BURN Fitness 101: What are you priorities for fitness success? MOST people have them WRONG!
Life is a continuous series of choices and consequences. Each choice creates an outcome. The choices in our lives are ruled by our priorities. We prioritize Choice A over Choice B… So Choice A gets done, and Choice B waits or is passed over. The first choice we make every day is to hit the snooze button or not! From there the choices continue… breakfast or no? Cereal, eggs, or a shake? Make my own, or hit the McDonalds drive-thru? Go to the gym before work, or skip it? If you do go, do you do strength training, or cardio, or take a class? The choices go on. We make literally hundreds of choices every day, maybe thousands if you consider whether to run the yellow light, or stop.
It’s all about priorities.
So where do your fitness and nutrition priorities lay? Hopefully, it’s based on your fitness goals. Most of my clients have significant fat loss, with a bit of muscle gain as a top priority. General health, stress reduction, functional ability/performance, etc. all have their place, ruled by their individual priorities. These are very common goals, so I’ll start there. Fat-loss, lost muscle gain/regain, and function with health…
With these goals in mind, people make their fitness priorities…
“I need lots of cardio… and some strength training… and I need to cut carbs… and I need to do more cardio…” Typical response… And it’s wrong…
So what SHOULD their priorities be? Let me give you a list, and the reasoning behind it.
1) Sleep and recovery is KING.
Regardless of how PERFECT your training routine is (and your diet), you will NOT succeed without proper recovery time. Why? Because… without enough recovery your body will not heal from the damage done by exercise. The whole purpose of exercise is actually to DAMAGE the body! The body’s natural defensive mechanisms respond to this damage, and somehow “miraculously” not only fix the damage, but accumulate more muscle/tendon/ejection-fraction to defend itself from future damage. It adapts! This works both for (re)building muscle, and with cardiorespiratory exercise, we stress the heart, the blood vessels, the slow-twitch muscles, and the nervous system. This stress results in adaptation… to the damage.
I could write multiple articles on this and go on and on… but just trust me! Without sleep and rest, the body does not fully heal. Without healing… you won’t get fitter.
2) Nutrition is QUEEN!
A close second to recovery is nutrition. You will NEVER succeed with any fitness goal without proper nutrition. While your body is recovering and healing… it needs raw material to do its repairs. The foods we eat supply those raw materials. The protein is the actually building blocks of muscle, ligaments, tendons, and your heart, blood vessels, and even bones. If your protein intake is too low, your body WILL repair itself the best it can while you rest, but it will steal from healthy muscle and bone tissue to repair the damage. Basically, it will consume itself, to heal itself… YUCK. This is why protein intake is SO vital to fitness. Carbs and fats are the fuel for the repairs. Construction takes energy! The “gasoline” for all that heavy construction equipment is the carbohydrates and fats we eat.
Even if you workout routine is perfect… it’s WORTHLESS without proper nutrition.
Likewise… the quality of the raw material is directly related to the quality of the repair. You wouldn’t fix your house with rotten wood and fake nails. You cannot fully repair your body with fast food and processed sugar-laden crap.
3) Okay… So number three must be my KILLER WORKOUTS!!! Sorry… Nope… Number three is hormonal regulation.
HUH? What’s that?
Hormonal regulation is the constant balancing acts going on in our bodies that regulate every body function including: sleep, digestion, fat gain/loss, muscle gain/loss, mood, stress, relaxation, anxiety, and energy levels. Stress is a HUGE player in hormones, both positively and negatively. Stress is divided into “good” stress (eustress), and “bad” stress (distress). The “high” we feel from walking, running, strength training, getting fresh air, stretching, doing yoga… are all examples of eustress, similar in nature to euphoria. Deadlines, relationship issues, hardships, illness, and lack of sleep cause distress.
Eustress is linked with higher production of “healthy” hormones, from testosterone and growth hormone, to endorphins… and reductions in “bad” hormones, primarily cortisol. Distress depresses healthy positive hormone production, and skyrockets cortisol levels which tear down muscle, and cause the body to accumulate visceral fat.
