BodyBlitz Fitness Solutions

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.

Everyone starts off somewhere, everywhere.

Beginners to weight training or any physical activity receive stimulus which they aren’t accustomed to. This stimulus translate to great gains in terms of body recomposition, gaining muscles while still losing fat.

This can even happen when trainees are in a caloric deficit and draw energy from their body stores from their fat reserve to create new tissue as their body is trying to adapt to the new stress.

However this phenomenal doesn’t last for ever, like Dan John once wrote in one of his article – “Everything works, but only for so long.”

Newbies often are very encouraged by the results and will boast of their gains immediately, to me its just a gift to start people off, like a starter’s pack.

However this effect may wear thin after 6 months or so, of which gains are hard to come by. That said, it is a bonus and not an entitlement.

This comes with much confusion with some newbies who wants to start off with a goal of an aesthetic reason – Want to lose fat and want to gain weight.

It is an appreciative goal  but often they’re confused with what to do first, some say lose the fat first and some say just try to gain muscles. Newbies not knowing any better of course will have no clue who to listen to and often have no idea with the conflict of where to start.

I’ve made things simple, if you are obese and or overly fat – more than 25% bodyfat or look like the Michelin man then diet down and lose the fat first.

If you’re a skinny guy who looks like a Somalian refugee suffering from malnutrition then start gaining weight.

Just so you know what I’m talking about.

Whatever you gain in-terms of body composition wise is a bonus, which you will…gain more muscles while still losing fat.

There are factors and there are limitations, both seem the same but they’re different.

Think of factors as hurdles, things that slow you down and cause a undesirable effect upon your progress.

Within physical performance and physique transformation, there are many factors which affects progress.

Take for example, your daily physical activities varies as required and availability within your time at work or school.

Though you wish to be more physical activity by standing up more and moving around, factors such as deadlines and lectures/meetings within the day are variables that you cannot control.

Take for another example, getting a decent timing for a 10km run. Your bodyweight is a factor, obviously it’ll be easier if you’re lighter and more agile compared to lumbering around with a heavy weight.

All this are factors to consider in progress, but that isn’t the same as limitations.

Limitations are dead ends at roads, you will not progress at all or there isn’t any solutions to solve the problem – the only other way to get pass limitation is to take another route.

Notice why I didn’t say give up?

Because mentality is a factor, something which is hurdle. Stalling in progress doesn’t mean that its a dead end, its just means that its something you didn’t do right to get where you wanted or you were not ready to progress yet.

Failure often is seen by people as a limitation and that there is no other way but to abandon the journey altogether. This isn’t true to most extend, because there are hardly any limitations to what you wish to achieve.

So lets re-look into example A -

Getting more physical activity at work but tied down with meetings and deadlines – there is a limitation with amount time at work which you can use but you can control the factors which governs it.

You can set aside lunch time to do some brisk walking for 30 mins around your office block and walk an extra bus-stop home or add 15 mins more cardio in your workout that day.

Or instead of having the all or nothing attitude, try your best to be more active and have the “something is better than nothing” attitude if all else fails.

So limitations are actually very limited because most of the time the mentality is the factor which governs your limitations.

If there is a will there is a way to get past your “mental gravity” and break free from it.

Having your ideal body is not any kind of method, diets or workout. Most people think that there is a magic solution to getting what they want, which is a wrong way to think.

Lets face it, there are thousand and one diet books out there using the same underlining principle to lose weight, fat or anything that you wish to lose to get that perfect body. The truth is, its more than just a method its a lifestyle.

You do not get fat, flabby or even unfit suddenly overnight. These things takes time and with time come your lifestyle habits that you chose to make.

There are many things in life that we cannot control – the weather, traffic jams and even last minute appointments that you need to attend. However we can control many things in our life, the food we eat, the amount we eat and when we need to eat. I would even go as far as to say, the amount of physical activity and the time to exercise.

Not to beat a dead horse, but its only logical that your lifestyle supports your goal and the dream body that you wish to have. There are many ways to get the job done to attain your dream body, if the underlining principles are correct and sound. Most companies out there try to sell you an end product which is made out of your desire.

Smaller waist, a six pack and a perfect body which you would show off to everyone if you had the tiniest excuse to do so.

But they don’t tell you that it is your responsibility and it is your fault that you’re this way, arresting the lifestyle mistakes that you’ve made along the way that made you the way you are now. This is why the most people will complain – “I’ve done so many diets and I’ve exercise regularly yet don’t see results…”

Ignorance is not bliss this time…

Most of my clients will be drilled, lectured and held accountable for their actions, educating them to make informed choices is the top priority in my profession. Bad habits need to be weeded out to make good progress, because of the simple fact that they have to make the choices themselves for their success.

Not to be mistaken that I’m pushing the blame to them if they fail, in fact it’ll be failure on my part to educate and coach them to change. What I’m trying to do is to get them to take responsibility for their lives, their action and their success if they want progress and results and keep it that way.

As the saying goes – Give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifestyle.

So which will you choose?

I’m a person who kinda hate doing cardio because its boring and quite repetitive. My only cardio now is using a jump rope because it fun and really neat to do some of the tricks.

I’ve also been researching with the GoWearFit to assess physical activity and energy expenditure, and it seems I was in for a surprize.

