Khurram Baig

Proper Exercises to Burn Fat Copyright © 2021 All Rights Reserved ISBN: Dedication I dedicate this book to my father (may he rest in peace) , who pushed, helped, and inspired me through my past, present, and future. I dedicate this book to you because none of this would matter without you. Thanks for always being there when it mattered. i Acknowledgements I am grateful to my team that helped me throughout the writing, editing, and publishing process. I couldn't have completed this book without my team. Thank-you also to my spouse and her cousins, who pushed me to write this book. They are my sounding boards, and I value their advic e very much. I am also grateful to my father. After his death, I realized that I needed to write this book so no one goes through a harrowing but avoidable experience of death as he did. ii About the Author iii Preface My name is, and I have been interested in healthy living in both the body and the mind. I have always understood that life is a series of challenges, but in my youth, I was foolish enough to believe that I could beat everything by being stubborn. With age came wisdom, and I slowly started seeing the value of good health and the improvements it could bring about in the quality of life. I tried to pursue my passion as most people do by going straight to the deep end and burning myself out in the process. After my initial bout of fitness, I came back to try again with a more balanced approach. I realized that I was the same as anyone and would have to put in hard work and dedicate myself to the process if I wanted to achieve any worthwhile results. My father's death made me realize that I was sitting on a great treasure of information that a lot of people were not privy to. I was driven to share what I knew, and this book came out of that burning desire to try and make sure others don’t suffer as my father did. I hope you will come to realize and cherish the value of good health. iv Contents Dedication ............................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ii About the Author.............................................................................................................. iii Preface ................................................................................................................................ iv Chapter 1: Need to Exercise ................................................................................................1 Chapter 2: Warm-up Exercises....................................................................................... 10 Chapter 3: The Art of Following the Exercise Pattern .................................................28 Chapter 4: Besides Exercise, What? ............................................................................... 41 Appendix............................................................................................................................ 51 Page Left Blank Intentionally Chapter 1: Need to Exercise Exercise is a celebration of what your body can do. Not a punishment for what you ate.”-Anonymous Exercise and physical fitness have been a part of the human mythos going as far back as the ancient Greeks, perhaps even further. Fitness was a way of life for our hunter-gatherer ancestors who would chase their prey, ceaselessly continuing the pursuit until it would drop from sheer exhaustion. In some ways, it was a necessary part of survival . Those who cut it would pass their genes, and those who did not succeed would fail to continue their bloodlines. Fast-forward to the modern day, and you will find this is no longer true. Physical fitness does not play as critical a role in success as it did in the past, and people have gotten all the fatter and lazier for it. Convenience is valued over the quality of food, and quick and easy solutions dominate the world. The patience and diligence of commitment and dedication seem to have vanished from all but those who remain devoted to the ways of our ancestors. Unsurprisingly, this is not without consequences. While we can order pizza with a push of a button, we also suffer from extremely high rates of diseases or morbidities because of the very luxury we hold up as a sign of modernity. Maybe, the better solution would be to combine the best of both worlds. However, we are not here to talk about the philosophical implications of societal evolution. We are here because you want to better your lifestyle by avoiding diseases. Let’s start by first going over what diseases are before seeing how diet and exercises can be used to fight them. 1 Diseases When it comes to diseases or ailments, they can generally be divided into two categories - manmade and natural. However, it is necessary first to understand how these two differ and the great overlap that exists between them. A disease, by definition, is a condition or a state that causes health complications and is not connected to an immediate external injury. This means that cutting your hand while chopping the vegetables would count as an injury rather than a disease. However, if your body fails to stop the bleedin g and heal, then we can say that you may be suffering from the disease because of the “symptom” that manifests. The word symptom is just a fancy word for saying the result or outcome linked with a disease. Diseases can occur from circumstances originating from both inside and outside the body. Diseases are not limited to the physical world and can manifes t psychologically as well, causing emotional, behavioral, and cognitive impairment. From this, it can be gathered that diseases as a whole represent a condition where the body does not function in its normal or full capacity because of problems that occur in its systems. Also, not every symptom or sign of possible illness is caused by disease. It can also be a result of the human body carrying out normal operations. For example, when you cut yourself, the site of the injury will likely swell and be sore for quite some time. This may not allow you to use that part fully until it is adequately healed. In this case, it is a reduction in function arising from the healing process and not something caused by a disease. There are many complex terms and definitions used to refer to a disease, but for the purposes of this book, I am going to keep it simple not to confuse you with advanced medical terminology. 2 Diseases can also be classified based on their origin. Specifically, we refer to the factors that gave rise to the disease and allow it to spread. In this case, we can divide diseases into whether they occur because of natural causes or if humans are to blame. Some people will argue that as humans are a part of nature, their actions will fall in the natural disease category. For the purpose of classification and this book, we will use the two-point type with the consideration of diseases that occur due to human responsibility and actions. Manmade Diseases Manmade diseases can include two sub-types. One would be diseases that arise as an outcome of our action. The second would be specifically created diseases through advanced means. An example of the first type would be diabetes arising from the excessive consumption of refined sugar-based products or silicosis arising from work exposure to dangerous particles settling into the lungs. A good example of manmade diseases includes primitive germ warfare, where invading armies would throw rotting and diseased corpses into enemy territory to spread illness. The second type can include genetically engineered diseases caused by pathogens that humans deliberately create for biological warfare. Natural Diseases Natural diseases arise in conditions where humans may or may not possess some degree of control. They are generally avoidable when it comes to simple things like cholera, but sometimes they cannot be escaped no matter what we do. While we can use sanitation and good hygiene to decrease our chances of becoming sick, age-related illnesses are all but unavoidable. No matter what we do, we cannot escape them entirely. Natural diseases, specifically ones caused by pathogens, can evolve and change over time, becoming more 3 dangerous or even less harmful in some cases. Some examples include genetic diseases such as multiple sclerosis or the common cold. Here is a fun puzzle you can work over. How far does the burden of responsibility go for a person before something should be considered a natural disease? Lifestyle and Diet Diseases are like problems that need to be solved. I am sure each and every one of you has had the experience of being sick at some point in your life. If not, then I envy you greatly. As stated earlier, diseases that are manmade rely on the actions of people. That is, whether or not a person will become afflicted will significantly depend on their lifestyle. To a large extent, you can undertake an effort to be health y and increase the quality of life and achieve potential longevity. However, if you wish to win these two things, it will require some investment in terms of time and effort on your part. A healthy lifestyle is not something that comes automatically, but it is also not something that requires a lot of hard work to achieve. To that end, let us consider how these diseases occur in the first place and what we can do to curb them. As they say, you are what you eat. I want to add to that statement you are what you eat and what you do. It is not only what you put into your mouth but also what you do with your body that matters. You can eat the healthiest, freshest foods, but if you live the majority of your life with little to no activity, you will suffer from health problems. Diet and lifestyle are two sides of the same coin and work in conjunction with one another to define how well and how long you live. While we may not be able to control diseases that occur from factors outside our control, we can certainly take action against what we can manage. The result, in the end, would be better than if we did not take any action at 4 all. It starts with two simple, easy-to-understand concepts - diet and lifestyle. Your diet and lifestyle are inherently intertwined; each one is dictating the parameters of the other. If you eat more calories, then you will have to be more active to burn them off. If you are active throughout the day, then you will need an adequate amount of calories to meet your energy needs. As you can see, each side pulls at the other, and it is crucial to create a balance between the two. Yes, it is possible to become healthier by just controlling your diet, and vice versa, but it will deprive you of the benefit you can achieve by using both aspects. Your body requires food for two things; for energy to power itself and for nutrients to build and maintain your systems. When these needs are not met or there is an imbalance in the nutrients taken, complications can arise. Too much of a good thing is harmful, and everything in the right dose is poisonous, even water. So, it is necessary to have a balance between what you eat and what you do throughout the day. While it may be tempting to chow down on socalled healthy foods, excessive consumption of anything will cause problems. Too much fat increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, too much sugar leads to diabetes, and too much protein leads to ketone overload. The same thing applies to lifestyle. If you sleep too much, you will become lazy, but if you sleep too little, you will be tired and lethargic. If you keep active non-stop in an attempt to be healthy, you will burn yourself out and likely suffer from physical injuries as your body starts breaking down. The key point I want you to take from this chapter is, create a balance. A balance in your diet and a balance in your lifestyle will save you countless visits to the doctor. You will have to exercise some patience, but the reward will be worth it, trust me. Keep on reading and see how you can be healthy without turning it into a chore. 