5 Pieces Of Fitness Advice (That I Wish People Knew!)
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Fitness nowadays is extremely saturated with fads, trends, and influencers, and somewhere sprinkled in the middle is the actual scientific truth that will be relevant to you.
I believe that’s why many of us no longer make New Year's resolutions or have tangible fitness goals. The amount of misinformation in the fitness industry is all too confusing. We are all extremely busy and stressed out, and it's become too difficult to maintain any sort of routine.
Sound familiar? Well, it doesn’t have to be this way.
In order to persevere, you need to remember the actual facts, be selective about your sources of information, and use whatever approach works best for you and your lifestyle needs.
If you are ready to get things moving, let’s get started by first acknowledging that however you attain your fitness goals, you’ll do so without judgment or by being negative to yourself (because that is of no help, ever!).
In addition to this, you’ll agree that a slower and steadier approach truly wins the race.
"But so-and-so did it in 4 weeks!"
I know and I hear you, and while that is great for them, I’m going to get into why that may be a waste of your time. There are so many variables that we need to consider, and understanding what those variables truly mean is what will help you dictate your fitness plan. Just because it worked for them doesn’t mean it will work for you. In fact, there are many, many reasons why it could unfortunately work against you.
I’m going to explain how you can build your own fitness journey, feel good about it, and see the value behind the tried, tested, and scientifically true methods. This way, not only will your adherence increase, but you’ll be satisfied that your success is 100% your own doing.
Here are my top 5 tips (from a professional and personal perspective) to help you navigate that fitness journey in your best way:
Ignore the noise.
Everyone is going to try to convince you that whatever worked for them is what you need to be doing, and this will only add to the frustration. Anecdotal evidence is just that. You’ll see how great their results were and will be incredibly crushed if it doesn’t work for you in the same way.
Simply following someone else’s program completely negates the notable differences between your lifestyles: any potential movement limitations or injuries, fitness levels, family life or work schedules, genetics, and more.
All of these definitely play a factor in your ability to execute a fitness program the way that it was designed. If you are unable, for whatever reason (and there could be several that may be unbeknownst to you), to implement the program the way that it was designed, you will fall short on the results and the outcome.
This is essentially why following someone else’s program doesn’t always work and can potentially backfire. You need to create something that will work for you. It’s your mind, your body, your motivation, your skillset, your goals, and your determination that we are working with. What are you willing to do to achieve your fitness goals?
This question alone can heavily impact your success. How? You’re determining some of the most important aspects of any good fitness program. You’re asking yourself the what, where, when, how, and whys, as well as highlighting the specific details and guidelines to achieving these goals.
These important and honest questions are often missing when deciding on our fitness goals. You need to be willing to ask yourself the hard-hitting questions that we tend to avoid, because it entails looking at yourself in the mirror and being completely honest with your responses. It’s not enough to simply say, "I want to lose 10 pounds." Instead, take a look at these example questions and see how we can reframe this goal:
What forms of exercise will I do? What form of exercise do I enjoy enough to do consistently?
Do I have any injuries or aches that could be made worse by exercise? How will I manage or work around this?
How much time can I realistically invest per day? Per week? With the least interruptions to my current routine? And how will I track my progress?
Will I need help or support in any way from a fitness professional, or can I get emotional support from friends and family? Could I join a class or have a workout partner for more accountability?
What will I do if I can’t do my workouts? What’s my backup plan if I have to work late, pick up the kids, etc.?
By asking yourself more and more questions, you can derive the truth and create something specific, attainable, and realistic for your current lifestyle. "I want to lose 10 pounds" now becomes:
"I’m going to lose 10 pounds by walking 20 minutes per day, every day after dinner. On the weekends, I’ll do a 20-minute resistance training program because that’s when I have time to do it before spending time with the kids. If my back stiffness doesn’t improve, I’ll see (insert movement professional here) for help. I’ll check my weight weekly and record my results in my workout journal. If I don’t see any weight loss over 4 weeks, I’ll review my methods and see what needs to be adjusted."
Asking yourself these specific questions rather than a blanket statement allows you to provide way more detail, develop an outline for achievement, and understand what the potential consequences are. Using Motivational Interviewing techniques, we can elicit behavior change and increase our own personal motivation. We are increasingly adherent to our fitness plans if we apply the S.M.A.R.T. Goal-Setting Model (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound goals). Unless you have a plan for achieving your goal, your chances of getting lost along the way are extremely high. If any goal that you have follows the above criteria, then your chances for success are limitless.
If you’re truly ready for change, then you have to apply what will work best for you. Behavior change is very multifaceted and difficult enough. Simplifying your approach using the S.M.A.R.T. goal-setting model can adequately prepare you for whatever behavior change will be necessary for your fitness program. Once you’ve done this, know that you may have small relapses, but that this is completely normal in the process of behavior change. It’s important that you forgive yourself, dust yourself off, learn from your mistakes, and get back on the saddle.
