What Is Training?
During a recent discussion with a friend who's in the fitness business, we disagreed a bit on what training is. I suspect it's more a debate on when to use the term. So, here's my take on training.
Anytime you make your body do work in order to change its response, you are training. That means that if you are walking to improve your health or lose weight, you're training. In this case, training your body to be able to carry oxygen better, improve musculature, etc. A lot of people don't think of this as training, but it is. Many people think that it's training only if you're following a written (or occasionally unwritten) program for competitive purposes.
The basic rule of training can be described as "Stress and Recover"*, so if you are stressing the body (even slightly), you are training. Are you breathing hard when you are doing your exercise (activity)? Do your muscles get sore (even just some of the time)? If so, you are likely training.
Now comes the second question, why train? Unless you want to be the Pillsbury Dough Boy (or Girl), you should do some training. I recently heard an interesting statistic (though I haven't confirmed it) - there are more people in nursing homes for muscular weakness than for heart conditions. This was stated as part of a presentation on fitness for non-exercisers, and his argument was that if we don't train our bodies, we'll eventually wind up with poor quality of life because we'll eventually be unable to do the things we enjoy (and even those we don't). He proceded to make a case for doing squats by stating that almost every one of us needs to do squats daily, he went on to explain that it's often done with a newspaper or magazine in hand, and that the inability to do this was one of the things most damaging to self-esteem for those in a nursing home.
So, yes, we should train. But I didn't train as a child, why do it now? You DID train as a child, you PLAYED! And if you were like most children, you did a variety of activities, running, jumping, climbing, throwing, bicycling, etc. These activities were fun and we didn't realize that we were training. Now, time often does not permit a varied and random training progrm like we did as kids, but if we want to succeed, our training should be fun and varied. It doesn't matter what you do, but do it to the best of your ability (and with reasonable judgement) and you'll live a better quality life.
*I've taken this wording from Dr. Gabe Mirkin, though I doubt he originated it.
Anytime you make your body do work in order to change its response, you are training. That means that if you are walking to improve your health or lose weight, you're training. In this case, training your body to be able to carry oxygen better, improve musculature, etc. A lot of people don't think of this as training, but it is. Many people think that it's training only if you're following a written (or occasionally unwritten) program for competitive purposes.
The basic rule of training can be described as "Stress and Recover"*, so if you are stressing the body (even slightly), you are training. Are you breathing hard when you are doing your exercise (activity)? Do your muscles get sore (even just some of the time)? If so, you are likely training.
Now comes the second question, why train? Unless you want to be the Pillsbury Dough Boy (or Girl), you should do some training. I recently heard an interesting statistic (though I haven't confirmed it) - there are more people in nursing homes for muscular weakness than for heart conditions. This was stated as part of a presentation on fitness for non-exercisers, and his argument was that if we don't train our bodies, we'll eventually wind up with poor quality of life because we'll eventually be unable to do the things we enjoy (and even those we don't). He proceded to make a case for doing squats by stating that almost every one of us needs to do squats daily, he went on to explain that it's often done with a newspaper or magazine in hand, and that the inability to do this was one of the things most damaging to self-esteem for those in a nursing home.
So, yes, we should train. But I didn't train as a child, why do it now? You DID train as a child, you PLAYED! And if you were like most children, you did a variety of activities, running, jumping, climbing, throwing, bicycling, etc. These activities were fun and we didn't realize that we were training. Now, time often does not permit a varied and random training progrm like we did as kids, but if we want to succeed, our training should be fun and varied. It doesn't matter what you do, but do it to the best of your ability (and with reasonable judgement) and you'll live a better quality life.
*I've taken this wording from Dr. Gabe Mirkin, though I doubt he originated it.
posted by Scooter at 5:26 PM
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