But that’s besides the case, because the real caloric burner is NEAT – Non Exercise Activity Thermogensis -

Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is the energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating or sports-like exercise. It ranges from the energy expended walking to work, typing, performing yard work, undertaking agricultural tasks and fidgeting. Even trivial physical activities increase metabolic rate substantially and it is the cumulative impact of a multitude of exothermic actions that culminate in an individual’s daily NEAT. It is, therefore, not surprising that NEAT explains a vast majority of an individual’s non-resting energy needs.Epidemiological studies highlight the importance of culture in promoting and quashing NEAT. Agricultural and manual workers have high NEAT, whereas wealth and industrialization appear to decrease NEAT.Physiological studies demonstrate, intriguingly, that NEAT is modulated with changes in energy balance; NEAT increases with overfeeding and decreases with underfeeding. Thus, NEAT could be a critical component in how we maintain our body weight and/or develop obesity or lose weight.The mechanism that regulates NEAT is unknown. However, hypothalamic factors have been identified that specifically and directly increase NEAT in animals. By understanding how NEAT is regulated we may come to appreciate that spontaneous physical activity is not spontaneous at all but carefully programmed.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12468415

The power of NEAT is underestimated most of the time, people do not think interms of the big picture and long term effect of physical activity itself. Some even go to the extent of dismissing this mundane task like walking around as useless compared to exercise.

Yes and no. The caloric burn for exercise will be much higher compared to standard cardio which includes running and rowing etc. However do not underestimate the power of NEAT, as I’m about to show you something shocking…

This was recorded when I was totally sedentry for the day, just lazing around the computer and not moving around much. My recorded burn was  2400 calories, just by sitting around.

I was lucky enough to be asked by a pal to help out in a game store at a local fish farm for a carnival/charity event. My Game store was a dunking station and bouncing castle where I had to oversee that both was running smoothly without any major hiccups.

I was on duty from 9 am in the morning till about 6 pm that day.

This is what I recorded – 4000 calories being expanded.

Thats almost 2 folds just by being on my feet and walking around, and I wasn’t even exercises.

So It goes to show that increase physical activity in your work place is a very powerful option to drive up your caloric burn and ramp up your caloric deficit. Exercise is only as good as how much you can do it but sometimes you don’t have the liberty to dedicate time to it in a very tight schedule.

In short, NEAT is king for fat loss!

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857,00.html

Closing the Energy Gap
The problem ultimately is about not exercise itself but the way we’ve come to define it. Many obesity researchers now believe that very frequent, low-level physical activity — the kind humans did for tens of thousands of years before the leaf blower was invented — may actually work better for us than the occasional bouts of exercise you get as a gym rat. “You cannot sit still all day long and then have 30 minutes of exercise without producing stress on the muscles,” says Hans-Rudolf Berthoud, a neurobiologist at LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center who has studied nutrition for 20 years. “The muscles will ache, and you may not want to move after. But to burn calories, the muscle movements don’t have to be extreme. It would be better to distribute the movements throughout the day.”

This is true to a certain extend – fat loss is about creating a caloric deficit while sparing muscle mass.

That said, we cannot always rely on exercise to create a caloric burn/ constant deficit to use our body’s stored energy – bodyfat. Even how intense your exercise is, your caloric out put for exercise – unless  you’re training for a marathon is pathetic, so much so that even walking around aimlessly at the mall or doing house hold chores has better caloric burn.

Still there is a many misconception around exercise that there is the psychological implication to cause people to over consume their caloric requirement.

I’ve heard countless times from people who do not have any form of caloric accountability -

“I exercise about 30 mins each day, so I think I’m allowed to treat myself to this cake.(or any other caloric dense food)”

“I get my exercise, so I can eat this ___ (insert caloric dense food) is moderation.”

Well the reality is this, if the cake is 300 calories and you’ve only expanded 250 calories with exercise. You’re effectively over-eating 50 calories each time under guise that you can afford, which you can’t!

This misreporting of caloric intake vs caloric output, is mainly the downfall of most people who are trying to lose weight/fat.

Caloric accountability is something you need to do, if you want to manage your weight effectively. Unless of course, you’re purposely eating extra to grow bigger.

However exercise has its part to play in fat loss, it is a needed component to retain muscles and also an extra step to hasten the process.

*Heavy resistance training will retain muscles mass which is a passive caloric burner, cardiovascular exercise is an active caloric burner and it will tap into energy stores to fuel the sustain bouts of activity.

*note heavy, light weights and many reps won’t cut – its just the way the body has evolved.

Also there is an inherent problem that is unavoidable in a constant caloric deficit state; your energy levels will dip and you’ll find yourself less active. Though it can be avoided by consciously moving more, it is still something you’ll have to take into consideration when you’re dieting.

People will fidget and move around restlessly less and hence burning less calories throughout the day – Ever been so tired that you can’t even be bothered to get up and pee unless you’ve really have to go? That’s what I mean.

There are also People stuck behind a computer/desk/counter for 8-10 hours a day in the workplace and have no valid reason or time when they’re rushing deadlines/busy to move about, and exercise is one avenue to get the extra caloric output they need to lose/maintain their weight.

So the take home point is this -

Effective weight/fat loss doesn’t start and end with exercise – there are other forms of cardio/exercise which you can do.

Being productive, you can clean your house for 45 mins – Its a good reason to keep your house clean and its a good habit to keep up.

You can walk home from work instead of taking the bus and while at it take the stairs up; a little bit everyday goes a long way.

You can bring your dog out for a walk or bring your little brother or kids down to the play ground and play with them.

Even getting up on your ass and walking around in shopping malls for 1 hour after work will be great, plus at the shopping mall you won’t get bored.

Don’t always think that you need to jog or run or go to the gym, exercise is only about 1-2 hours in the 24 hour cycle. There is the other 23/22 hours that makes it count.