2. Resistance training is the gold standard.
I can promise you that, regardless of your goal, resistance training is the way to go.
Losing fat, managing osteoporosis, and reducing anxiety are all vastly different things, yet resistance training can help manage all three. This is due to the beautiful science behind lifting weights. Here’s just a few ways that the science behind resistance training can yield the benefits you’re looking for:
The act of shortening and lengthening your muscles elicits a cascade of physiological processes. Certain receptors in your muscles light up and draw excess sugars from the bloodstream, helping to manage all aspects of diabetes. Osteocytes, cells in your bones, detect the mechanical loading from weight training and deposit minerals, improving your bone density. Improvements to your cardiovascular and respiratory systems can be seen quickly, with a stronger heart and diaphragm muscle and more elastic lungs and vessels that have adapted to the increased aerobic capacity. The anxiety-fighting dopamine hits are almost immediate and work wonders for improving your overall mental health.
One of the main reasons people look to resistance training is its positive effects on body composition and weight loss. Simply having more lean muscle mass contributes to a naturally higher metabolic rate. As a quick refresher, the metabolism of fat loss is highly dependent on how much muscle tissue one has, for muscle is where the majority of fat is broken down for energy. It’s called fatty acid oxidation. The more muscle one has, the greater the potential for less body fat.
I can definitely appreciate that some people are nervous to lift weights as this may create "a bulky appearance", or that it’s always been said that in order to "tone", you should lift lighter weights for higher repetitions. The latter has never been supported by science, and anyone can appear "bulky" if they have a significant amount of both muscle mass and body fat.
Compound movements (e.g exercises that work the whole body) use several muscle groups at once and can therefore burn a greater amount of calories compared to exercises that are isolated. For example, squats, deadlifts, and pushups are considered compound movements and burn more calories to perform, rather than isolated movements like bicep curls or leg extensions. These compound movements are also very efficient modes of exercise if you are short on time (as most of us are).
Lastly, there are several public health organizations and chronic disease associations that recommend resistance training as a means to manage or decrease symptoms and improve your quality of life. These include Diabetes Canada, the Heart & Stroke Foundation, and the 24 Hour Movement Guidelines from the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology.
Unsure where to start with resistance training? I may receive some backlash here, but YouTube can be an incredible resource (and it’s free) to help you get started with some basic movements. You do have to consider the source, as it’s unregulated and the information may be misleading. However, if you’re just looking to break a sweat and have some fun, it can be great. If your scenario has a little bit more context, such as a recurring injury or a specific goal that you’re trying to reach, then investing in a credentialed movement professional is definitely the best option for you.
If you need some help with your form for some common resistance training exercises, you can search for those exercises either on my YouTube channel or on my website here.
3. Fitness intensity matters, but not always.
While it is true that a higher-intensity workout yields greater health benefits, it’s not always necessary to yield a meaningful one.
Exercise is one of those amazing things that can promote better digestion, improve your mood and cognition, and build a healthy immune system. All of these can be reaped from lower-intensity forms of exercise: yoga, swimming, walking, and gardening are all fantastic examples of these.
In my personal experience, we seem to see higher-intensity exercise as the only means, as if it’s less meaningful if we’re not dripping buckets of sweat. Sometimes instances like poor mental health can limit our potential, our motivation, or our ability to even have the discipline to move much at all.
In the case of mental health, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that simply walking and occupying yourself with movement can reduce signs of anxiety and depression. The effects can often be felt immediately and can help propel you towards feeling better about yourself and your lifestyle.
Low-intensity exercise also improves your endurance, allows you to burn a significant amount of fat, reduces any low back stiffness or pain, and helps you get better sleep.
For those that find it difficult to fit in regular or structured workouts, exercise snacks, a concept that has been heavily researched, are a fantastic way to sneak in small bouts of usually higher-intensity exercise throughout the day. Instead of restructuring your day just to exercise, you're restructuring exercise into your day. The amount of higher intensity activity accumulates throughout your day, helping you to feel better, break up the amount of time that you’re sedentary, and improve your productivity. (Ali, 2020)
If you can manage this higher intensity but definitely can’t commit to hours weekly, then exercise snacking can create significant value for you. Dr. Martin Gibala, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University, has researched and published a number of articles on this topic. His research has found that shorter and harder bursts of activity spread throughout the day can be almost as effective as longer sessions. His book, titled "The One Minute Workout" disputes the myth that high-intensity interval training (H.I.I.T.) is only for "fit people", and that you can achieve health-promoting benefits in just a few short minutes every week.
