If you could eat potato crisps all day and not put on any weight, would you?
To be honest, I’d probably like to give it a try if I knew this was true.
It’s human nature that we want to eat those naughty salty snacks and live carefree.
Truth is, you can have your cake (or crisps) and eat it too if you are smart about it.
Seeing the bigger picture and not neglecting one area of your health gives you the freedom to indulge when you want.
The key concept is to understand EVERYTHING has a cause and effect on your health.
Some positive and some negative.
It is impossible to only have positive without any negatives. When when you add all of your lifestyle habits up, it’s ideal to have them weighted towards the positive.
When it’s skewed negative, then weight gain, disease, mental health and ageing moves in the wrong direction.
Here are 5 areas of health that are commonly neglected or talked about
1. Mobility (the warm up). You can still lose a tonne of fat and get all the aesthetic goals you’re after when you skip the warm up or fail to do mobility exercises.
So, people can opt out and save more time for burning calories if that is more important to them. The problem is, this exposes you to a greater chance of injury and in the longer term can limit your progress.
For example, if you don’t have enough mobility in your ankles (your calves are tight) for a full depth squat. There are two outcomes if you don’t address the mobility in this area. You are forced to do reduced range squats which will engage less muscle and lower the overall outcome of any type of squatting movement.
The second option is that you force your body into a lower position, stealing range from your lower back and hips. This increases torque loading at the wrong joints and tissues, creating wear and tear that will inevitably lead to pain and injury.
2. Nutrient density. Fat loss occurs from being in a negative energy balance. In essence, moving more and eating less. When people read or hear this, they interpret it as all they need to do to reach their target. Leaving a big hole in all the macro, micronutrients, fatty acids and trace minerals. Missing one or a few of these can down regulate biological functions and impede you ability to recover and maintain health. Eating nutrient-dense foods and taking supplements where needed, should never be overlooked.
3. Strength. It’s true you can lose weight by running on a treadmill and doing endless yoga classes. Is it optimal and a long term solution?… Probably not.
After the age of 30 years old, the average person loses between 3% to 5% muscle each decade. The lower your muscle mass, the lower your overall metabolism and ability to perform movements.
Increasing and maintaining strength and muscle as we age keeps shape, tone and function. No one wants to be a saggy bean bag, so keep lifting.
4. Recovery. You’re only as good as you can recover. The whole premise of training is to create stress on the body and for your body to adapt to that stress to become “better” i.e. recover.
There is no point in overtraining and under-recovering. You’ll accellerage outcomes in the wrong direction like fatigue, cell oxidation, injuries, sickness etc.
Thinking more is better can be an easy trap to fall into without any upside.
Measuring resting heart rate, morning blood pressure, heart rate variability and sleep quality will give you an indication if you’re fully recovered.
At Best Body Co. we encourage our members to train smarter and always factor in long term health.
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