5 Consistency Let us move ahead to the physical part of this book: exercises and the need for consistency and honesty when doing them. When it comes to exercise, I like to take the approach of comparing to being clean. That is, to stay clean, you have to groom yourself and take showers and baths regularly. Cleanliness is a state only achieved by the consistency of active and regular efforts taken to maintain it. The moment you stop is the moment your level of cleanliness starts dropping until, eventually, you become filthy. Unfortunately, many people seem to fall under the impression of exercise being a novel thing that is only done sparingly, and for some, rarely. It is treated more like a chore to be done and finished, like filing taxes at the end of the year. I have seen countless examples of people trying and failing to be healthy just because they thought about exercising that way. I think it is time to depart from the mindset of exercise being a chore like taxes and instead think of it as a state like cleanliness that has to be maintained with active, consistent effort. Picture this; it’s the 31st of December, the year is coming to an end. That means celebrations and parties all around, as people gather to make merriment and think about the year that has passed and the hopes for the future in what the next year holds. Everyone makes their New Year resolutions, vowing to eat healthier, exercise regularly, and a host of other things that we know will likely never happen. Come next year, the gyms get flooded with a large number of subscriptions , and people come in great droves to exercise and be health y. They try to stick to their promises, but we all know what happens in the end. Soon, they start making excuses to rationalize not exercising. They might say they are sick, busy, or tired. One day off won’t hurt, they think, I’ll go tomorrow. That turns into two days, three, four, I’ll go next week, and so on. Some realize they are not cut out for this and 6 cancel their membership; others keep deluding themselves; they keep paying for the membership but never actually go and exercise in the gym. It’s as if they think they can get healthy through osmosis with their gym membership card. I want you to apply this example to yourself. How many times have you skipped or procrastinated something you needed to do, only to end up never doing it. Does that sound familiar? It should. Don’t feel too bad. Almost everyone has done it. However, this does not mean you should keep doing it because if you do, then it will be your fault. While you may be unable to change what others do or what you did in the past, you certainly have a duty to yourself to fix this problem and become a better version of yourself. Exercise can only work so long as your body gets a constant dose of it. Like food and sleep, you need regular sessions of exercise to stimulate your body and improve your health. Do not let this scare you. If you feel discouraged, think of it as the same as eating a meal or sleeping on time. You are merely giving your body what it needs to allow it to function correctly. The better your health, the more you will be able to achieve in your life, so consider it an investment in yourself that will pay off in the future. A consistent exercise routine that you stick to will beat out a rigorous one that is done rarely. You don’t have to push yourself excessively, either. When starting out, try to develop a routine that you like and can stick to. It will create a habit in you that will endure for years to come. Benefits of Exercise You might be wondering what it is that I can expect to get out of doing all this work repeatedly throughout my life. What do I get in return for dedicating all this time, effort, and energy to something that I might not even like in the first place? Is the juice worth the 7 squeeze? Well, I’m here to tell you the three main areas where you will start seeing a benefit, both in the short and long terms. Physical Exercise conditions your body to improve its biological processes to endure the increased load put on by the exertion carried out. That is to say; you will find yourself having higher levels of energy when you exercise regularly. You will be able to do more but feel less tired at the end. Your body will adapt itself by strengthening bone and muscle to tolerate and produce more force. In a nutshell, it means you will get stronger and faster and tire less quickly. For all the guys out there, I’m sure being stronger is something that you will enjoy. This extends into the later stages of life as well because exercise helps fight off age-related degradation. That’s right. You can fight the effects of aging with exercise. While you may not be in shape to wrestle bears, your condition will be significantly better than others who do not exercise. Your body will look more aesthetically appealin g as you stick to your routine. After all, who doesn’t like to look at themselves in the mirror and be proud of their body? Mental Exercise works just as well for the mind as it does for the body. Mentally speaking, your cognitive functions will improve and you will better be able to use your intelligence and memory. While you may not turn into the next Einstein, you will undoubtedly be able to use more of your potential than before. Research has continuously shown that even moderate levels of exercise are capable of positively affectin g mental capacity. Even if you are ok right now, your head will feel a lot more clear with exercise. Exercise increases the flow of blood to the brain, carrying more oxygen and allowing you to think clearer. Exercise triggers chemical reactions in the brain that strengthen the 8 connection between the nerve cells. What this means is your brain cells can better communicate with each other and it helps protect against injury and disease. Emotional Emotionally speaking, you are less likely to feel depressed or sad. In fact, exercise has been recommended as one of the most effective, practical, and cheap ways of fighting off depression and other emotional disorders. Exercise improves the quality of sleep, thus keeping your mental state in check by not letting you suffer from the detriments that come with poor sleep or no sleep at all. You will feel much better as the brain releases natural painkillers when exercising, which improve your emotional state and create a sense of being content. Your stress levels will significantly decrease and you will be happier and more confident. If you can find a partner to exercise with, that’s even better because now you will develop and strengthen your interpersonal relationships. In summation, manmade diseases have been making a big comeback since we started becoming lazy as a species. They represent a problem that we could resolve if only we took the time and effort regularly to work on our bodies the same way we work on other important aspects in our lives. A healthy diet and lifestyle are two sides of the same coin, working together to create something that is more than the sum of its parts. By creating our lifestyle around our diet, and our diet around our lifestyle, we can benefit in every aspect of quality that makes us a human physically, mentally, and emotionally. Just remember one thing, balance and consistency are key. 9 Chapter 2: Warm-up Exercises Exercise, by its very nature and definition, is connected to the concept of physical exertion, i.e. the process of placing a demand on the body to create a force against an external resistance. The generation of this force is connected to a wide range of systems in the human body that works in tandem with producing this force. Your cardiovascular system works hard to pump blood around the body and transport the essential nutrients and carry away metabolic waste products, the lungs pump air into the body and allow precious oxygen to be transported into the bloodstream, the nervous system transmits signals to control the body in an organized fashion, the metabolic processes dictate the speed at which energy is produced, the muscle cells use the chemical energy transported to them to create the force needed, and so much more. When you exercise, a whole lot is going on in the body to make this happen. The point I’m trying to make here is that your body enters a different, more active state when it has to exert itself physically on a level that exceeds normal daily activities. If you try to force your body to work hard before it is physically prepared, you will likely injure yourself. To physically exert yourself, you need to move from your regular “inactive” state to an “active” one, where the body systems are functioning at a capacity to endure the load placed on them. This is where warm-up exercises come in, acting as a transition stage in moving your body into a state where it can endure the increased demand on it by ensuring your body systems (as mentioned previously) are ready. You may be disinclined to do warm-up as you may have noticed the examples of other people exercising or doing physical activity abruptly from a resting state. You may even feel that a warm-up just 10 eats into your possibly limited time and that you should go ahead