“Natural” exercise
If you’ve been a regular reader on this site you can probably tell that most of the stuff I write usually originates from my frustrations, and interactions with people at work or from reading something online, usually by someone else who works in the same field. Today is no different.
I was browsing around online reading various articles by various authors and I started to feel a little annoyed, a little anxious. I couldn’t really figure out what I was annoyed with because I didn’t necessarily disagree with what I was reading. Then I figured out what it was.
My wife and I have been training people for approximately 15 years and we’ve done our fair share of reading, learning, exercising, and training people. What I realized was that I was annoyed because after reading a few articles and blogs here and there, day after day, what ends up happening is that I feel like I don’t know what the hell I’m doing anymore. I feel completely unqualified mainly because every professional out there is saying something different, disagreeing with each other, promoting different kinds of workouts, different kinds of eating plans, different this, different that.
There are so many fads and so many options out there. Exercise programs ranging from the ridiculous (like those ab contraptions or some of those other exercise programs you see on tv), to businesses like “Curves”, to programs that focus strictly on “functional’ training”. You’ll see people performing all these crazy exercise that resembles stunts more than exercises. I really believe we need to simplify sometimes. I think the attention span of the average person,(especially these days), is so short, that we get bored so easily, and are always looking for another source of stimulation. Ultimately, we end up never really sticking with anything. We are willing to give up on something even if it’s the most effective program, for the sake of trying something new regardless of how effective it is. I’ve gotten pulled into this same mode over the years. I went from strictly “bodybuilding’ type workout programs to what is/was called ”functional” training (which was just getting popular at the time), then it was spinning, and so on. They were all fun at the time but I didn’t get tremendous results from any one of them.
There is a something called “Pareto’s law” or “Pareto’s principle”. Generally it says that 80% of results come from 20% of the means. Pareto was an economist, but it seems the saying applies to much more than just economics. In the case of exercise, 80% of your results will usually come from only 20% of the exercises you are performing which means many of us are doing way too many useless things when we are working out and not getting any real results from them. I really couldn’t agree more.
Like I mentioned before, people seem to get so bored so easily that they will try anything as long as it looks cool. For example, the bosu ball, balance work, kickboxing classes, and spinning. I’ve done most of them myself. In order to see if something works you usually have to try it, but if something doesn’t work, you have to start questioning its long term efficacy. Is it you (how you move), was it how you were doing it, how the instructor presented it, or was it just the product or program that was alot of hype. I’m not saying those specific programs are “all useless” but it does seem to me that for the amount of time and effort people are putting into these activities, the results (as far as strength and/or weight loss) often times are minimal. I don’t see more people who are in better shape today than in the days prior to all these programs and products. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, I see more and more people out of shape, overweight, injured, on meds complaining about healthcare. We have a bosu ball at our gym that i occasionally use, I used to teach spinning, I used to have people perform balance work (and occassionally still do)…but I have never done a kickboxing class, really, I haven’t (but my wife has). Over the past few years I have generally phased out most of these things when working with clients and with my own workouts. So what am I suggesting?
Let’s think in terms of what is natural, what is natural movement. Is it natural to sit on your ass all day in front of a computer or TV? Is it natural to sit in a car all day? It’s common, but it’s not natural. If it was we probably wouldn’t have evolved into creatures that could run and jump and lift. We would have morphed into some creature with no legs and arms like a T-Rex. If we go back to the Paleolithic era, which is when the first hand tools were developed and when humans started forming groups, we would see they were very active. Do you think they sat on their butt all day. It was natural for them to climb, work for their food, sprint from an animal trying to kill them, sprint to kill an animal, be able to throw a rock to kill their food, carry a kill on their shoulders, etc. You get the idea. Sure the world is different and we don’t need to do these things but that is what our bodies were designed to do. Physically we haven’t evolved much from that era…but that could change if we don’t start changing our habits.
I started thinking in terms of what ”natural” exercises are. By “natural” I mean, what motions do we perform day in and day out in our world, what do we need strength for especially as we get older. Let’s start with the basics. What are my daily activities that require strength. Well, I’m always picking something off the floor, whether it’s my kids, or whether it’s getting a 40lb bag of dog food at the store, or lifting 60lb trash barrels into my truck. So that tells me I need to get strong and proficient at lifting off the floor. OK, that’s a deadlift, and exercise that has been around forever that no one appears to do anymore because of difficulty, fear, and misinformation. What else…well in terms of strength training; squatting, pushing, and pulling! 80% of your results will come from performing these very basic exercises. Sure, there are many variations to them, but don’t get too carried away. Spend your time getting strong at the basics. You’ll be surprised at the spillover effect. They will make everything else easier.
Take what was 20% of your workout and make it 80% of your workout. Learn how to deadlift, how to squat, perform your presses and your pulls. The variations of each of these exercises, and the variation in the reps you perform will be enough to keep your strength increasing and your body from adapting . Now remember, the more strength you have, the more muscle you can build, and what burns fat? Yup, you guessed it!! So if gaining weight is a concern it’s important to remember that muscle is much denser than fat… it takes up less space. And for those of you “afraid” of getting “too muscular” realize that muscle is much easier to get rid of than fat…(but that’s a topic for another time)