Fit to play

Recently I’ve been receiving a lot of questions about exercise programmes that are a bit too specific for a simple one-size-fits-all answer.

I suppose I wish there was one, as it would save me a lot of work with my consultations. But then again, if there was something that would work for everyone then I could find myself severely short on work … so I suppose, yes, I’m glad that every answer needs to be somewhat different.

Since we are all different people and therefore will have different ways that we need to train, I thought it would be a good idea to outline exactly what goes into the mixing bowl of creativity before we come out with a nice-looking programme.

Just advising a challenge for everyone doesn’t work, we need to be specific.

For this post I’ll focus on one of the different personal aspects that will dictate how we should train, it is important to address these so that we know that we can be consistent with our training and stay motivated. Others will follow in the coming weeks.

This brings me to my first factor: goals. Training aimlessly with no goal is never going to amount to any progress. You need to know what you’re training for – whether that goal is a few years off, a few months off, you need a target to aim at.

If you’re goal currently seems like a distant dream then you’ll need to have a plan to reach it, that plan will involve certain short-term goals which is what you’ll plan your training for.

What so many people don’t realise is that it is practically impossible to add 40kgs onto your squat, diet down to eight per cent body fat and master the iron cross all at the same time.

With proper planning you could reach each goal one at a time, the best way would be to get the squat first, then whilst maintaining that squat start a diet that will get you down to eight per cent body fat, then as you get in lighter you can learn the gymnastic skill to perform an iron cross.

This order will take the quickest because it is easier to lose fat when we’re stronger.
It will still take some time, but will be possible if planned correctly.

It’s also important to consider your goals and how you’d diet for them, losing weight and competing in a triathlon don’t actually go hand in hand. If you want to run a very good time you have to eat to sustain the amount of training that you’d do instead of a low-calorie diet that you’d need to lose weight.

* Next week: Training factor 2 – Age