with the exercise instead of wasting time on something that seems superficial. If so, you may be unsure if warming up is something right for you. You may wonder that you’ve pushed yourself physically in the past and suffered no harm, so what’s the big deal? In general, four factors apply when trying to determine if you need to do a workout: age, the intensity of the workout, fitness level, and the current state of the body. These factors are interconnected and have a strong influence on each other, so it is essential to keep this in mind when using them. Age is the most apparent factor because it determines the overall health of the body and how much exertion it will be able to tolerate. Young children will be fit but not as strong or durable, adolescents and young adults will potentially be in the best state of health, and older adults will have to contend with continually degrading health due to aging issues. When talking about base fitness connected to age, it follows a bell curve-like design. It is low at the start but then builds up to a peak and stays there for some time before slowly coming down with age. The closer you are to the peak, the higher your base fitness level and the lower your need to warm up. 11 The next is the fitness level connected directly to the fitness that comes from regular exercises. A fit person will have exerted their body to the point where it will have developed strong adaptive responses to transition between inactive and active states easily. Their base metabolism will be higher and they will not require a warm-up unless it is particularly intensive. This brings us to the intensity of physical activity. The more demanding the physical activity, the higher up on the active state your body will be to meet the demands that will be forced on it. As such, it is best to think of it in relation to the current state of the body. If your current state falls within the range of the physical activity you are about to do, then you will not need to do a warm-up, but if it falls outside it, you risk injury, with the severity being directly connected 12 to how far the state of your body was from the requirements of the exercise. In this state, the need to do warm-up increases in direct proportion to how far the activity falls out of range of the safe zone. Let’s use an example from everyday life to clarify this further. Suppose you are sitting at your office job and decide to go running during your break. Sitting will have placed your body in a relaxed state, and running will put quite a demand on your system. This is the current state of the body. You are young and do this running routine regularly, putting your net fitness above the average person. You have to run at a moderate pace, so presumably, you will be fine as long as you don’t go above your regular pace. However, if you start running at a much faster pace than you usually do, you will place yourself at risk of injury, as this will start falling into the section of “increased risk of injury,” as illustrated in the above diagram. From this, I hope you get an idea of why warm-up exercises are such an important part of being safe when trying to be physically fit 13 and staying that way. I spent a lot of effort in trying to get across the technicalities because safety should be your first concern. You do not want to end up with a potential lifelong injury that decreases your quality of life. Those who are foolish learn the hard way that their bodies are not indestructible. That is only after injuring themselves . Nevertheless, some of them who are lucky recover and only have their ego bruised. The more unfortunate ones end up with a permanen t injury that stays with them for the rest of their days. Don't be that guy! What Are Warm-up Exercises? Warm-up exercises fall into the safe range of physical activities that are ahead of you in the zone, as shown in the diagram above. When you exert your body at a slightly higher intensity, it pushes the circle forward and moves your body into a state where it can handle an increased workload. These exercises thus constitute any activity that falls within the safe range but only above the current optimal level of exertion vs. the state of the body. They are based on the notion of increasing your active state to more closely match the requiremen ts that will be placed on the body for the real workout that it will endure. 14 How to Do Warm-up Exercises? Optimally, you want the exercise routine to match the movements or general pattern of actions that you will be doing in the real workout. As such, it would be prudent to do what would be a “light” version of the real exercise before increasing the intensity and moving on to the real thing. Different exercises have a unique movement set. For example, if you are going to do weight lifting, you would start with either a lower weight than your normal routine or even an empty bar and go through the motion. You would then progressively increase the load until you reach the desired point and then continue as you normally would. The two key things that I want you to take away from this is, when it comes to warm-ups for specific exercises, start light to do mock movements, both as a way to get into the rhythm and increase your metabolic rate sufficiently for the real deal. 15 Now, with that being said, there are also general warm-up exercises that you can do to prepare for any activity. They differ from the more specific route by working on increasing your metabolic rate and getting your body ready for the normal range of motions that can apply to most exercises. This would include jogging or skipping at a light pace, doing push-ups, squats, marching, planks, and all manners of exercises that involve the use of your body to prepare it for a manner of exercises. The benefit of the general approach is that it works on more areas of the body (in most cases) than its more focused counterpart. The latter, however, can better prepare the body for the exact exercise or workload that will be put on it. That being said, it is a generally good idea to combine both types of warm-ups to get the maximum possible benefit. If you decide to take such a route, do the general warm-up first, then follow it up with the more focused warm-up. Now, if you look closely at the diagram above, you will notice that the risk of injury and the need to do warm-up apply one way. This is because as the state of your body moves toward an increasing level of activity, lower levels become trivial in terms of the possible risk of injury. It may even be tempting to move or increase your activity state and overshoot the margin needed for your specific workout. Such a move may be somewhat beneficial at the initial stage, where you barely overshoot your target, but after that, it will turn into a case of diminishing returns. After a certain point, you will not receive any further benefits, and the only outcome will be wasting your energy and you will be becoming fatigued faster because you expended your efforts in a foolish attempt to make your main workout trivial. If your activity is at point A, you should at most aim for point B. Going further to point C and beyond is a waste of time and effort. This is illustrated in the diagram below. 16 Warm-up Exercises: Static Stretching, Dynamic Stretching, Sport-specific Warm-up Now, given that you are a beginner, you will likely be unfamiliar with many of the exercises that are mentioned above. To remedy this matter, I will go over some basic exercises that can help you do a warm-up. They fall into the general category as described before. There is a reference to specific sports, but the list is by no means an exhaustive one, given the large variation that exists. If you do not find an exercise that relates to your specific sport even after reading this, you can always look them up online. I have found that YouTube tutorials can be a good source of information because the video format makes it easy to follow along. If you already have sufficient experience or have your warm-up routine already set, you can skip this chapter. However, I would 17 recommend you go through it anyway. You may learn something that you did not know before or have previous concepts reinforced. Either way, you stand to benefit. General Light Exercises The first level consists of miscellaneous light activities that are meant to increase your heart rate and get your blood pumpin g gradually. The goal here is to increase your body temperature, dilate your blood vessels, and saturate your muscles with blood. These activities include brisk or power walking, jogging, skipping, bike riding, and low-intensity swimming. It should take around 5-10 minutes for the average person and build up a light sweat in the process. The pace should be set based on your individual fitness level. The idea is to energize yourself for the main event. If you feel like you are tiring out, then decrease your pace. You are going too hard and beyond point B and near C, as shown in the diagram in the previous part of the book. Static Stretching Next comes static stretching, something which is a bit controversial in the fitness world. Studies have shown that static stretching may negatively impact performance in sports activities that require a higher power output (force produced over a specific period of time). However, when coupled with dynamic stretching and sports-specfic warm-ups, it can be beneficial. The idea is to stretch your muscle/s to the furthest point they will go and then hold that position for 15-20 seconds. You are trying to increase your range of motion by easing into it instead of having the action occur abruptly and with great force when the main exercise is executed. 