{"id":1725,"date":"2023-11-03T11:29:23","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T15:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d2fpc.com\/?p=1725"},"modified":"2023-11-03T11:43:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T15:43:11","slug":"stay-in-shape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d2fpc.com\/?p=1725","title":{"rendered":"Stay in Shape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
We all need to stay in shape<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Want stellar health and a killer physique without the forced-march workouts? Get some skin back in the game with these 5 pillars of lifelong fitness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 55-year-old grandfather of eight is hanging from a pair of bungee cords 15 feet in the air, preparing to launch himself toward a pipe suspended 6 feet away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the scene at the 2019 Oklahoma City finals of American Ninja Warrior, and Jon \u201cRockman\u201d Stewart is tackling Bungee Road, an obstacle that has humbled several competitors half his age. The wiry 145-pounder hurls himself into empty air, floats, locks onto the beam, swings a few times, and dismounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crowd cheers and whistles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eye-popping move secures the Utah-based construction manager a trip to the show\u2019s national finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewart comes by his fitness naturally. \u201cI got my core strength from working our family farm as a kid in Idaho,\u201d he says. His ripped upper body and never-quit legs were forged from 20 years of scrambling up rock faces and frequent, rigorous mountain bike outings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, Stewart sculpted his incredible physique and athleticism by following his bliss. He\u2019s not alone. \u201cPeople are coming at fitness from all these different angles now,\u201d says Daniel Kunitz, the author of Lift, a book on fitness history. Online videos have led to an exciting cross-pollination among fitness tribes. CrossFitters are doing parkour and MMA; distance runners and triathletes are trying Olympic lifting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Choose a range of activities in a variety of intensities<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This newly omnivorous approach to staying in shape highlights an element that\u2019s often missing from exercise programs. In the pursuit of ripped abs and flagstone pecs, many of us have lost sight of that most essential property of physical recreation\u2014fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe it\u2019s time for you to find a plan that can give you the body you want without it feeling like forced labor. A plan that\u2019s both engaging and effective, a challenge for your brain and biceps alike. Forty years ago, during the Pumping Iron era, fitness was defined by how you looked in a Speedo. If you didn\u2019t have softball biceps and single-digit body fat, you had no business calling yourself fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, says Kunitz, \u201cmost guys realize that getting super jacked and lean is difficult to do and takes years.\u201dA recent NCAA analysis found that single-digit body fat is rare, even among elite athletes in their prime. For example: The average body fat percentage for running backs at the NFL Combine from 2006 to 2013 was nearly 12 percent. Indeed, extreme leanness and muscularity\u2014the kind you see in supplement ads\u2014is not only an unrealistic goal for most busy guys but also unnecessary for athleticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stop staring in the mirror and focus on performance instead. Work on nailing your first pullup, then your first five. Try cracking 21 minutes in a 5K, then 19. Conquer a 5.2 rock face, then a 5.3. Train for Performance<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider the fitness journey of Scott Ferrara, 42, a teacher in Los Angeles. \u201cIn my 20s, my goal was to be as big as possible. I was in pain. I was eating 10 chicken breasts a day. It wasn\u2019t enjoyable.\u201d Ferrara eventually switched gears. He completed an Olympic-distance triathlon and then participated in numerous obstacle course races on the West Coast. Now that he\u2019s more concerned about his finishing times than his arm circumference, he\u2019s respecting his limits. \u201cI check in to see what my body needs on a given day,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ironically, Ferrara says he looks better now than he did when he was pumping iron\u2014a common result of switching to performance training. \u201cAesthetics are best obtained from training for performance,\u201dsays Mark Rippetoe, the author of Starting Strength. \u201cForm follows function.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dialing It Back Can Be Smart<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Do Anything But Nothing<\/strong>
Some fitness hucksters believe that certain approaches work because they resemble the activities of our forefathers. Nonsense, says Daniel Lieberman, Ph.D., a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard. \u201cPrescribing fitness and diet regimens based solely on what our ancestors did is rife with logical problems\u2026 We also evolved to sometimes fight, lie, get anxious, age, and die.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, science suggests that you can get healthier, stronger, and fitter by following any plan regularly. The CDC recommends 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, along with twice-weekly muscle strengthening sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not a high bar, but 76 percent of men don\u2019t reach it, the CDC reports. That\u2019s despite the fact that \u201cmoderate exercise\u201d covers a broad array of activities, from jogging and yoga to martial arts and rock climbing. It even includes some activities many jocks might consider too easy. \u201cBrisk walking on its own is great for health,\u201d says David Katz, M.D., Ph.D., director of Yale\u2019s Prevention Research Center. The best exercise, he says, is the exercise people actually do.
