Are you a one-dimensional trainer? Plus Fitness Day Camps
24 March 2005If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Are you a one-dimensional trainer? Most people are classically biased toward one of the three legs of the fitness triad: progressive resistance training, cardiovascular training or diet/nutrition. How many folks try and lose weight by dieting and dieting alone? A safe bet would be a majority of individuals. Ever wonder why people who lose a lot of bodyweight rapidly still look fat? Its because they are still fat. When the human organism perceives starvation it reverts to a primordial hardwiring that seeks to preserve body fat (the last line of defense against starvation) at all costs. So dieting alone can results in weight loss but when more muscle than body fat is lost as a result of crash dieting, the end result is not all that impressive. I had a self-indulgent buddy who balloon up from 200 to 350. He eventually went on some sort of weird diet and lost back down to 200. He looked terrible, loose skin, still fat and to make it all worse he was now a diet expert and told me and anyone else within earshot how stupid they were to follow any diet other than the one he had used. Of course he still couldnt catch a ball or walk up a flight of stairs without getting totally gassed. At the other extreme I knew a really good long distance runner who was thin as a rail, lived on carbs and eschewed lifting or protein. He became anemic and emaciated the combination of mega-miles and carbs and fruit in meager amounts produced a physique that resembled an Ethiopian famine victim. Lifting weights to his way of thinking would add muscle that he would have to haul around and would have the same impact as wearing a backpack with a 10 or 15-pound plate in it. Needless to say by the time he got to his mid-thirties he started experiencing the usual repetitive motion injuries knee arthroscopic surgery, ankle ligament damage, eternal shin-splints. He eventually had to give up running altogether. My third example is a former national level powerlifter; a man who set regional records and grew gargantuan. Eventually he weighed 350 and was able to squat over 900-pounds. He ate everything in sight and had to quit lifting altogether when he developed terrible circulatory problems. Each individual I referenced took one particular leg of the fitness triad and because of overemphasis turned the pursuit of their specialty into something opposite of fitness & health. Better to practice a little of each leg of the triad instead of emphasizing one aspect to the exclusion of the other two. It makes perfect sense when we are presented with extreme and obvious examples.comments?
Fitness Day Camp: Now that the weather is improving, I am getting barraged by request for information regarding the content, cost and availability of dates for my one-on-one fitness day camps. In a nutshell, folks travel to my house and we sit and discuss where they are at, physically, and where they want to get to. We determined if their aspirations are real and realizable. Then we hatch a customized game plan based of available time, work and family circumstance and all the other variables of modern existence. We discuss eating and find out the favored foods. Then its time to train: I put them through an appropriate progressive resistance session, a cardio session using the polar heart rate monitor and finally we prepare a quick, easy, nutritious meal designed and incorporating foods they like. While we eat, we discuss training, nutrition, planning and any and all related questions. The whole deal takes four hours. I dont do groups as this dilutes the impact; I will work with one or at most two people at a time. My wife Stacy helps and by the time the individuals leaves they are equipped with the knowledge they need to succeed. If you are interested in scheduling a day camp date, contact me as MGSO@supernet.com for dates, rates and additional info.
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