18 Sports-Specific Warm-up Sports-specific warm-ups have been briefly outlined before, but this section will use a few examples to help clarify the concept further. As stated before, the idea is to do a light version of the main exercise or execute a mock motion that mimics the movement of it. For a weight lifter, this would mean using an empty bar and squatting with it, going through the motion to prepare themselves mentally and physically for what is about to come. A football player would do drills focused on rapid acceleration , turning, kicking, and controlling breathing before they start their game. A traceur would do small hops, jumps, flips, and grippin g exercises to ready themselves for the real thing. In all of these exercises, you will notice a common theme: low-level training or the mimicking of real motion. You must use this mindset to devise an exercise specific warm-up routine for whatever sports or exercise you wish to partake in. Dynamic Stretching Dynamic stretching should be used toward the end to wrap up all the previous exercises. This type of stretching differs from its static counterpart by way of muscles going through a full range of motion without stopping. This is repeated as necessary, with the motion going back and forth, oscillating between the start and the end phase. Dynamic stretching should not be done unless you have properly warmed up with the previous exercises. Those who are old or injured or have other physical impairments should consult their doctor or use caution when doing dynamic stretching. You should do them for around 5-10 minutes, dividing the time between different individual exercises as you see fit. You can also do them until you feel nimble enough as per your satisfaction. Remember, safety is your number one 19 priority. You do not want to end up with an injury that you will regret for the rest of your life. Stay safe and healthy. How Long Should a Person Do Warm-up Exercises? The need for warm-up varies from one individual to another. While the previous examples and guides that I have stated in the book would be sufficient for the average person, the keyword here being average , you may find that some require less time and others need more. It all ties back to the first part of this chapter and how the need for a warmup is tied to the four factors linked together. As a general guide to estimating your warm-up time, you can check it by doing the warm-up until you reach a point where you feel energized and nimble enough to take on your exercise. You can also measure how effective your workouts are by comparing them against the total time you spent on your warm-up. Using this data, you will be able to figure out how much time it takes you to reach points A, B, or C, as per the previously presented diagram. This is a much better way than just going by someone else’s recommendation. Remember, it’s your body, and you know it the best; learn to listen to it. Cooling Down Just as it is with preparing your body before putting an extraneous load on it, it is also important to cool down the body. While warm-ups elevate and stimulate the body to move to a higher state of activity, cooling down brings it back to its resting or normal state. This means gradually slowing down the heart rate, decreasing blood pressure, reducing breathing rate, and relaxing the nervous system from a state of excitation. As the body starts coming to a state of rest, the metabolic rate decreases and the energy expenditure of the body returns to a normal level. This has several implications connected to the biological functions of the body. 20 For one, according to the American Heart Association 1 , "After physical activity, your heart is still beating faster than normal, your body temperature is higher, and your blood vessels are dilated. This means if you stop too fast, you could pass out or feel sick." This could be related to the sudden decrease in activity, causing a dramatic shift from an active to a resting state. Specifically, exercise causes blood to pool into the extremities of the body, and the sudden shift to rest can cause a drop in blood pressure that can lead to faintin g or a feeling of weakness or being sick. Furthermore, the increased metabolic state of the body compounds the rate of production for the metabolic byproducts (waste from biochemical reactions in the body). Waste products like lactic acid are normally circulated relatively well with a greater blood flow, but a sudden drop can decrease the rate of elimination of these substances from the body. As such, an individual is more likely to suffer from DOMS (Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness). Cooldown exercises present a transition state where these waste products can be pumped away from the extremities, thus reducing the toll these parts have to endure. Cooldown Exercises Exercises for cooling closely mirror their warm-up counterparts . The idea is to decrease the state of activity over a period of time. The heart rate can be used as a guide for gauging how long these exercises should be done, but individual cases may vary. Learn to listen to your body. It will help you adjust your cooldown exercises in a way that is optimal for your specific requirements. These exercises can also be specific or general, based on the workout done and the area where the exertion occurred. 1 American Heart Association. (20104). Warm Up, Cool Down. Available at:https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/fitness/fitness-basics/warm-up-cooldown. Accessed on: (04/12/2020) 21 General For the general category, light jogging or brisk walking is an excellent way to keep the body active while also toning down the intensity of the exercise at the same time. It keeps the blood pumping, but the workload is weak enough that your body will start moving toward a decreased state of activity. This should be followed up by stretching, as this will be the perfec t time to extend your muscles and other connective tissue because of the increased flexibility due to the warm temperature and increased blood flow. A lot of these stretching motions are commonly taught in a yoga setting, and there are too many to go over in this book. However, here are some of the basic stretching exercises to help you get started. The upper body stretch consists of interlocking the fingers while facing the palm up to the ceiling and standing straight. The hands should be drawn up as far as possible while keeping the spine straight. Then the palms of the hand should face each other, and the hand should be brought back and up. The same process should then be done for the opposite side, and this exercise may be repeated as necessary. The seated forward bend requires the individual to sit on the ground with their legs extended to the front. They should extend their arms in front of themselves and then fold forward from the point of their hips. The hands should come with the body and be placed on the feet or the floor. The position should be held for around a minute or so, and the cycle can be repeated as necessary. The knee-to-chest fold requires the individual to lay on their back and be flat. They should then bring one of their knees toward their chest, folding the leg along the way. The fingers should be interlinked and locked to the front of the shin and then used to bring the knee 22 closer to the body. This position should then be held for a minute before the process is done for the other knee. Each side should go through two to three cycles of this exercise. The reclining butterfly pose requires the individual to lie on their back and place their feet on the ground. This should be done while keeping the knees pointed upward. The legs should then be split apart, going on either side of the body and making the soles of the feet touch together. The arms should be brought apart at their respective sides and placed at 45-degree angles from the reference point of the shoulder. Specific After you are finished with running, you should do the standing quadriceps stretch. First, stand up straight and start bending your knees, bringing them up to the respective buttock right above it. The ankle should be held with one or two hands while making sure that balance is maintained. The knees should stay in alignment with each other, with the position being held for half a minute. After returning to the starting position, the cycle should be repeated for the other leg, with each side being done two or three times. When doing strength training, powerlifting, bodybuilding, or any exercise that requires weight lifting, the repetition of motion is key. The overall load borne by the body should be progressively decreased until the bar is empty. The decrease in weight should also be accompanied by slowing the pace of the repetitions. Otherwise, you will not be able to transition into a lower activity rate smoothly. When it comes to any other exercise, the key thing to keep in mind is lowering the intensity and the pace of the routine. This mindset will help you devise a custom cooldown routine for anything that you may encounter (with some limitation on more extreme variation or more novel exercises). While it may not be the best solution for all 23 applications, it is quite sufficient for beginners such as yourself and most other people. You can move onto more advanced techniques when you have made some progress in these basic areas. Do not burn yourself out on trying to master everything at once. Take it one step at a time. Losing Weight Weight loss seems to be what most people have in mind when it comes to fitness. This comes as no surprise as the modern diet and lifestyle of the average human leave much to be desired in the way of health. The high consumption of carbohydrates, especially simple ones, in addition to excessive consumption of sugars has led to an epidemic of obesity. Obesity is a condition characterized by an excessive amount of fat tissue in the body. It is not a complication in and of itself but increases the chance of other health-related complications. An obese individual raises their chances of suffering from hundreds of diseases and afflictions just from being obese. While obesity was behind smoking in the leading causes of death, it is now predicted to likely overtake the former and become one of the leadin g causes of mortality. What is even more striking is that such a highranking cause of death is preventable, unlike other ailments like genetic diseases. As such, I hope you recognize the importance of staying within a healthy weight range. The philosophy that goes into weight loss is simple. Obesity represents the overconsumption of calories that the body stores because the energy demands are not as high as the intake of calories . The idea is to create a balance between the consumption and expenditure of calories. For overweight individuals, it can be as simple as cutting down on their calorie intake, with the amount falling below their average daily expenditure so that the body has to use its fat reserves to meet energy demands. While this is certainly possible, it is 24 not an optimal way to go about the process. Exercise and a controlled diet represent a great combination for both increasing energy usage, burning into the fat storage of the body, and improving overall health . The diet and lifestyle portion of this will be covered in a later part of the book. For now, let's move on to exercise. Weight Loss Exercises There are