Again, there are whole books written on hormone balance, stress and fitness/health, and insufficient levels of testosterone in men. Likewise, there are a multitude of books about imbalanced growth hormone, testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen in women. And, as with recovery and nutrition, if your hormones are WAY out of whack…the BEST workout routine on earth will have little effect.
Exercise and nutrition both impact our hormones (yet another book…). If your exercise intensity is too low, you won’t stimulate the “good” hormones that build muscle and/or burn fat. If your exercise intensity or volume is too high, you may cause a spill-over of “bad” hormones. Hormones in your body are made up predominantly from proteins and fats! If your nutrition is off, so will be your hormone balances!
4) Finally… YOUR WORKOUT!
Yes… way down in fourth place is the actual exercise you do. And again… most people do it WRONG! Either doing massive volumes of cardio, with little to no strength training… or strength training routines designed for Special Forces Operators, when their goals are that of being a healthier leaner accountant or mom… or using the same workout in their 50s that USE to work in their 30s.
Granted… simply getting sedentary people MOVING is the first step, but once they get moving, they need a smart direction to move in. Fitness is also NOT about simply losing weight. Weight loss and fitness are FAR from synonymous terms. The method prescribed by “Weight Loss Doctors” (Starve yourself, while taking drugs that tell your brain that you’re not starving), run completely at odds with the methods of REAL Fitness Professionals (Build a formidable metabolism through activity, progressive overload… both cardio and strength… and eating LARGE amounts of nutrient-dense fat-loss stimulating real food… in order to over time burn off unwanted fat) .
AFTER and ONLY after… you’ve got your LIFESTYLE under control… including sleep, recovery, nutrition, and hormone stability/production under control… then INTELLIGENT exercise is the next priority.
Most people either make inaccurate assumptions (based on the misleading inputs they get) or refuse to believe the science that drives fitness results. Regardless of the source of their bad information… to get results, you have to follow the basic structure of sounds exercise program design for real results. Get your priorities straight!
Your priorities within exercise MUST be:
A) Maintain or RE-build muscle mass that will support your improved metabolism. Put on as MUCH muscle as you can stand to see in the mirror to fire up your resting metabolism so you but fat all day long… even while you sleep. This muscle building routine MUST be age, condition, and pre-existing limitation appropriate! Not a one-size/class/WOD format-fits-all program.
B) Crank up your all-day metabolism through “high” intensity interval training. Do a series of “sprints” and “recoveries” repeatedly (as opposed to long, slow, plodding cardio). This HIIT routine MUST also be age, condition, and pre-existing limitation appropriate! Not a one-size/class/WOD format-fits-all program.
C) Fill in between vigorous workouts with “active rest”, which includes casual walking, cycling, gardening, playing with the dog etc. The focus off your “off-days” should be to stretch, move, stay active, stay loose, and to regain focus for your vigorous workouts! But you DO NEED rest days! (See Priority #1, Rest and Recovery) If your workout week includes 6-7 days of vigorous intensity training… You will NOT recover. You will NOT be able to “Out-Eat” your over-training, and your stress hormones will skyrocket while your healthy muscle building/fat-burning hormones will plummet.
Rework your priorities! If your fitness/health priorities are off… your results WILL suffer. PERIOD! If your priorities are NOT fat loss and health, then THESE exercise priorities are wrong. They’re not for you. Similarly… if your priorities are fat-loss and health, then WHY are you exercising like you’re training for a marathon, like you’re going into combat or will be trying out for the Bucs next week??? In that case, your fitness priorities are right… but your exercise choices are wrong.
Make SURE your exercise choices… match your fitness priorities. Because remember, every choice has consequences… You better make the choices that result in the consequences you desire!
And as always… if you want to take the fast-track to getting your fitness priorities straight… and the rest, nutrition, hormonal, and exercise choices matched up for maximum results in minimum time??? Come see Lisa and me at BURN Fitness!
