And for your information, doing squats and deadlift don’t injure you… doing it wrong does.
Trust me, I’ve seen many who do and they think they’re doing it right…
Summing up -
These are just a few points to take into consideration.
Lets face it, everyone was a newbie even myself, everyone had to start somewhere. However opinions differ as to what you should do when you’re starting out and it is no different with mine.
The only thing I’d like to point out is that if you have to listen to someone, make sure it makes sense to you and not kill yourself doing things that are stupid.
The simple rule of thumb to follow -
- If it hurts, stop doing it.
- If it doesn’t progress you nearer to your goal, assess what went wrong.
- Do not let yourself get sucked in; everything works(if its sound), just that some things work better for you
- Don’t get injured but don’t stop yourself from progressing with unfounded fears.
- If you want to be cheap then you progress slow. If you want more efficient training, hire someone who knows what he’s doing. (everyone needs a coach)
So there folks, my view on how to lay the foundation of fitness.