three routes you can take when trying to aim for weight loss. Which path you choose depends on where you want to see yourself in the future. This part of the process is very important, so you should consider spending some time pondering over the decision. You can change your mind later, but having a clear goal in mind will help you keep up the momentum. Do you want to be generally fit and have the energy to go about your day? Do you want to be stronger? Do you want to be stronger and have the energy to go about your day? Each of these questions points toward a path that you will have to take. While some may be easier than others, all of these require consistency and commitment. Cardio Cardiovascular exercise, also known as aerobic training, involves oxygen metabolism. That is to say, aerobic exercises are workouts where the energy demands of the body will be sufficiently met with the oxygen intake and proceeding energy generation from this oxygen. Here, the goal is to sustain a low level of intensity for long durations , thus increasing the calorie expenditure by the body. A general way to know is to use the talk test. You should be able to hold a conversation with someone while doing cardio. You should be slightly breathless but still able to converse with another person. The most common exercises included in this category are running, 25 jogging, and cycling. If you want to incorporate something else or just make something up, remember to follow the talk test guideline. Strength Training Strength training is aimed at increasing strength. Let us first start by defining what strength is. In the words of the legendary Mark Rippetoe, strength is “The production of force against an external resistance.” The ability to produce force is our way of interacting with the world. Anything that you physically do is predicated on the capability of your body to create a force. Force production requires energy, and it requires muscles; both consume calories. While bodybuilding is commonly associated with strength training, the differentiation between the two is something that is outside the scope of this book. For now, forget bodybuilding and focus on strength training. Your body has what is called a resting metabolism rate. It is the number of calories it consumes at rest. When you strength train, you work on improving the components that allow you to produce that strength. Your muscle size dictates the force that you can produce. The bigger your muscles, the higher your calorie consumption and the more force you can produce. Strength training also consumes a greater amount of calories per unit of time as compared to cardio. This is attributed to the anaerobic nature of the workout, as well as the engagement of more muscle fibers to do the work. As Mark puts it, your body will only recruit as many muscle fibers as necessary when producing a force. As cardio does not demand the production of extreme force, the body does not recruit as many muscle fibers. Strength training exercises can be done in isolation or compound routine. Isolation exercises focus on the repetition of movement to a specific muscle, while compound exercises comprise a group of muscles working together in coordination. In general, you want to 26 focus your effort on compound exercises, forget the machines, and go for the dumbbells and barbells. Let’s go over the exercises you should be concerned with right now; squats, press/bench press, deadlifts, and chin-ups. That is all you need to do for now. Hybrid While strength training practically covers both the cardiovascular and the strength aspect, some people may still be insistent on focusing more on cardio. Those who desire to increase their ratio of cardio exercise may incorporate it into their routine. However, this route is generally not going to be as effective because cardiovascular exercises will fail to stimulate your system to the same intensity as the strength training regime. It will also eat into your strength gains becaus e it leads to catabolism (the breakdown of protein), so you can say goodbye to your muscles. It is therefore recommended to avoid this combination unless you are really rigid in this regard. 27 Chapter 3: The Art of Following the Exercise Pattern "An object at rest remains at rest, or if in motion, remains in motion at a constant velocity unless acted on by a net external force." -Newton's First Law of Motion The First Steps As the above quote tells you, exercising in and of itself is not the hard part. A significant portion of the challenge is consistency and dedication. As this book states, "Fitness is not just a hobby, but a lifestyle." I am sure you will also have heard similar phrases from people in your lifestyle who are interested in fitness. While it has become a bit of an annoying platitude, there is still an inherent truth to the message that it carries. You will not be able to achieve consistent fitness and good health unless you achieve and maintain it as a part of your life. Just as you have to bathe to maintain a state of cleanliness regularly, you have to engage in healthy eating and physical exercise to maintain that state of fitness. Think of your body as a biological machine. It needs upkeep to maintain good operational status. I am sure every one of us is familiar with the concept of New Year resolution and the disaster that follows as people fail to uphold their promises. This is particularly true for exercise. Imagine a typical end of the year celebration or party, or it can be anything as long as there are people making oaths, resolutions, or promises. As the year ends and the realization of mortality sinks just a little bit closer, people have a moment of clarity and set a goal to dedicate 28 themselves to living well, being a better person, and exercising. Next year, the gyms are full of newcomers trying in their overzealousnes s to wipe away the excess fat built up over a long time in just one session. They may not say it, but the intent is there, lying in the subconscious. Slowly, the efforts start to dwindle, and people burn themselves out. Regular visits to the gym become less frequent until the only reminder that remains is the keychain they may have gotten with their membership. It is here we can best find the example that change is a more difficult task than most would have imagined. The worse vice is advice, and people are big sinners in this regard. They are keen to dish out suggestions or have their say in a conversation about how things ought to be. Have they ever considered applying this to themselves, though? How about using the advice of other people on themselves? The truth is that most people lack the commitment and dedication to making significant changes in their life unless prodded on or forced to by external circumstances. It is in the nature of most people to stick to what is known, what is comfortable, and avoiding stress. After all, why would anyone voluntarily subject themselves to stress? I am here to tell you that stress can be a good thing when applied correctly. Physical stress gives our body something to work against and become stronger in the process. We adapt and become resilient so that the stress can no longer harm us. I ask you, is it better to live within a bubble that protects us from harm? What happens when that bubble bursts, or is it better to become stronger and tougher by facing the challenges out there? As Phillips Brooks once said, "Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men." I think this perfectly reflects the mentality that you should carry in your journey toward a fitter and healthier lifestyle. 29 Physical exertion places a demand on your body and mind. Your body has to work hard to meet the needs of force production . Your mind has to endure the psychological aspect of pushing yourself. As your heart rate goes up, accompanied by the lactic acid build-up and the depletion of your energy reserves, you will find yourself in a tough place. Your mind will associate this state of discomfort with something to be avoided. Sure, the endorphins released during the workout will help smooth things over, maybe even make the process enjoyable, but that state of discomfort is what you will carry with you. When you next consider exercising, you will recall how uncomfortable you had been and will subconsciously start sabotaging yourself. It's a trap; one that you should try to avoid if possible because it leads to that same slippery slope that the New Year gym-goers fall prey to. Change is difficult because you are venturing into new territory. It is likely that you will fail, and there is no shame in that; at least you are trying. It is not about how hard we fall but about getting back up again after falling. Try and keep trying. Set a goal in your mind of getting fit and embrace it fully. You do not need to burn yourself out by going all in at once. It is perfectly reasonable to start small and then build up from that. Remember, at your stage, it is essential to keep on trying to progress into that next stage. Use your hunger to get fit to fuel your dedication — progress, not perfection. Developing a Routine Now that you have some idea of the hardships that you will face in your journey toward fitness, I will help you bear them with the use of routines. Incorporating exercise as a regular part of your life will help 30 you overcome many of the psychological hurdles and hesitations that you will face, especially during the starting stage. Remember, these are just general guidelines. While they are applicable to the average person, you may find the need to tweak them a bit to match your unique needs. Do not be afraid of experimentation . Another essential thing to keep in mind is to stick to a routine. It is one, if not the most critical, part of developing consistency. At the worst of the worst, even if you just go to the gym (or your preferred workout location) and do nothing, it will help you develop a habit of going there. Not every scheduled visit has to be perfect, sometimes you will lag behind and sometimes you will do the bare minimum because of extenuating circumstances, and that's ok. The fact that you are going will help start building up drive and discipline. Please do not rely on motivation alone to get you there. It is a fickle thing that comes and goes. It is the discipline that gets you through adversities and hardships. Let motivation inspire you and fuel your journey to fitness, but do not expect it to stick around. Motivation will get you started but will not keep you going when the road gets tough. This is why a routine can