Better a little bit of everything than a whole lot of any one thing
4 November 2005If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
the perfect balance point where all three elements hang in equal symmetrical equilibrium.
Bad line from a good kung fu movie or good line from a bad kung fu movie?
Any sensible fitness program includes three components: progressive resistance exercise, aerobic activity and a diet/nutrition game plan. We lift weights to build and strengthen the interlocking network of muscle, sinew, tendons and ligaments. We increase bone density in the process. Muscles are built and strengthened as a direct result of weight training. Cardio exercise keeps the innards, the heart, lungs, guts, internal organs and vascular system in shape and functioning at peak efficiency. A nutritional game plan is a must: eating whatever you want whenever you want it is a bad plan that will get you fat fast if youre not there already. Trainees new to the Purposefully Primitive approach to physical transformation express amazement at the rate of progress they experience when all three components of the PP fitness triad are implemented equally. Balance is difficult to achieve: nearly everyone is naturally biased towards one (or two) of the three legs of the Triad. Bias examples abound: some folks love cardio and do a lot of it and it shows; they tend to be very fit but not strong and quite often appear anemic. You can be a great cardio athlete and still be frail. Other fitness adherents love to lift weights call them what you will, just dont call them late for supper! I know lots of very strong fat guys. They bench press 405 for reps but you wouldnt want to look like them. A lot of them are very unhealthy. Then there are the diet-only/no exercise contingent. These people are masters at manipulating bodyweight (not body fat) by slashing calories. Without exception the diet-only folks are skinny-fat, weak and in real need of some real exercise.
At the next higher level of the fitness feeding chain are the savvy individuals that have broken through and linked two triad legs together. Combine lifting and performance eating and suddenly bulk acquires a sculpted look. Combine cardio and weights and you create a big, powerful, in-shape (but not necessarily lean or trim) athlete. Combine diet and cardio and create a fat-free athlete able to travel long distances with ease. At the tip-top of the pyramid are those who practice all three legs of the Fitness Triad. Optimally we want to achieve a subtle balance between each of the three component partseach leg receiving its fair share of time and attention. Often a subtle, undetectable bias occurs among triad practitioners. You might practice all three elements but are they really in balance? Are you (perhaps) spending too much time in the weight room at the expense of cardio? Do you love to swim or jog but have the diet control of an obese teen left alone in a candy shop? Are you neglecting the free-weights and doing machine-only workouts you know are inferior but faster and more convenient? There are a million ways to bias the triad. Synergy (what an overused word; but so appropriate in this case) occurs when the three elements are practiced in a balanced fashion on a consistent basis. This is the Purposefully Primitive default training position.
If you are a competitive athlete bias the balance. If you are entering a lifting competition as meet-day approaches bias evermore towards the lifting portion of the PP Triad. If you are a runner or biker and have a 10K coming up, up the roadwork and reduce the weight room volume as race day approaches. Endurance athletes are penalizing themselves carrying excess body fat. Melt off extra baggage and propel across the landscape further and faster. Combine a fat-melting dietary strategy with a cardio-biased training approach. If you were entering a tennis tournament you might want to lean-out in order to move quicker and with greater agility. Tennis preparation would likely be diet/cardio biased. Cycle or periodize the triad legs for however many weeks remain until the competition, event, contest or tournament. Once its over, the Purposeful Primitive reverts to that non-biased default position, the perfect balance point where all three elements hang in equal symmetrical equilibrium. The lifting compliments the cardio and the cardio allows the athlete to train harder and longer the eating provides the requisite nutrients to heal traumatized muscle tissue. Eat foods nearly impossible to end up compartmentalized as body fat. Eat small meals spaced equidistant throughout the day. Establish and maintain positive nitrogen balance, the optimal metabolic state for promoting healing and growth. Our credo is Better do a little of each Triad leg than a whole lot of any one.
The best way to establish balance is to divide available training time into two roughly equal chunks: one chunk reserved for weights and the other for cardio. If for example, you went to the gym four times a week for 90-minutes, heres is one possible way to set up a training schedule allotting six hours (360 minutes) of gym time.
Weights time cardio time
Day I legs 50-minutes various 40-minute
Day II chest, tris 50
Day III delts, calves 50
Day IV back, bis, abs 50
Just one more way to slice the time pie; weight training has time gaps between sets and takes longer to complete than a cardio session. Both can coexist and actually aide one another. If possible, hit cardio upon arising when glycogen stores are at the lowest point. An intense cardio session done on an empty stomach forces the body to burn stored body fat to fuel the activity. Weight sessions should be short, sweet and excruciatingly intense. Real effort is required to trigger hypertrophy. Eating, diet, nutrition, performance eating, whatever you want to call it, lays atop the training like a warm blanket. If the amount and type of foods consumed are perfectly synchronized with the training, results exceed all realistic and rational expectations. Strive for a balanced training regimen. Are you including all three legs of the fitness triad; and in proper balance and proportion? Be clinical and coldly realistic. Parrillo would say, Blast away at the weak points and forget the strong points! His point being that the biggest improvement comes from working on weak points not by continually playing to your strengths. Weak areas can be bought up relatively quickly. Divide available training time into roughly equal hunks. Sync the eating up with the training. Periodize, cycle, all three elements together. Set the whole thing in an 8-12 week time frame. Balance and proportion in both training and eating are tough to achieve but results make the difficulty well worth the effort.
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