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TOPFIT Philosophy What is fitness? Fitness is a concept that can be hard to define but easy to recognize when you see the real thing. To some, being fit means looking like a model or bodybuilder, while to others it means being able to run a marathon or being able to lift more weight than all of their friends. Is this really enough? Absolutely not! These definitions are too limited and one-dimensional. At the most basic level, fitness should mean the ability to meet your daily challenges in life with a little left over for emergencies. To carry this one step further, fitness could be defined as a state of peak levels of strength, power, endurance, flexibility, coordination and general health in addition to an optimal level of bodyfat that allows a person to participate in life to its fullest, free of preventable health risk factors. This level of fitness is a step above simple health and wellness. This is a level of fitness that will not leave you wanting for more strength, power, endurance, etc. when presented with an unexpected challenge or attempting a new sport or activity. This level of fitness should be a prerequisite for everyone regardless of their ultimate goal or their chosen sport or profession. If a person’s workouts are based on this definition of fitness, the specific needs of their sports and professions will be more easily met. For example, even though a bodybuilder doesn’t need to be strong, powerful, have endurance or even be healthy, they will be able to get the look they’re after more easily and with less risk of injury if they meet these requirements of fitness. The marathon runner as well would benefit from all the other components of fitness in addition to the high level of aerobic endurance they possess. Now that I’ve given a description of fitness, how do I help you achieve it? I believe that with very few exceptions everyone has the same needs when it comes to fitness. These needs will vary by degree, but the needs are still there. Since the needs are the same, the training and choice of exercises should be the same to meet these needs. Of course, the training has to be adjusted and the exercises adapted to a person’s abilities and available equipment, but the basic framework will be the same. To meet the specific needs of some sports and professions, unique exercises and techniques may need to be added, but the base of fitness will still need to be there. These workouts will be based on the basic human movements of pushing, pulling, squatting, and locomotion utilizing as many joints and muscles at one time as possible…….the way you use your body in real life. The exercises used, dependent on specific goals and abilities, will use your body weight and simple, basic equipment such as barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, resistance bands, stability balls and medicine balls to increase your metabolism and develop strength, power, endurance, coordination, etc. For example, the squat, deadlift and presses (shoulder press, bench press) can be used to develop strength, the olympic lifts (clean & jerk, snatch) and their variations might be used to develop power, bodyweight exercises (pushups, pullups, dips, crunches, etc) are used not only for strength and power, but also for coordination, and various modes of cardiovascular activities are used to develop endurance. These are all combined in a constantly changing endless variety of workouts to achieve the desired level of fitness. Some workouts will be high intensity random exercises to challenge you just like life has a way of doing and other workouts will be very specifically structured with measurable results to track your progress. As firmly as I believe that this style of training will lead to the best results, I also realize that not everyone is able to or will want to train in this manner. Workouts shouldn’t be about being forced to do something you really can’t or don’t want to do, so being flexible is also important. This isn’t a cult or a system and you don’t have to fit any particular mold and you certainly aren’t looked down upon if you don’t want to do specific exercises or have access to specific equipment. There are some fitness cults that even refer to “drinking the Kool-Aid” (a sick reference to the Jim Jones cult and referring to fitting their mold and doing things THEIR way). Fitness should be about mental fitness too, and anything that is that fanatical can’t be mentally healthy. Nutrition is just as important to getting results as your workouts are and should be based on a healthy balance of carbohydrates, protein and fat. Your nutrition should be based on whole grains, fruits and vegetables, lean protein sources and healthy fats. Crazy diets that have you cutting out or severely limiting whole categories of foods or make you eat like you’re living in the Paleolithic era have no place in a fitness regimen. Although the exact percentages of carbs, protein and fat may vary depending on the person and their activities, as a general rule you should be aiming to get approximately 50% of your calories from carbs, 30% from protein and 20% from fat. Diets such as the Zone, Atkins or South Beach which are extremely popular lately, especially by certain “cult-like” programs, are too restrictive and cut carbs far too low to support health and fitness. There is much more to my fitness philosophy than I can put in one short article, but this should give you a good overview of my basic beliefs and what you can expect when training with me. “No Challenge, No Change” |
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