be so helpful because it will give you something you rely on when your motivational fuel tank may be running dry. You will know precisely what you have to do, and it will provide you with less of a chance to excuse your way out of an exercise because you don't have the 'mental energy' to decide on what to do. When you start working out your routine, it's going to be very unpleasant. As your body will not be used to exerting itself consistently and with purpose, it will ache and hurt like never before. Remember, your natural inclination will be to lean toward laziness . Our hunter-gatherer ancestors spent a great deal of energy chasing 31 prey. For them, rest was often a luxury, and they had to take what little rest they could get. You are not in that situation, but the biological patterns are still burned into your genetic code. You must resist the urge to skip the workout, especially in the beginning. Try and go to your gym or preferred workout place and seek help from other people if possible. Of course, during the COVID-19 pandemic, this may be a challenge, so try joining an online group for fitness. It will help tie your workout routine into your social life, giving you a greater incentive to stick to it. This also helps integrate your exercise routines into your daily life, ultimately helping you cultivate a lifestyle that is good for your health . Three Days a Week (Initiate) The three-day exercise pattern is something that is great for beginners because it offers enough of a gap between workouts, so you have adequate time for recovery between sessions. Do simple exercises for three days a week with a gap between each . Toward the end, you will have two rest days. You can use these rest days to recover and review your plans and make adjustments as necessary before the start of the following week. This break day can also be used as a buffer to take an extra day off when you really need that extra recovery time. The diagram below offers further clarity. Remember, you need plenty of rest at this stage as your body is not used to physical exercise. The rest days will decrease the extent to 32 which your natural instinct will fight against adopting this new discipline you are trying to incorporate into your life. There is a physiological reason for this too. You need to recover from physical exertion, and it will take a longer time at the start of your journey. If you overexert yourself, you could burn out, or worse, cause injury to yourself. You will notice that I do not include the names of the days of the week in the diagram. This is because I do not want you to restrict you to a specific timeframe. Everybody has their life, obligations, and responsibilities. Some people may not fall into the regular Monday to-Friday routine, so just slide this block around so that your workouts fall into a timeframe where you will have the time and energy to do them. It is vital to spare some time for exercise, but sometimes extenuating circumstances prevent us from doing so. As such, it is best to fit your exercise routine for optimal performance. You are more likely to enjoy and stick to it if the timetable is in sync with your other lifestyle activities. Five Days a Week (Beginner) Once you've developed a bit of a routine, it is time to up the ante and increase the frequency of the workouts. By this time, your body will have started or developed an ability to recover from workouts at an increased rate (unless you've been burning yourself out, in which case you should go back to the previous stage because you are not yet ready for this one). When you have made yourself capable of recovering faster, it is time to increase the frequency of the workouts to give your body a further goal to achieve. You will note that we are not increasing the intensity of the workout, but just the frequency. This is key at this stage because we do not want to overload your 33 system. We are still at the stage of building up a solid foundation for the future. The diagram below illustrates the routine described in this part. As seen above, the routine has been slightly modified aside from the obvious five sessions a week. The rest and review days have been rendered much more flexible. You can use them as a buffer with greater freedom of choice. At this stage, you will likely have noticed the intricacies of your body. We, the humans, are quite a diverse species. Our physical capabilities are not the same. Some people recover faster or slower overall or have some muscles lag or lead in recovery. This will show up with some muscle groups taking a longer time to recover, while with others, you may feel that you are ready to go the next day. This is something that is quite natural and should not discourage you from carrying on. The workout is there to cater to you and not the other way around. If you have failed to observe these intricacies, now will be a good time to do so because you will be placing additional stress on your body. The last thing you want during these initial foundational phases is to burn yourself out. While it may seem like a good idea to give it your all, you are not at an advanced enough stage to make full use of it. Think of your efforts right now as more akin to a marathon than a run or a sprint. If you burn yourself out, you will lose valuable time 34 that you could have spent working out as you recover, time that could have given you a higher net volume of workout. As you become more familiar with your body, you will learn to use your rest days with much greater efficiency. Remember, the rest days are there to review and recover. They are not an enabler of your excuse to avoid working out. Do not fall into that old pattern now that you have afforded greater freedom. Start taking responsibility. As a guideline, the use of these days should be to make sure you are prepared and ready for the next session. They are there to facilitate the workout instead of avoiding it. If you feel unsure, it can be useful to have a diary or a journal where you can note down where you lag and where you lead. It will help you create adjustments in your workout plan. Follow this up with a review process where you go over if your amended plan is helping you overcome the shortcomings you noticed earlier, see what works, and stop using what does not help you. Seven Days a Week (Student) If you have managed to make it this far into the process, you will likely have quite a good idea of what it is like to adjust your workout routine and listen to your body. If you are still having problems, I would suggest you still keep applying yourself to the previous stage before moving on. If you are ready, then it is time to increase the frequency of the workouts to seven days a week. The most significant change that you will observe in this routine is that there are no set rest days . You are working out every single day of the week. If this seems like an overwhelming task, do not worry, your progress up to this point will have prepared you for this journey. The diagram below illustrates the routine for further clarification. 35 One thing to note here is the free-floating use of the rest, reflection, and buffer days. At this stage, you should have a pretty good idea of how to manage your time table to maximize your workout and get adequate rest when needed by shifting the routine around. We are still maintaining the intensity of the workout, building that habit as a future investment in our health. It is vital to maintain that steady pace and rest when necessary because there is a greater chance of burning out at this stage. It is also the reason you have much more flexibility here, and by now, you should realize how importan t consistency is. Once you have mastered this stage, you will have a good foundation for further progress in your fitness journey. Increasing Intensity (Once or Twice a Week) Now that the foundations of a habit have been set, it is time to increase the intensity of the workout by doing a more challenging exercise. We will not be launching off but will follow the same paced routine that created the foundation. So, to start with, it would be prudent to pick out one exercise that is more difficult or intense than what you are currently doing. This will increase the level of power generation by having your body work 36 harder instead of just exerting itself for regular periods as per your timetable. Once a week should give you enough of a kick that you will recognize just how far you can push yourself. Rest and recovery are even more critical at this stage because you will be pushing your body harder. Until you acclimate yourself to this new pattern, try not to overdo it and suffer an injury or burnout in the process. You do not have to stick to the same type of exercise for your higher intensity phase. It is perfectly normal and even encouraged to keep the workout fun and interesting. You do not want this process to become monotonous. Pick exercises that will engage you and keep you going. Build up that appetite for facing an increased lack of comfort. It will help you build up a desire for more vigorous challenges. When your body has adjusted to this routine, move on to doing two of these intense exercises on a weekly basis. You can repeat the same exercise if you like, but I would encourage you to increase variety by doing different types of exercises. It will help you become familiar with new movement patterns, and it will vary the muscle groups that you work with. It is far better to have a well-rounded body instead of myopically focusing on just a few parts. Your body is a whole, the different parts work together, and the most significant benefit will be achieved when every part becomes stronger. Disclaimer/Warning The exercise routines that have been outlined above may not be applicable for all types of workouts. In particular, if you are considering doing weight lifting (strength training in this context), 37 you will be placing your body under a great deal of stress, both physically and mentally. While the psychological aspect of the program can be powered with motivation and discipline, it is the physical part where you have to be careful. Strength training has its foundation in pushing yourself through exertion at a level that is close to your maximum output. Pushing your body to its limits drastically places more demand on you than general exercise ever will. You are, to put it in colloquial terms, beating your body into submission so that it adapts to match the burden of the added strain. Furthermore, strength training is a much more involved process and requires you to push ahead if you want to make progress. It is not something that is recommended for beginners, but at the same time, it is one of, if not, the most beneficial things you can do to become fit. It will train your muscles, optimize your nervous system, and build psychological resilience. However, to achieve these extraordinary qualities, you have to put an equal amount of effort into the process. If you do decide to go this route, stick to the three-day week routine. When you advance, simply increase the amount of weight you lift instead of increasing the frequency of the workouts. You will only progress if you lift heavier weights. The main concern here for you should be pushing those numbers up. When you push ahead in strength training, you must learn to differentiate between acute pain and DOMS (Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness). This is because you do not want to end up injuring yourself by pushing hard before you have recovered from your previous session. 