Life is a continuous series of choices and consequences. Each choice creates an outcome. The choices in our lives are ruled by our priorities. We prioritize Choice A over Choice B… So Choice A gets done, and Choice B waits or is passed over. The first choice we make every day is to hit the snooze button or not! From there the choices continue… breakfast or no? Cereal, eggs, or a shake? Make my own, or hit the McDonalds drive-thru? Go to the gym before work, or skip it? If you do go, do you do strength training, or cardio, or take a class? The choices go on. We make literally hundreds of choices every day, maybe thousands if you consider whether to run the yellow light, or stop.
It’s all about priorities.
So where do your fitness and nutrition priorities lay? Hopefully, it’s based on your fitness goals. Most of my clients have significant fat loss, with a bit of muscle gain as a top priority. General health, stress reduction, functional ability/performance, etc. all have their place, ruled by their individual priorities. These are very common goals, so I’ll start there. Fat-loss, lost muscle gain/regain, and function with health…
With these goals in mind, people make their fitness priorities…
“I need lots of cardio… and some strength training… and I need to cut carbs… and I need to do more cardio…” Typical response… And it’s wrong…
So what SHOULD their priorities be? Let me give you a list, and the reasoning behind it.
1) Sleep and recovery is KING.
Regardless of how PERFECT your training routine is (and your diet), you will NOT succeed without proper recovery time. Why? Because… without enough recovery your body will not heal from the damage done by exercise. The whole purpose of exercise is actually to DAMAGE the body! The body’s natural defensive mechanisms respond to this damage, and somehow “miraculously” not only fix the damage, but accumulate more muscle/tendon/ejection-fraction to defend itself from future damage. It adapts! This works both for (re)building muscle, and with cardiorespiratory exercise, we stress the heart, the blood vessels, the slow-twitch muscles, and the nervous system. This stress results in adaptation… to the damage.
I could write multiple articles on this and go on and on… but just trust me! Without sleep and rest, the body does not fully heal. Without healing… you won’t get fitter.
2) Nutrition is QUEEN!
A close second to recovery is nutrition. You will NEVER succeed with any fitness goal without proper nutrition. While your body is recovering and healing… it needs raw material to do its repairs. The foods we eat supply those raw materials. The protein is the actually building blocks of muscle, ligaments, tendons, and your heart, blood vessels, and even bones. If your protein intake is too low, your body WILL repair itself the best it can while you rest, but it will steal from healthy muscle and bone tissue to repair the damage. Basically, it will consume itself, to heal itself… YUCK. This is why protein intake is SO vital to fitness. Carbs and fats are the fuel for the repairs. Construction takes energy! The “gasoline” for all that heavy construction equipment is the carbohydrates and fats we eat.
Even if you workout routine is perfect… it’s WORTHLESS without proper nutrition.
Likewise… the quality of the raw material is directly related to the quality of the repair. You wouldn’t fix your house with rotten wood and fake nails. You cannot fully repair your body with fast food and processed sugar-laden crap.
3) Okay… So number three must be my KILLER WORKOUTS!!! Sorry… Nope… Number three is hormonal regulation.
HUH? What’s that?
Hormonal regulation is the constant balancing acts going on in our bodies that regulate every body function including: sleep, digestion, fat gain/loss, muscle gain/loss, mood, stress, relaxation, anxiety, and energy levels. Stress is a HUGE player in hormones, both positively and negatively. Stress is divided into “good” stress (eustress), and “bad” stress (distress). The “high” we feel from walking, running, strength training, getting fresh air, stretching, doing yoga… are all examples of eustress, similar in nature to euphoria. Deadlines, relationship issues, hardships, illness, and lack of sleep cause distress.
Eustress is linked with higher production of “healthy” hormones, from testosterone and growth hormone, to endorphins… and reductions in “bad” hormones, primarily cortisol. Distress depresses healthy positive hormone production, and skyrockets cortisol levels which tear down muscle, and cause the body to accumulate visceral fat.
