So a lot of people at this time of year start back on the fitness trail and given that, I thought it worth just taking a look at some exercise and training hints and tips.
People generally have two major goals in life when looking to exercise: Goal number one is achieving some sort of appearance, weight loss, beach body etc. something doesn't look right to them and it doesn’t matter what that goal is but there is an aesthetic component to their goals. The other one is functionality, better mobility, greater endurance, run quicker or be stronger for a certain sport.
So what I'd love to do today is just go through the nine basic concepts of training and exercising. Remember, methods are many but the concepts are few.
1. Skill or Technique: So just learning to move better or efficiently with a specific position and timing and sequence or whatever that is in mind, it could be running more effectively or it could be a practical skill like golf or tennis.
2. Speed: Simply moving at a higher velocity or with a better rate of acceleration, walking or running quicker would be good examples of that or maybe even lifting a kettlebell faster.
3. Power: Similar to speed but is actually: speed multiplied by force.
4. Force or Strength: This is really the synonymous term for how efficiently and effectively you can move something, could be a weight, could be a piece of sports equipment. So what I mean by that, is strength truly is a marker of what's the maximum thing you can move, a prime example would be the how much weight can you move for a one repetition failure.
5 Muscle Hypertrophy: Gaining muscle mass i.e. bodybuilding, so this is the first concept that is talking about an appearance rather than a functional outcome so moving better, moving faster, moving heavier, are all indicators of how well you can move, this is the first one that's simply how big is your muscle or muscle size.
6 Muscular Endurance: So this is how many repetitions you can typically do of a movement, so think of how many pushups in a row you can do, how many sit ups. So things that are typically in like the 5 to 50 repetition sort of range, almost always local muscle and not whole body use. So what I mean by that is, for a pushup, it's really how many reps that your triceps and pecs can deal with, it is not a cardiovascular endurance, it is not a global physiological endurance but specific to typically one or a few muscle groups at a time.
7 Anaerobic Capacity: This is more linked to maximum heart rate, so rather than a single muscle or movement this is usually total body movement and is usually a total physical limitation. So it is usually the max amount of work you can do in say 30 to 45 seconds maybe even up to 120 seconds of all out work. Think of your classic interval type of stuff or HITT type training.
8 Maximal Aerobic Capacity: This is probably something like in the 8 to 15 minute range where we're going to reach both a maximum heart rate as well as a true VO2 Max. So that is different from the previous one where you can't reach this in a matter of seconds it simply takes multiple minutes to get to a position where your VO2 max is actually going to be sufficiently challenged.
9 Long Duration: This is just your ability to sustain submaximal work for a long period of time with no brakes, no reduction whatsoever, steady state training and what a lot of people would call Cardio.
You notice that in the above detail there is not a category for weight loss. That’s because weight loss is not a training style but an outcome of a training style and in reality the outcome of a couple of training styles grouped together.
When starting to train you should think of what exact outcomes you need to achieve: better balance, faster 10k time, more agility and speed on the tennis court, weight loss, bigger muscles. The goals are many but the training concepts are fixed at nine.
If you’re working with a really good PT the above paragraph is where they will start, then build the program from the above training styles or a blend of more than one concept to achieve your outcome. If that process is not followed then you’re both just fumbling around in the dark.
And remember there is no right or wrong answer, what works for one person may well not work for someone else, there are no pre-prescribed methods for weight loss, muscle build, getting faster or more agile. Each person is a science project in the making and working with a good Bodyworker will ensure that you’re kept on track.
If you need any help, just get in contact ……….. and remember
The methods are many but the concepts are few.
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