Seek Simplicity and Proximity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The simplest rule: do something every day. That\u2019s not easy. For documentary filmmaker George Kunhardt, 29, that lesson came a bit later in life. \u201cI was an athlete in high school, but when I got to college I partied a lot.\u201d By the time he started his career, his weight was normal but his body was soft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s when Kunhardt discovered a CrossFit gym near his office. The key variables to its appeal were proximity and simplicity: He could walk there and do the workout that was posted on the blackboard. Now Kunhardt trains six days a week; his body is harder and he can bang out sets of 40 unbroken pullups. He\u2019s rediscovered both his competitive fire and his love of fitness. \u201cIt\u2019s my number one stress reliever. When I\u2019m at the gym, I go to my happy place,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if you simply do anything active for 30 to 45 minutes a day, says Dr. Katz, your health will benefit. You will also likely enhance your quality of life and longevity. Of course, strategically varying the intensity of your activity will impact your results. That\u2019s why we have Pillar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Train, Don’t Exercise<\/strong>
To a strength coach, exercise and training are as different as chalk and cheese. \u201cExercise is something you do today because of how it makes you feel today,\u201dsays Rippetoe. \u201cTraining is a planned process to achieve a result somewhere down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most gymgoers are exercisers, says Rippetoe. They might hit chest and tris on Monday, run a few miles on Tuesday, and shoot hoops on Thursday. Each workout bears little relation to the one before or after it, so their progress is minimal. Yes, it\u2019s infinitely better than nothing at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to improve your performance at a particular activity, you need to program a performance increase for that activity consistently. \u201cI don\u2019t want my muscles to be confused,\u201d he says. \u201cI want them to know exactly how I want them to adapt.\u201d
Set Multiple Goals<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An effective exercise routine is shaped by specific goals\u2014short-term as well as long-term\u2014toward which every workout is a distinct stepping-stone. That often requires taking the long view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s say you want to run a 10K. You might have five obstacles you need to overcome before you can complete that goal,\u201d says Alex Viada, C.S.C.S., of Complete Human Performance in Durham, North Carolina. You may need to address your mobility or body composition before you can start thinking about your running pace. But even if you have a long way to go, Viada says, just ask yourself what you can do now to bring each goal a little closer and make the big goal easier. Then get to work on that\u2014consistently\u2014one workout at a time. Variety helps your consistentcy so change it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Listen to Your Body<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the curveball: To make that progress, you need to take strategic recovery breaks. \u201cA lot of activities that we think are helpful are not,\u201d says Andreo Spina, D.O., a chiropractor and mobility expert. Among these are some of our favorite pastimes. When major league baseball coaches and trainers ask him how to prevent elbow injuries in their pitchers, Spina tells them, only half jokingly, \u201cHave them play another position.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From baseball and basketball to swimming and track-and-field events, sports are \u201cman-made\u201d activities, Spina argues. Many of them place asymmetrical demands on the body. Tennis and squash, for example, tax one arm and shoulder while leaving the other mostly out of the action. Swimming works your upper body more than your lower, while running and cycling do the opposite. The potential damage isn\u2019t limited to knees and ankles. A study in the Journal of Applied Physiology revealed that the heart valves of lifelong runners showed elevated risk of failure. Sure, sports belong in your training program, but focusing on a single sport or activity\u2014year-round, with no time to heal and rebalance\u2014might hurt you. For most of us, the ideal strategy is a three-weeks-on, one-week-off plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For three weeks, gradually increase your workload at your activity of choice. Do more sets, reps, and weight if you\u2019re into strength training; more distance or speed if you\u2019re a cyclist or runner; more height, speed, or difficulty if you\u2019re a climber. Then ease off for a week and come back to focus on a slightly different microgoal. HIIT Your Target<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a runner, you might plan a block where you do hills, another where you do speed or track work, and another where you work on endurance,\u201d says Matt Dixon, a former pro triathlete and the founder of purplepatchfitness.com.\u201cEven that simple change of stimulus will yield bigger results than just working randomly,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reams of research have shown that one approach worth most guys\u2019 time is high-intensity interval training, or HIIT. This involves multiple short bursts of super intense exercise (like eight rounds of 30-second bike sprints) separated by periods of low-intensity movement or rest (like 90 seconds of easy spinning).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Avoid exhaustion and injury by doing bodyweight exercises only once a week<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

