Exercise Pro's and Con'sMost fitness professionals have the same goal in mind when coaching exercise. Get people off the couch and get them moving more!
The whole fitness industry has been assumed to be a very simple institution of basic levels of knowledge. Move people more, burn more calories and follow up with a healthy diet. I don’t know about you, but I don’t make as many assumptions about any industry now. The world is filled with an overflow of expert advice. I tend to follow functional advice, meaning advice historically achieves set goals and maintains success. Follow advice from someone that walks the talk and can reference well and communicate clearly. Look for credible letters after a name, success stories and treat your fitness trainer like a Doctor or lawyer. Hold them in high esteem and expect expert advice. Let’s dive into my best advice for exercise Pro’s and Con’s: 1)Weights / resistance exercise: Pros: Builds muscle and bone strength well, improves posture, increases life expectancy, and utilizes functional primal movements essential for physical efficiency. Cons: If not assessed properly can create a guesswork program, can lead increased injuries, easily over trained. Advice: Find qualified instructors who walk the talk and reference well, you get what you pay for! If it’s not fun don’t do it. 2) Aerobic exercise routines: Pros: Easy to access with little equipment, great for clearing the mind garbage, fun in social settings. Cons: Does not burn fat well or build muscle, excess amounts increase stress hormones, can become repetitive increasing repetitive strain injuries Advice: Do aerobic routines for fun primarily, increase functional routines to increase happy hormones i.e. / dance, gardening, bushwalks. 3) Stretching: Pros: aids mobility and ease of daily movement, reduces muscle aches, and calms the breath and mind. Cons: Can overstretch incorrect muscles leading to muscle imbalance, can sedate muscles and the nervous system leading to injury. Advice: Get assessed, Get assessed! Don’t guess, this is not a straight forward subject. 4) Warm ups: Pros: warms tissue in preparation for exercise, reduces injuries, allows mind focus Cons: Can teach the body to develop incorrect patterns and intensities, can waste time done incorrectly, can weaken the activation of the high end nervous system potential. Advice: Learn functional warm ups specific to your movement patterns. I.e. / for most sport try body-weight squats, lunges multi direction jogging drills, avoid low grade body warmers i.e. / stationary bikes It only takes a few minutes of functional movements to be ready for most activity. 5) Variety: Pros: will keep your interest for life not just one season, human bodies require variety to keep all joints, muscles and organs healthy Cons: Variety info overload, without a coach people struggle, requires more learning time and skill. Advice: Make a list of as many enjoyable physical activities and find someone well versed on a variety of skills to teach you. 6) Move like your ancestors: Pros: Your body will function with much more balance, you will suffer fewer injuries, and in times of stress you will have extra reserve. Cons: it requires learning new skills, mainstream teaching lack skills to teach. Advice: Make a list of everyday movements of your ancestors and design fun routines based on their patterns. Try using trees, old tyres, wrestle, and swim. Share them with family. If you r body feels like it is hunting and gathering it will respond by rewarding you with a fantastic functional looking body. Don’t do foreign exercise your body was not designed for. If the movement was not around 1000 years ago try to avoid it as much as possible i.e./ sitting for long periods, weird looking exercise machines, excessive repetitious single movement patterns. Put it all together with a weekly schedule and lay a foundation of health. So invest in a great foundation. You will save a lot in the long term. Don’t fall in to the sickness industry; Educate yourself in to the health industry. Tony Small CHEK 2, HLC 3, Dip Ex Phys PPS Success Mastery Practitioner |
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