From ZERO activity to WELLNESS…

We all have our reasons/excuses/burdens/causes for habituating into lifestyles that don’t support our longevity.

Longevity being a long life.

What makes a long life rather unbearable? Morbidity.

Wellness is the reduction of morbidity and promotion of health.

Morbidity: the rate of disease in a population.

How can we reduce morbidity?

Walking for 30 minutes per day or more, reduces overall morbidity by 50%.

50%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Introduce and habituate into 30 minutes of daily walking, change nothing else about your life, and lower your risk of preventable disease by 50%!

That is huge.

That is dramatic prevention–

WITHOUT DRAMATIC ACTION.

If you think walking for 30 minutes per day (doesn’t have to be all at once, and in fact, is preferably spread out over 3-4 intervals, IE, 10 minute post meal walk three times daily).

TAKEAWAY: WALK!

Want to do more proactive health measures?

RESISTANCE EXERCISE IS KING!

Let’s take that remaining morbidity risk down to near ZERO!

Prioritize major muscles:

Legs (Quads, Glutes, hamstrings, calves),

Back (Lats, rhomboids, traps, erector spinae),

Chest (Clavicular, sternal),

Shoulders (lateral, posterior, anterior),

Abs (external, obliques, transverse),

Arms (Biceps, triceps, forearms).

Just starting out on resistance exercise?

First, there is no ‘perfect’. No perfect body, no perfect workout, etc.

There are principles of resistance exercise.

Good training days for each, in general (keep it simple, find the movements that you feel most in the targeted muscles:

Legs:

Squat variation, deadlift variation, unilateral leg motion.

Back:

Pull up variation, upper back row, lower back row.

Chest:

Press for upper, press for lower, fly variation.

Shoulders:

Lateral raise, rear delt fly, overhead press variation

Abs:

Reverse crunch variation, Russian Twist/side plank

Arms:

Supinated curl, overhead tricep extension (many variants for both)

There are 639 muscles in the human body.

Odds are that some are underdeveloped and others are overdeveloped in the scope of global aka, balanced muscle build. On average, muscles need 48-72 hours (or more) to recover from bouts of exercise.

Your training program should be set up for you to promote lean tissue addition and retention in the major muscle groups, all while addressing undeveloped areas and areas of morphological need. (IE, toned arms, bigger legs, wider shoulders).

Above I listed out some key movements for each “major” muscle.

Where do you start?

As we opened: WALK.

Once you have habituated 30 minutes of walking into your life, it is a good idea to introduce resistance training.

Why walk before you lift?

I am not saying you “HAVE TO” do anything.

But let’s be sensible with your body and your goals.

If you are asking me to help advise you without knowing more about you, your situation, your prior medical history, or evaluating your movement patterns and current lean tissue status, you are requesting a very general response.

CONTEXT…

Above I have provided a general context that can generally help most people. We are individuals with individual environments, habits, predispositions, genetics, and experiences. Without seeing you move and knowing more about you, it isn’t sensible for me to give you more details to follow.

As a coach, I like to address individual needs, create nutritional guidance to build eating habits around, and to design training programs that are approachable for the individual, while still being challenging enough to elicit morphological changes.

Wellness and fitness have a lot of overlap.

I think of wellness as the things we do daily to promote our health that don’t involve a gym:

Nutrition: Our fuel for action and recovery.

Knowing and understanding the bodily needs and preferred nutrient sources is key to a healthy body.

Movement: daily walking is essential for wellness. Other movement is great, but walking is essential and it isn’t going to hinder your ability to recover from your resistance training.

Hydration: adequate water intake (¾ to 1 oz per pound of bodyweight) is essential to our wellness.

The classic quote:

“You need air, water, sunlight….you’re basically a house plant with emotions.”

So wellness is the base, the plate upon which we serve the main course.

So fitness is the main course, but you can’t eat without a plate.

Without the base, we are likely to make a mess of our main course. Likely losing much of the meal to the floor and we are entertaining a non-sustainable habit. I mean, how many meals can you eat without a plate before you decide to clean your dishes?