Not only this, Dr. Gibala is a featured professor on Coursera, where you can enroll in his beginner-friendly exercise science course titled "Hacking Exercise for Health: The Surprising New Science of Fitness" for absolutely free! The more you understand the benefits of high intensity interval training, the more inclined you will be to incorporate it into your weekly routine.
If lower intensity or shorter durations of exercise are more appealing to you, then definitely incorporate this into your routine. It’s feasible, attainable, and far less complicated than other forms of exercise. However you enjoy moving, that should be your first choice, but don’t be afraid to explore other options, as they may pleasantly surprise you! Build momentum here first, sustain it, and if you’re ready and able to kick things into high gear, you’ll have the confidence to do so.
4. Don’t neglect your mobility.
This one comes from both personal and professional experience.
I had an extensive athletic career before my injuries caught up with me. I performed in track and field, varsity sports (volleyball, basketball, rugby, soccer), running, boxing, and lastly, what I believe to be the nail in the coffin, nine consecutive bodybuilding competitions.
This may sound impressive, and it is something that I am definitely proud of, but what I regret the most is not implementing any sort of recovery or mobility program within my training. I’ve always felt that my potential was limited because of this, and I've suffered my fair share of injuries as a result. I’ve dealt with concussions, tendinopathies, muscle strains, and ankle sprains. Muscle and joint pain became something that I routinely ignored or held at a lesser priority, and I paid for it. You can read more about my fitness journey in a previous blog here.
So, how would a mobility program have helped me perform? Extensively!
Imagine for a moment how efficiently and fluidly a panther can run across a field or how effortlessly a tennis player can execute a high-velocity backswing. Golfers, running backs, hockey players, and midfielders all possess incredible mobility or agility, respectively. Almost zero movement restrictions are seen. Only speed, grace, and finesse.
We all have this capacity as well, yet our dysfunctional breathing patterns, repetitive movements, poor postures, and tendency to dismiss aches and pains end up being a giant roadblock to how well we can move.
Mobility, the controlled range of motion of all of your joints, can unleash enormous amounts of strength and suppleness within your movement. It allows you to bear loads on your muscles and joints in potentially vulnerable positions, reduces your risk for injury, and generally allows you to function optimally. If you don’t have sufficient mobility and you happen to perform a task that unknowingly demands more mobility, you may risk hurting yourself and putting significant strain on your daily activities.
To reiterate, your risk of injury increases with low-quality movement patterns, a low level of flexibility, and previous injuries. Preventative strategies should include shaping high-quality movement patterns, the right level of flexibility, and fully healing the injuries before resuming activities.
So how can you improve your own mobility? Remember that it’s not achieved by static stretching. It’s the actively controlled range of motion of your joints. Mobility exercises can be performed as part of a warm up or cool-down or as their own workout, because they can be that challenging! The rewards are worth it, but you have to keep at it regularly, like brushing your teeth.
Start by addressing any aches and pains, as well as any limitations in movement you have or tend to avoid. Can you touch your toes? Sit cross-legged? Can you scratch your own back or zip up your dress? Even though these may seem insignificant, they absolutely reveal more about your movement or posture than you may think. I often use movement screens that mimic daily movement patterns to determine what my clients needs are to improve their mobility and their overall strength.
For example, touching your toes does not reflect how tight your hamstrings are. They reveal that one may have an anterior pelvic tilt and thus limit their hip internal rotation, potentially have increased low back or neck pain or stiffness, and may have a weakened pelvic floor as well as poor digestion. Surprising? I can go on, but maybe I can go over how these connections are made in a later blog post!
Another way to improve your overall mobility is to practice your diaphragmatic breathing, as it can unlock a ton of mobility. Proper use of the diaphragm muscle allows your internal organs to shift within your thorax and pelvis, and this shift allows your bones and joints to subtly move within their capacities. A well functioning diaphragm muscle (one that fully lengthens and simultaneously contracts with neighboring core muscles) can make you feel taller, allow you to descend into a deep squat, and allow you to rotate into a deep backswing better than you have before.
To summarize some quick tips for improving your own mobility,
Daily diaphragmatic breathing (this takes work, but it’s worth it)
Controlled Articular Rotations (C.A.R.S.) for all joints—check out this link for an introduction on shoulder c.a.r.s with creator Dr. Andreo Spina
Regular hydration and good nutrition (natural inflammation fighters)
Practice! As a warm-up, as a cool-down, or in front of the TV.
If you have an injury that tends to recur or the modes of rehabilitation have yet to be successful, I encourage you to keep going and enlist the help of a movement professional. Perhaps you’ve avoided it because it’s a difficult journey, and it is, but dismissing it doesn’t address it either. You can come back even stronger by confronting it head-on.
5. Be Consistent!
Even if you don’t have a goal right now, continuously moving will help keep you healthy. Eventually, we will all need to rely on our fitness to make it through life.
If you suddenly become ill, your ability to manage treatments and the length of your recovery are dependent on how cardiovascularly fit you are and how resilient your nervous system is.
