Getting started means, first and foremost, making a plan!
If you don't have a plan you have no idea where you are going.
The first step in this plan is to clarify your goals. Your goals
should be progressive. Be honest with yourself and start with
goals that are closest to where you are with your health right
now. Achieve those goals and then update accordingly.
Goals:
- Health concerns - Lowering cholesterol, lowering blood
pressure, injury rehabilitation, increasing general strength
and stability, weight loss. (These goals are for sedentary or
out of shape people, injured athletes, and those returning to
training after a long absence).
- Fitness enthusiast concerns - increasing aerobic capacity,
increasing strength, lowering body fat, increasing muscle
mass. (These goals are for people who have achieved
moderate levels of fitness ability that wish to increase
performance and improve appearance)
- Athletic concerns - increasing speed, power, size, strength
and flexibility for sport specific performance enhancement.
(These goals are for athletes, on or off-season, that are
involved in regular sports competitions)
Once you have defined why you want to train you can choose a
training plan that addresses your desired outcome.
Training plans:
- General health training plans are low in intensity and high
on frequency. This means you are not attempting strenuous
activities, but rather low to moderate intensity activities. By
doing low to moderate activities the stress on your body does
not exceed your ability to recover from the exercise.
Recovery is key. If your body is too stressed from your
training you will not make progress and will probably get sick
(from a lowered immune function), get injured (from trying
to go beyond your ability), or make no progress (from not
allowing your body to repair between workouts).
- Fitness enthusiast training plans are moderate to high in
intensity. Fitness training requires you to have some past
experience in training. If you participate in athletic recreation
like team or individual sports, or you are a hiker, biker, rock-
climber or weightlifting/body-building enthusiast you can
handle a moderate to intense fitness plan. Your goals in
fitness training are to increase your ability to perform your
favorite activities - becoming leaner, stronger and increasing
your endurance and capacity to tackle a more demanding
work-load on your heart, lungs and muscles. The important
thing to remember is that even with the increase in intensity,
you must be sure to allow time for proper recovery to avoid
the diminished gains brought on by over-training.
- Athletic training plans are for those already performing
high intensity athletics. These individuals have already
demonstrated the capacity for intense exercise and recovery.
These individuals have had the required physical exams that
clear them for strenuous exercise. The intention in these
training sessions are to become stronger and faster and to
develop precision in muscular control and output. Sport
specific outcomes (football, baseball, soccer, volleyball, power-
lifting, competitive body-building, etc.) drive the training
choices in these plans.
Once you have clarified your goals and training plan you need to
consider your nutritional support. This is a very important
aspect of your overall success. Failure to follow through with
proper nutritional support will negatively alter your training
results.
Nutritional support:
- General health support - The emphasis here will be
cleaning up your diet. Eliminating junk food, learning
nutrition basics, pre-planning meals (i.e. proper shopping
lists and weekly meal ideas, pre-cooking food for easy meal
preparation and learning to be accountable and sticking to
the plan). You must start eliminating pre-packaged, heavily
preserved foods (things in boxes and packages that have a
long list of ingredients). You must start buying whole foods
(things that are ready to cook and eat in their natural form
like fruits, veggies, lean meats, oats and minimally processed
grains and dairy).
- Fitness enthusiast support - The emphasis here is to
combine the above health support ideas and to begin
understanding and manipulating macro-nutrient values. Here
you need to know your daily nutritional intakes to be sure
you have adequate amounts of protein for muscle building
and the right carbohydrates for energy requirements. Proper
amounts of healthy fats must be considered as well for
proper hormone balance. Proper supplementation is included
here as well in order to increase performance outcomes.
- Athletic support - All the above are combined with an
increased focus on energy requirements and adequate
protein levels. If you followed the '08 summer Olympics at all
you must have heard of Michael Phelps. This swimming
phenomena is a lean performance machine. If you looked at
his ripped abs you would hardly believe that this guy chows
down massive calories daily when he is training. I know
people that get fat just eating 1,800 calories a day. The
difference is the intensity of effort each demands from their
body. Therefore, an athlete must be aware of energy
demands and feed as required. (This does not mean you
should gorge yourself with massive calories if you are an
athlete! You must simply find the proper ratio at which you
replenish your caloric expenditure with caloric intake).
The next step after identifying your goals, training plan and
nutritional support is to get down to specifics. That's where an
educated trainer becomes valuable. Enlisting the services of a
trainer will help you design a specific plan based on fitness and
nutrition sciences.
|