Again, there are whole books written on hormone balance, stress and fitness/health, and insufficient levels of testosterone in men. Likewise, there are a multitude of books about imbalanced growth hormone, testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen in women. And, as with recovery and nutrition, if your hormones are WAY out of whack…the BEST workout routine on earth will have little effect.
Exercise and nutrition both impact our hormones (yet another book…). If your exercise intensity is too low, you won’t stimulate the “good” hormones that build muscle and/or burn fat. If your exercise intensity or volume is too high, you may cause a spill-over of “bad” hormones. Hormones in your body are made up predominantly from proteins and fats! If your nutrition is off, so will be your hormone balances!
4) Finally… YOUR WORKOUT!
Yes… way down in fourth place is the actual exercise you do. And again… most people do it WRONG! Either doing massive volumes of cardio, with little to no strength training… or strength training routines designed for Special Forces Operators, when their goals are that of being a healthier leaner accountant or mom… or using the same workout in their 50s that USE to work in their 30s.
Granted… simply getting sedentary people MOVING is the first step, but once they get moving, they need a smart direction to move in. Fitness is also NOT about simply losing weight. Weight loss and fitness are FAR from synonymous terms. The method prescribed by “Weight Loss Doctors” (Starve yourself, while taking drugs that tell your brain that you’re not starving), run completely at odds with the methods of REAL Fitness Professionals (Build a formidable metabolism through activity, progressive overload… both cardio and strength… and eating LARGE amounts of nutrient-dense fat-loss stimulating real food… in order to over time burn off unwanted fat) .
AFTER and ONLY after… you’ve got your LIFESTYLE under control… including sleep, recovery, nutrition, and hormone stability/production under control… then INTELLIGENT exercise is the next priority.
Most people either make inaccurate assumptions (based on the misleading inputs they get) or refuse to believe the science that drives fitness results. Regardless of the source of their bad information… to get results, you have to follow the basic structure of sounds exercise program design for real results. Get your priorities straight!
Your priorities within exercise MUST be:
A) Maintain or RE-build muscle mass that will support your improved metabolism. Put on as MUCH muscle as you can stand to see in the mirror to fire up your resting metabolism so you but fat all day long… even while you sleep. This muscle building routine MUST be age, condition, and pre-existing limitation appropriate! Not a one-size/class/WOD format-fits-all program.
B) Crank up your all-day metabolism through “high” intensity interval training. Do a series of “sprints” and “recoveries” repeatedly (as opposed to long, slow, plodding cardio). This HIIT routine MUST also be age, condition, and pre-existing limitation appropriate! Not a one-size/class/WOD format-fits-all program.
C) Fill in between vigorous workouts with “active rest”, which includes casual walking, cycling, gardening, playing with the dog etc. The focus off your “off-days” should be to stretch, move, stay active, stay loose, and to regain focus for your vigorous workouts! But you DO NEED rest days! (See Priority #1, Rest and Recovery) If your workout week includes 6-7 days of vigorous intensity training… You will NOT recover. You will NOT be able to “Out-Eat” your over-training, and your stress hormones will skyrocket while your healthy muscle building/fat-burning hormones will plummet.
Rework your priorities! If your fitness/health priorities are off… your results WILL suffer. PERIOD! If your priorities are NOT fat loss and health, then THESE exercise priorities are wrong. They’re not for you. Similarly… if your priorities are fat-loss and health, then WHY are you exercising like you’re training for a marathon, like you’re going into combat or will be trying out for the Bucs next week??? In that case, your fitness priorities are right… but your exercise choices are wrong.
Make SURE your exercise choices… match your fitness priorities. Because remember, every choice has consequences… You better make the choices that result in the consequences you desire!
And as always… if you want to take the fast-track to getting your fitness priorities straight… and the rest, nutrition, hormonal, and exercise choices matched up for maximum results in minimum time??? Come see Lisa and me at BURN Fitness!