You could be running errands and notice that the escalator or elevator is out of service. Could you make it up the stairs safely and on your own, whether now or later in life?
On top of these reasons, consistency is what drives your body to adapt to a stronger, fitter, and more resilient well-oiled machine.
Think of our bodies as having a built-in thermostat. A thermostat has a set point, and once the temperature in the room deviates from that set point, the thermostat sends a signal to the heating or cooling system to adjust the temperature. This is more or less how our bodies work. Our systems detect a change, and signals are sent to the appropriate organ system in an attempt to re-regulate our internal body to stay healthy. For example, when we eat too few calories, this can signal our hypothalamus to slow down our metabolism as a means to save energy (because it’s not getting enough energy in the form of food). When our blood sugar becomes elevated, our pancreas signals for insulin to be released as a means to try and normalize blood sugars back to their resting levels.
This process is called homeostasis, a series of physiological processes to keep our internal body stable, respond appropriately, and adapt to stimuli. Our bodies have a way to keep everything in check for optimal health, unless we are exposed to ‘X’ variables long enough that our body thinks that this is the new norm. All of your vitals have some form of regulation: blood pressure, body temperature, body fat, pH, cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and so on. In order to drive change, there needs to be enough of a stimulus for the body to respond and concede to that stimulus. If you want to lose fat, that means the body should be exposed to the variables needed to elevate your metabolism: increased muscle mass, a moderate caloric deficit, and sleep, for instance.
Consistent workouts and movement ensure that everything is ‘all systems go'. You improve your endurance, limit fatigue, and get fantastic sleep. Muscle mass, joint range of motion, and cardiovascular fitness all develop on a gradual level. Mental health becomes easier to manage as you build sustained energy levels and experience reduced levels of stress. Without consistency, the body has a much harder time adapting to whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish.
What are some of the ways you can remain consistent with your workouts? It’s best to start with small, sustainable habits that you can adhere to easily! This will build self-efficacy and confidence towards further development. Here’s a few suggestions:
Short on time? Make whatever strength training/fitness routine you choose super concise. If you can add intensity, do it. We’re just focusing on keeping you moving at this point
Schedule your workouts: Adding it to your calendar adds another layer of accountability
Talk about it: Let your closest friends and family in on your intentions. They are likely to support you and may even join you!
Make your plan: Remember piece of advice #1? If you tend to fall off the wagon, then why? You may have to ask yourself a series of ‘why’s’ in order to figure out the underlying reason for putting your fitness on the back burner
Acknowledge the discomfort and remember your values: There is a reason you’re reading this blog! Somewhere deep inside, you understand and appreciate the value behind improving your health. Know that change in any degree is uncomfortable initially, but that the result will be rewarding and it would be from 100% your own merit that got you there.
We will continue to put our own health on the back burner if we quickly get drawn to every “new” way to achieve optimal wellness every 5 minutes. The science supports that long-term lifestyle changes are driven by the frequency, intensity, and overall promotion of exercise. Lifting weights has significant carryover to your day-to-day activities and allows you to perform to your best ability. You can choose, however, to exercise in any form you wish, as moving consistently in today’s society is of the utmost importance. No matter what the latest social media fitness trend states, you are in the driver’s seat. Don’t be afraid to make your own decisions and let this post empower you to make the lifestyle changes that you’ve envisioned for yourself long enough.
Wanna get started on your mobility?
Check out my Mobility and Stretching Playlist on YouTube here:
- Francesca McKenzie, R.Kin (Inactive) and Personal Trainer
References (To Blog & YouTube Video)
Ali, C. (2020, December 21). How to work “exercise snacks” into your day - Beyond. UBC's Beyond. Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://beyond.ubc.ca/exercise-snacks/
Burtscher, M. (2019, June 6). Resistance Exercise Training as a Primary Countermeasure to Age-Related Chronic Disease. NCBI. Retrieved May 1, 2023, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6563593/
DeAngelis, T. (2022, November 1). Want to boost your mental health? Take a walk. American Psychological Association. Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/11/defeating-depression-naturally
Domaradzki, J. (2021, May 18). Prediction and injury risk based on movement patterns and flexibility in a 6-month prospective study among physically active adults. NCBI. Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8139277/
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Muskopf, S. (n.d.). CH103 - Chapter 8: Homeostasis and Cellular Function - Chemistry. Western Oregon University. Retrieved May 1, 2023, from https://wou.edu/chemistry/courses/online-chemistry-textbooks/ch103-allied-health-chemistry/ch103-chapter-9-homeostasis-and-cellular-function/
(PDF) The unidentified hormonal defense against weight gain. (2023, March 7). ResearchGate. Retrieved April 30, 2023, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339506243_The_unidentified_hormonal_defense_against_weight_gain
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