mind now starting to slow down my body. I can feel it trying to prevent me from walking places and make me lazier. Why? Because it’s trying to conserve energy. It doesn’t want me walking everywhere and training hard because it’s in a depleted state. Why do I tell you this? Firstly, to check that you are not currently training in a depleted state when you shouldn’t be. As a coach I’ve worked with too many people that have tried to improve their exercise performance and progress but have simply not been eating enough. You want to perform like an athlete? Eat like one and only then can you train like one. As they say, you have to fuel the beast, and at the moment I am far from beast-like. This is why you see many athletes that are not super lean. You think they should be, they’re an athlete after all and they should look ripped. But this is often counterproductive to their bigger goal, performance. And thus you might see many athletes with normal-ish amounts of body fat, enough to look and feel athletic, to be nimble and weight efficient, but not so low it affects their performance, just for apparent aesthetic benefit.
“USE EXERCISE TO SHAPE A BODY, BOTH FOR LOOK AND FOR PERFORMANCE…” I can’t wait to get back to my normal training again. I love being able to perform a heavy squat, wait 5-10 seconds then jump into some weighted chin-ups and straight into some box jumps. Rest for 2 minutes and do it all over again, and again, and again. But now I have to perform the squats, rest for a bit, then do the chin-ups, and probably leave the box jumps altogether as I’m feeling far from ‘jumpy’ right now. So aside from my current training predicament and looking at where you’re probably at right now reading this article, how should you exercise to effectively diet? Ultimately, if fat loss is the goal then all we need to do is burn energy to help with losing the weight. Exercise is a tool that makes us fitter, stronger, faster, but also helps create a calorie deficit by burning energy. So you could lift weights, or run, or go to Zumba, or do aerial yoga. Burning energy is burning energy. But some forms of training burn more than others, so that is a consideration worth making. Plus some forms of training are more enjoyable, so always do that because exercise you enjoy is always more sustainable long term. The benefit with weight training is that it helps to preserve muscle tissue by sending anabolic stimuluses that say ‘hey, keep that muscle dude’, rather than burning it for fuel in a depleted state. It also helps sculpt and shape a physique a certain way. So as a
guy, for my goals and for my vision of my body, I want to lift weights as I want decent muscle size; I want to look and feel athletic, so that is a key reason I am lifting weights 2-3 times per week at the moment. I can’t do it anymore as I play rugby and that is where I try channel most of my energy, as that’s why I enjoy and get the most satisfaction from. Otherwise, if I didn’t play rugby, I would probably lift weights 3-4 times per week and the other days simply be active and run, canoe, walk, swim... preferably outdoors, mixing it up with whatever I fancy at the time. So with your training and with your goals consider whether you are enjoying your training, how much time you have or can create, and what you want for your body. Use exercise to shape a body, both for look and for performance. And remember that there will be times that you don’t want to exercise the way you had planned to. You’ll want to change it, or your body will be telling you it’s time to change, and that’s ok. During the summer I like to get outdoors more rather than be in the gym. I like to run or get out in my canoe. Why? Because it’s fun. I’m still exercising, I’m still challenging my fitness, I’m still burning some calories, so for me it’s all good. Modern exercise culture can often feel very gym focused, and while there is benefit to the gym (the gym is a great tool), there are many other ways to get strong, fit and healthy.