Former Navy SEAL, Stew Smith CSCS
- StewSmith.com | December
2007
(FREE WORKOUTS BELOW)
Nearly on a daily basis, people
young and old confide in me with their fitness goals. Too many of these goals are extremely
broad and lack focus and many are too narrow in scope and require more elements
to succeed. For example, broad goals are
“getting healthy again” or “losing weight”. These can require some to stop
over-eating, smoking, drinking soda or other sugary products, as well as start
exercising ALL at the same time. Anytime someone tries
to do all of the above in the same week, they are statistically destined to not
be successful.
The opposite problem occurs when
someone “wants to do pull-ups”.
Depending on their current fitness level, this could require that person
to start using weights to strengthen grip, biceps, and back muscles as well as
lose weight. Too many people cannot
do pull-ups mainly because they carry an extra 20-25 lbs of weight they could
stand to lose. And, the common denominator between men
and women who can perform pull-ups is “they practice pull-ups 2-3 times a week
as part of their weekly workout routine.”
See pull-up articles in the
www.heroesoftomorrowfitness.com
Article Archive for more info.
There is a standard method of
achieving your fitness and health goals.
Quite simply, it requires baby steps if you are a beginner and a
foundation of several elements if you are currently active and seeking more
advanced goals. These elements are
the following:
Moving = EXERCISE. If you add exercise to your world, this
will be a cause your body to adapt until you build habits and create that foundation
of fitness needed for a lifestyle change. This
can be as simple as walking or biking for 10-15:00 everyday or an hour long
workout in the gym with a combination of weights and cardio equipment. To do more pull-ups, pushups, or run
faster, you have to be already very active, otherwise you need to create the
foundation on which to build these follow-on goals. This is why military members who do not
exercise but only 1-2 weeks prior to their bi-annual fitness test continually
score worse than the year before.
To beat last years scores, you need to make your fitness part of your
schedule.
Eating – Eating to lose weight or eating a
healthful diet with balanced nutrition is a lifestyle that should be adopted over
time. When you add exercise to your
schedule 4-5 times a week, it is important to increase your water consumption to
2-4 quarts a day. Just add exercise
and more water to your world the first month of your exercise schedule. If you see weight loss within the first
week or two, you may not need to alter your food intake that much. Your body will also start to drive you
toward eating more fruits, vegetables, and protein sources if you have a steady
exercise program too. But for more
ideas on what to eat see the following links:
Eat to Get Fit
Food
Options Chart
Fun Diet
Motivator
Flexibility – Stretching is highly important to
increasing scores on fitness tests as well as overall conditioning. Prevention of injuries through a steady
flexibility routine before and after each fitness session will enable you to
continue exercise and not have to stop your program due to pulled muscles or
stiff joints. See the Stretching
Plan that I recommend people to do for a solid week prior to beginners adding
fitness to their schedule. Check out the
FREE Stretching Plan
Schedule – The final element of successful
goal achievement is pacing fitness into your schedule. “If it is not in the schedule – IT does
not exist.” An early AM workout is
three times easier to accomplish versus a post work fitness session, due to
daily conflicts that can easily occur to make you delay or cancel your
workout. But as the days get longer
during these Spring and Summer months, making that after work workout is a bit
easier. Whatever you do, a little daily exercise is a requirement. It
can be defined as simply as taking a walk or going to the gym and lifting
weights.
Stew Smith, former Navy SEAL and fitness writer is certified by the National
Strength and Conditioning Association
as a Certified Strength and
Conditioning Specialist (CSCS). Email him personally at
stew@stewsmith.com
