Fitness Manifesto
If there’s one thing people know about me, its that I am always on the move, literally: I run, bike, swim, climb, hike, kick-box, lift-weights, kayak, paddle-board, surf, play basketball, and occasionally dance (badly). The main rule about being fit it’s that you have to talk about fitness. Just kidding (sort of). This is probably why I find myself helping people with their fitness goals when I’m not breaking a sweat. I decided to write out my core fitness principles in case it helps anyone make a leap into a healthier lifestyle:
- Active lifestyle
- The key to attaining and maintaining fitness is consistently embedding fitness in your life. This means that your work-out routine is the minimum amount of activity you do in a day. I strive to knock-out my 75 minute to 90 minute daily work-out routine in the first half of my day so that I can do fun/social activities later in the day, like going for a walk with my parents or playing basketball with friends. This allows me to incorporate both high-intensity structured work-outs and lower intensity less structured activity into my day. I’ve also found that this active lifestyle mind-set pushes me to spend more time outdoors, which makes me happier. One simple way to push yourself to be generally active outside your workouts is to have a daily step goal (obviously don’t count steps taken during your workout). This may seem radical, but I’ve observed that my body craves much more activity than my mind thinks it wants.
- The other component to my active lifestyle philosophy is that I do not believe in building in rest days into your schedule. Instead, I plan for recovery days where I do lower impact and lower intensity activities like swimming or yoga. Furthermore, I listen to my body (and sometimes my fitness tracker) for when I need rest. My rationale is that if you plan for rest days you may end up taking the scheduled rest day plus additional rest days your body demands you take. Also, active recovery is generally healthier than just lying in bed all day.
2. Simplicity
- Motivating yourself to work-out everyday is hard enough. That’s why I don’t complicate my life (and lower my work-out motivation) by doing complex routines. I keep it simple enough that I can remember what I’m going to do each day of the week without consulting my notes. For example, when I was training for an Ironman triathlon, I relied on the “super simple Ironman training plan.” The title was accurate — it was super simple and very effective because I was actually motivated to follow-it.
- Simplicity should also be applied to your fitness goals. I find it very motivating to have one time-bound measurable fitness related goal. For example, right now I’m hoping to get fit enough to hike Mount Aconcagua in December. Its fun to be working towards something, big or small, and see yourself make progress towards that goal.
3. Variety and Fun
- To do anything for your whole life you need to love what you’re doing, constantly be learning, and feel challenged. The same concepts apply to maintaining a consistent work-out schedule and active life-style. The general fitness plan that I follow these days has three key components: cardio, strength, and flexibility. I try to do work-outs that meet one or more of these goals each day for 75 to 90 minutes. What exactly I do is less important to me. Incorporating a ton of variety from swimming and running to climbing and kick-boxing keeps me on my toes, which ensures I’m having fun! I highly recommend incorporating work-out classes into your routine if you’re feeling bored or unmotivated. For me, the tough high intensity group work-outs always fly by while the reasonably paced run goes on forever.
I’m sure this advice won’t work for everyone’s life-style or goals. That said, I really believe that the core principles of incorporating fitness into your lifestyle, keeping your work-out schedule simple, and adding variety and fun into your routine are broadly applicable. It basically boils down to “do something (anything!) active consistently and have fun with it. In future articles I’ll share my exact routine that I’m following and what I do with respect to food. Best of luck with your fitness goals and feel free to leave feedback and/or lessons you’ve learned in your journey!