HIIT has many proven advantages over steady-state cardio. The workouts are short and adaptable, challenging both your aerobic and anaerobic energy systems and burning fat more effectively. Plus, most guys think they\u2019re more fun. In a 2011 study, just three 20-minute HIIT workouts a week measurably improved participants\u2019 body composition, metabolism, and cardio fitness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one downside? You might work too hard, too fast\u2014especially if you choose a high-impact exercise like sprinting. Avoid exhaustion and injury by doing bodyweight exercises only once a week. Squats, pushups, and step ups work well\u201430 seconds on, 30 seconds off for each, followed by a 2-minute rest, for 5 to 10 rounds. Try 50-meter swim sprints on another day (10 reps, resting for as long as it takes to complete 1 rep). Another day you could do hill sprints on a grassy surface (do 10 and then walk down the hill to recover). Bored or excessively sore? Just abbreviate your work periods, or do mobility exercises during your rest time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen to Your Body<\/strong>
Two years ago, John Short, a 60-year-old professor at Cal State Fullerton, was a chronic overexerter. He\u2019d play 90 holes of golf over a weekend, jump into pickup basketball games, and power through sets of burpees\u2014with a 40-pound vest\u2014just to see if he could do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometime between his umpteenth acupuncture treatment and anti-inflammatory injection, Short got wise. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in your late 50s, you have to walk a fine line between pushing enough and pushing too far,\u201d he says. He dropped the weighted burpees, hooked up with a trainer, and replaced running with rucking\u2014walking with a weighted pack. He\u2019s currently gunning for an injury-free, top 10 finish in a Spartan race. He\u2019s training smarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo many guys my age get hurt and pack it in,\u201d Short says. The answer isn\u2019t to give up altogether; it\u2019s to adjust your routine. Exercise is dose-dependent medicine\u2014your body thrives on just enough of it. \u201cBeyond a certain point, there is actually net harm from extreme exertion,\u201d says Dr. Katz. Dialing It Back Can Be Smart<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you find the sweet spot? Make sure your workout feels like work. Lifting to \u201cvolitional fatigue,\u201d the point at which you can\u2019t do any more reps while maintaining good form, is a more significant factor in determining muscle growth than weight lifted or reps performed, a new study reveals. \u201cAs long as you work to fatigue, it doesn\u2019t matter whether you\u2019re lifting 125 pounds 25 times or 250 pounds eight times,\u201d says study author Stuart Phillips, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University. Hard work leads to progress, regardless of the load lifted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Do anything but nothing…<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To determine when you\u2019ve reached your limit on a workout or activity, try the toe-touch test: Before your workout and between sets (or sprints or rounds of golf or sets of tennis), bend forward and reach for your toes. \u201cIf the movement you\u2019re performing agrees with you, you\u2019ll find that your range of motion will increase,\u201d says David Dellanave, C.S.C.S., a Philadelphia strength coach. Feeling looser and being able to reach farther means your body is green-lighting that exercise. If, on the other hand, you get tighter (you can\u2019t bend forward as far), then adjust, move on to a new exercise, or towel off and head home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skipping a set or two in a planned work-out sounds heretical to some hard-core gymgoers. Dellanave disagrees: \u201cUnless you\u2019re a competitive athlete, there\u2019s no need to do any particular exercise in a training session,\u201d he says. Your mission, then, is to put these rules together to figure out your perfect training plan. It starts with doing things consistently (Pillar 2). Fine-tune with Pillar 4. Choose a range of activities in a variety of intensities: two or three days of higher-in-tensity activities (sprints, heavy lifting, climbing, or body-weight strength circuits) coupled with another two or three days of easier stuff, like hiking, jogging, or cycling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Track a few metrics, such as distance covered, weight lifted, and reps completed so you know when you\u2019re get-ting better (as per Pillars 1 and 3), and use those stats to determine if you should go hard or go home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, whenever and however you can, whether it\u2019s part of a formal workout or not, just play. Shoot hoops with friends, toss a ball with your kid, make like a ninja on the monkey bars. \u201cPick something you like and go for it,\u201d says Stewart. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have a smile on your face when you\u2019re working out, you\u2019re doing something wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Heffernan, CSCS is a health, fitness, and Feldenkrais coach, and an award-winning health and fitness writer. His writing has been featured in Men’s Health, Experience Life, Onnit.com, and Openfit, among other outlets. An omnivorous athlete, Andrew is black belt in karate, a devoted weight lifter, and a frequent high finisher in triathlon and Spartan races. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their two children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

== Andrew Heffernan ==<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Want stellar health and a killer physique without the forced-march workouts? Get some skin back in the game with these 5 pillars of lifelong fitness. A 55-year-old grandfather of eight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d2fpc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d2fpc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d2fpc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d2fpc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d2fpc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/d2fpc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d2fpc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d2fpc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d2fpc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d2fpc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}