Following the analogy?

Consistency matters.

Prioritize your wellness habits.

Then,

Embody your fitness habits.

Habits are not about motivation.

Motivation is a fleeting emotion.

Habits are borne from self awareness and with determination this self awareness becomes a discipline and a habit.

Self Awareness + determination + a plan = a habit.

Once you’re self aware and determined, all you need is a plan to build your habit around.

Your Plan?

Again, your context will dictate.

But,

We know that for your body, you need:

Legs, back, chest, shoulders, abs, and arms…

Start off simple, then keep it simple, be consistent, and make the reps count.

SUPER SIMPLE TRAINING PLAN: 2 DAYS PER WEEK

Day one

Abs to warm up

Reverse crunch x 20

Russian twist x 30 seconds

3 rounds

Plank max/ 1 minute

Practice movement with lighter weights than working set…

1-Squat

2-Lunge

3a-leg curl 3b-leg extension

4-deadlift

5-lateral raise

6-overhead press

1-6 3 sets each 15-6 reps each motion

Day two

Abs to warm up

Reverse crunch x 20

Side Plan x 30 seconds

3 rounds

Plank max/ 1 minute

Practice movement with lighter weights than working set…

1A-Lat pulldown (neutral grip preferred)

1B-INCLINE press

2A-upper back row

2B-chest fly

3a-low cable row

3b-flat press

4a-supinated curl

4b-overhead tricep ext

5a-hammer curl

5b-bench dip

1-5 3 sets each 15-6 reps each motion

Do day 1, day 2 rest, repeat.

KEEP IT SIMPLE, make the reps count.

It is about intramuscular pressure, not the weight. Your muscles care about resistance/overload. They aren’t impressed by a number on the plate/dumbbell. MUSCLES care about tension, range of motion, pressure, and activation.

IT DON’T MEAN A THING IF IT AIN’T GOT THAT STING

As soon as you want a more personalized and guided experience, I recommend you train with the most knowledgeable, personable, experienced, evidenced and dedicated coach that has the background that best corresponds with your goals. IE, if you want to be and ENHANCED BODYBUILDER–find a PED taking coach. IE, if you want to be an ALL NATURAL PRO athlete (Sports or bodybuilding), then get with the ALL NATURAL PRO in your area.

Why bodybuilding is better for sports performance than powerlifting.

If sports only demanded one repetition, then powerlifting would make great sense as a training modality.

If sports were devoid of injury risk, then powerlifting would make great sense as a training modality.

If sports didn’t require a large cardio and recovery capacity, then powerlifting would make great sense as a training modality.

That’s just the thing though,

SPORTS demand lots of near maximal repetitions.

SPORTS are inherently full of injury risks.

SPORTS require cardio and recovery capacity.

Bodybuilding, aka, hypertrophy is done in the 5-20 rep range with maximal or near maximal effort.

Bodybuilding is built around a reduction of injury risk and a promotion of underdevloped muscles–that latter principle only greater reduces injury risk while optimizing performance.

Bodybuilding boost cardio without additional cardio needs (though sports specific cardio adaptation modalities can definitely be employed to bolster cardio capacity, bodybuilding offers far greater cardio benefits than powerbuilding. In powerlifting there are long breaks, lower reps, and less volume. These characteristics don’t call upon the cardio system nearly as much as bodybuilding training does–especially training with complimentary supersets–IE: back and chest.

If you personally want greater detail and explanation here on why bodybuilding training methods coupled with plyometrics is a superior athlete training model when compared to powerlifting, message me and I will email you more details/ schedule a call with you.

More importantly,

If you are interested in utilizing the BEEfit Sport’s Hypertrophy programming for you or an athlete in your life, reach out today and we can evaluate!

ryanbeefit@gmail.com

So we have gone from general wellness to NCAA/pro athlete.

Where does it start?

Wellness.

The reduction of morbidity and promotion of health.