Over the years, I’ve had numerous clients come to my gym, wanting a personal trainer who will push them to their limits. If they’re not training for a particular sport, I generally sit them down and explain the importance of an active lifestyle instead of training extremely hard in the gym three days per week. You can’t out-exercise an unhealthy lifestyle.
Many potential clients have said to me,” I want to work out hard because I like to eat whatever I want.” Unfortunately, that’s the wrong mindset. You want to work out to create a response with the least amount of risk while eating a whole natural food diet that will control your weight.
Overtraining is a big problem for the fitness enthusiast. Everyone is so impressed when they hear someone just ran a marathon or is running 10 miles a day, but in reality, some of these people can be damaging their bodies. You can strengthen your cardiovascular system by combining long easy walks and very short high-intensity sprints. Running 10 miles a day is just overkill when it comes to conditioning your body. It’s different if you’re competing in a sport.
An active lifestyle with the proper diet is the key to longevity and a happy life. Pushing yourself all out by lifting weights to failure in the gym for an hour three times a week creates a very toxic overtraining state in your body. Plus, adding some 60-minute aerobic sessions on your off days on top of that ensures that you’re over-trained.
A general rule is the higher the intensity, the shorter the workout duration should be. Yes, high-intensity exercise is okay as long as it’s short in duration and spaced out for proper recovery. Most people hands-down would be healthier if they opted to live an active lifestyle.
Typical Healthy Active Lifestyle Day:
1- Drink a big glass of water upon awakening
2- Taking a 30-minute walk first thing in the morning
3- Having a light breakfast (two hard-boiled eggs half an avocado)
4- Taking the time for a mini-meditation (5 minutes)
5- During the day, taking the steps instead of an elevator
6- Parking your car far from the building you’re going to
7- Making sure you drink half your weight in ounces of water every day
8- Taking a ten or 15-minute walk before lunch
9- Eating a whole natural food lunch (sardines, half an avocado, big salad)
10-Doing 15 minutes of resistance training before dinner
11- Eating a whole food healthy dinner (salmon, string beans, and cauliflower)
12- Winding down and having a good night sleep (8-hour uninterrupted)
The example above can vary from person to person. Overall, I’d much rather have someone live an active lifestyle like the one above instead of eating a poor diet, not sleeping enough, pushing themself through very tough works for 60 minutes every day, and thinking that a hard workout will fix an unhealthy lifestyle.
Best – Mike Cola