38 A typical workout will leave you with a generalized and dull aching sensation in the muscles you used. If there is sharp and acute pain, it is likely that you have injured yourself in the process. Seek medical attention if the pain seems severe enough. After a normal strength training session, DOMS will occur in the following day(s). You will feel your muscles being sore. This is expected and is fine. Do not take NSAIDs (Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) to combat this unless it is excruciating and seriously impairs you. The inflammation and soreness are part of the healing process as the body builds itself up together to be stronger than before. It is an adaptive response. Progress, Not Perfection As you will undoubtedly learn and experience in your journey to fitness, the process is not easy. Even with all of the guidance and the help with setting up a routine I have given you, there will still be a challenge. It may not happen when you take the first step or even the tenth, but soon you will start to feel the abrasive nature of the grind. Even with the best of intentions, there will be instances where your workout will conflict with your other activities. You will feel tired, bored, burnt out, annoyed, and maybe even angry. All of these things are expected, but you should still keep on trying. Setting a routine, especially one that connects to your lifestyle, is not an easy task. It will take time for you to adjust to it. It is one of the reasons why I strongly encourage you to develop and rely more on discipline instead of motivation. Try not to push yourself to perfection from the get-go. You will only create an overwhelming goal for yourself and end up feeling discouraged and let down. Desmond Tutu once wisely said, "There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time." If you keep looking 39 too far ahead, you will lose sight of the progress you do make. Make the little victories count, and you will slowly progress toward bettering yourself. Remember, it's a lifestyle, and you will have a lifetime to master it. Don't be too hard on yourself and learn to appreciate what you have. It is quite easy for a beginner such as yourself to look at famous athletes and bodybuilders and think, I can never do that. But the truth is that they got to where they are with dedication and hard work (even if drugs were involved). You should learn to love yourself and be comfortable with who you are. It can be useful to have a reference for setting your goals. But, at the end of the day, the only person you should be comparing yourself with is yourself. Aim to better yourself every day so that you are a better person than you were in the past. Use that progressive growth in strength, flexibility, and the health benefits that come with it to reflect on how much you have improved. You can sit there and sulk about how people are so much better than you, or you can lift that iron and improve yourself. In both these cases, you will grow older, but in the latter, you will be in a better place than you currently are. I think that, at least, is something worth striving for. 40 Chapter 4: Besides Exercise, What? “Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit. When one is free from physical disabilities and mental distractions, the gates of the soul open.” –BKS. Iyengar The Importance of Exercise Having read this book, you must have come to the realization that the pursuit of being fit is not limited to quick fixes. It requires consistency in trying to better yourself through effort. This consistency is what ultimately gives us the health that we desire and the long-term satisfaction that comes with the struggles involved in the process. Exercise is a small yet essential part of achieving a state of improvement, leaning toward your maximum inner potential. While many in the modern world may view physical exertion as a necessary burden, a price to be paid to receive the 'product' of health , such a notion is only partly true. At its core, exercise is the use of adaptive physiology to become resilient against stresses, both internal and external. It allows individuals the chance not only to increase their total longevity but also to improve the quality of life they will have. This is an importan t point that I think I should touch on, as many people seem to overlook this qualitative factor. While it can be compelling to chase lower numbers on the scale at every weigh-in you have in the morning, quality of life plays a much greater factor in your life than you might imagine. In fact, the former 41 may be seen as a misguided attempt at achieving the latter. Why do people typically weigh themselves? To feel content, of course. Whether you realize it or not, all living beings try to strive toward a state of contentment. The means with which they do so differ greatly, and they may be unaware of the process, but ultimately, everyon e wants to be content. Being content is defined as existing in a state of happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction, free from want or desire because what is or can be desired has been achieved. The state of being content is something that is quite difficult to explain accurately. One must experience it to fully understand what it is about and the value that it holds. Think about why anyone does anything in their life, whether it is chasing a career, helping the unfortunate, or pursuing personal projects. No matter what surface justification that they give, the pursuit of being content lies at the heart of their endeavors. You might be asking yourself, sure, that’s great, but what does exercise have to do with it? Everything. Exercising is a fundamental part of fulfilling both the mind and the body. Pushing yourself physically allows you to develop consistency and humility and learn that the process of achieving something is just as important as the end goal itself. The path toward healthy living is not something separate. It is something inherent in the journey itself. When you start the process of becoming physically fit, you will not go to a predetermined end and receive your reward. Instead, the journey itself makes you better, stronger, and more resilient as you keep on trekking with the application of consistent and honest effort on your part. What can you expect if you decide that you too want to try out your hand in this journey? A lot! Let us start with the physical aspect, as I 42 am sure many of you readers will be more interested in it than the mental part. Exercise will allow you to become stronger. Remember, strength is at the core of how we interact with our world. It is the ability to produce a force against an external resistance. More strength means you will have greater access to the world, even in an age when we have machines to do most of our work. Let's start with the beginning of the day. You wake up, eat your breakfast, head out to work, do your thing, and get done with everything before eventually retiring to bed. Consider all the instances that you had to use your strength. You had to lift yourself up, maybe drive your car, move things around, pick them up, and put them down. Of course, everything involves some use of strength. Many people might be thinking that they don't need strength because all they do is office work. They are wrong. Strength and fitness build resilience. They allow you to become much more resistant to injury and give you greater control over your body. Exercise helps improve your bodily functions by increasing their optimum performance. This is tied to the quality of life concept that I mentioned earlier. Exercise gives your body the ability to stay in better shape for longer, meaning your existence in this world is much more enjoyable. Spending your older years going in and out of the hospital or spending them with your family, doing what you love without being bogged down by weakness, brittle bones, and failing health that leaves you confined to a ventilator: what is better? You know the answer. 43 Diet and Lifestyle The achievement of a healthy life is predicated not only on physical activity but also on the overall lifestyle choices made by the individual. The ancient Greeks understood and touted the concept of a health y mind inside a healthy body. That is, the mind and the body were seen as being intrinsically connected. This is where the concept of exercise and training comes in. Specifically, there is a difference between the two terms. Exercise is a short-term activity that is meant to provide immediate results during or after its execution. Training is the implementation of a program toward a specific goal. Exercise forms one of the components that enable its success. It is here where diet and lifestyle come into play, as they have a much greater role in a person's life than exercise alone. That's right, diet and lifestyle are much more important to your health than exercise. Remember, I am being relative here. Exercise is crucial and should not be left behind, but it is still a small part of a larger whole. Let me clarify, breathing is more important for life than water, and water is more important for life than food. Do you see what I'm trying to get at? Each part of this equation is important, but some play a more significant role than others. You may say, hey, I get what you're saying, but I would die without food and water, but I can live without exercising, so how is it true? Well, let me tell you that you are not considering the whole picture. You see, you do get physical exercise, albeit very little, just by going about your day. Your heart constantly beats to pump blood throughout your body. Your legs work to move your bodyweight around from one place to another. Your hands pick things up and put them down. Your core (torso) muscles keep you upright. So, you see, you are getting those little trickles of ‘food’ and ‘water.’ You just don’t realize it. 44 Still not convinced? Take a look at people who become paralyzed or go into a coma. Without the use of their muscles, their bodies start wasting away, atrophying to the point where they can’t even get proper blood circulation, leading to extreme health complication s . They may be alive barely, but without this precious ‘food’ and ‘water,’ they will die much quicker. The same concept applies when you try to live on oxygen alone . Your body will start degrading from thirst, and then hunger will set in. Sure, you 'lived' for a while, but it was a short and miserable existence with a low quality of life. I hope this example helps you understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle and diet. In fact, I think it would be much more appropriate to call it a healthy lifestyle altogether, as a good diet should be a part of a healthy lifestyle by default, so that's how I'm going to refer to it from this point on, and I want you to do the same. At this point, you are thinking, I get the importance of a health y lifestyle, but I don't understand what that means. Well, a health y lifestyle is something that keeps and improves your well-being, both physically and mentally. Health is not only the absence of disease but also excellence in living in both the body and the mind. Both are interconnected and should be considered. This means you should also take care of your mental wellness . Being depressed or burnt out is going to affect your body. The mind is connected to the body through a complicated series of biochemical reactions that are outside the scope of this book, but the state of your mental health plays a part in physical health and vice versa. As this book is about physical fitness, I will not be going through the psychological aspect in great detail, but I would encourage you to look up reference material as it will supplement what you have learned 45 here. A healthy lifestyle aims to meet the needs of the body while providing adequate stimulation to improve the quality of life. So, let's start with meeting the needs of the body. You are what you eat, literally. Your body uses the food that you consume both as a means to fuel activity and to create and maintain its building blocks. If you don't get enough calories or building material, you will have low energy and start wasting away as the body cannibalizes itself to stay alive. Your body is a vat of complex chemical reactions that break down what you eat to build up biological compounds that constitute your being. If the material is not available, the building process cannot take place. This is where nutrition comes in. You require some nutrients in greater quantities than others. These are labeled macro and micronutrients. Macronutrients comprise fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. There is some debate as to whether the last one is essential, but it is outside the scope of this book. Micronutrients, on the other hand, are the minerals and vitamins that you require in small quantities to support complex metabolic processes. To meet the requirements of a healthy diet, you need to hit both your calorie and your nutrient mark. Supplementations of vitamin s and minerals may be used as necessary to hit those marks for micronutrients, but a diverse diet should be able to provide you with what you need. Here is a reference point for the general population for micronutrients, but if you are unsure, it is always best to check with your doctor.2 There is also a table in the appendix that you can refer to. 2 Harvard Medical School. (2020). Listing of Vitamins. Harvard Health Publishing. Available at: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/listing_of_vitamins. 46 Remember, it is possible to overdose on these vitamins and minerals, so supplements should be used for just that, supplementin g your diet. As a general rule, it is better to receive these nutrients from whole foods than in the processed form. Next comes hitting those marks for the macronutrients. I cannot give you an exact number, but the general distribution, according to Harvard, is that half the plate should comprise fruits and vegetables , with the remaining two quarters with proteins and whole grains. See the appendix for the diagram. Remember, it is not only the quantity of the nutrition that counts but also the quality. You want to include foods with a low-moderate glycaemic index. This system rates foods on a scale of 0-100 based on how slowly or quickly they raise your blood glucose level. Foods with a high rating will digest very quickly, shoot up your blood glucose level, and then lead to a crash. It is why you feel hungry so soon after eating processed and junk food. Aim for foods with a lower rating, and you will have a steady level of energy throughout the day. Other changes you can make include trying to be more active in your daily life. Little things like taking the stairs instead of an elevator or escalator, walking or cycling instead of driving short distances, taking breaks from work to walk and stretch, and other such inclusions can make a significant difference in improving your health . While they alone are not going to do you any wonders, we are incorporating them as a small part of a greater shift toward health y living. Instead of snacking on junk food, try to switch to healthier alternatives in the fruit or vegetable category. Things like bananas, nuts, grapes, seeds, and apples are great for fulfilling those cravings without compromising your health. In general, you will want to 47 eliminate products that contain refined sugars and carbs. This alone will greatly improve the quality of your diet. Changing Eating Habits At this stage you might be asking, well I know what's good for me, but I just can't seem to stick to healthy eating. Why is it so difficult? This ties back to the concept of building habits through the use of discipline, as explained in earlier parts of the book. You are a creature of habit, not only in your thoughts and actions but also in what your eating preferences are. If you have been going through life regularly consuming foods without giving much consideration to what you eat, chances are your diet is not that healthy. It is likely that you have been following the approach of eating whatever tastes and feels good to consume. I'm here to tell you that just because it feels good does not mean it is actually good for you. To better understand this notion, let's start with a little history lesson. Humans have spent a large portion of their lives as huntergatherers. In such a situation, food was not readily available. Some things were rarer than others, and our bodies adapted by making the consumption of these rare foods pleasurable. It was a survival strategy meant to ensure that our nutritional needs were met. In the modern day, however, we do not face such a situation, and food is readily available. The only problem is that the instincts of our ancestors have carried over into the present, so we still crave things like sugar, fats, and carbs as if our lives will be in peril if we do not consume voraciously. To shift toward a healthy diet, you can incorporate a moderate approach that slowly transitions you from one phase to another. While it is quite possible to make a drastic change, your instincts will fight against you, and there is a great chance that you will relapse into your 48 earlier unhealthy eating habits. It is much better to slowly change your preference for food and have your instincts work with you in your quest for a healthy diet and not against you. Start by identifying what you need to eliminate from your diet, then look at appropriate healthy substitutions. Instead of getting that bag of chips for lunch, you can try eating some eggs. Instead of having soft drinks every day of the week, you can limit yourself to three days. By slowly tapering yourself off unhealthy food and finding tasty and healthy substitutions, you will have a significantly greater chance of succeeding in this endeavor. Remember, you will need to develop a solid discipline and refine your habits for this to work. It will not happen overnight, and you will have to actively want to change for the transition to occur. Being passive in this approach will not help. You must want to get and eat healthily. Basic Exercises You've made it this far into the book and are probably pumped and ready to go. You probably do not have exercise equipment or a setup to initiate your journey. Maybe you just want to take a dip into the pond before fully committing yourself. Whatever the reason, it is entirely possible to start your journey to fitness with little to no equipmen t. You don't need a big budget. A few things that you will need are very cheap. Let's start with your body and the most basic exercise that everyon e knows - running and jogging, something that our ancestors have been doing for thousands of years. Running is a great way to build up endurance and improve cardiovascular health. You do not have to sprint like a maniac to get results. Even jogging will provide similar benefits. For those of you who have problems with your knees, you 49 should try jogging instead of running. If you feel adventurous, you can try shifting between running, jogging, walking, and then back to increase the intensity of the session. Not extreme enough for you? Throw jumping/skipping rope into the mix. Just don't fall on your face! Up next is push-ups. These will really give your upper body a nice burn. You do not need weights for this and can simply leverage your body weight to act as the resistance against which your arms will produce a force. You can supplement this with squatting. It is not necessary to have a weight on your back to squat. Just follow the same motions but hold your hands in front of you instead of on your back. If you can, try to learn swimming. It is a great way to work on the cardiovascular system of the body while also giving the muscles a good workout by producing force against the body of water. It is quite an all-rounder exercise that will benefit anyone who can devote the time and dedication required to learn swimming. Remember to be safe, do not try to swim in waters unless you are fully confident about your ability. It is always preferable to have a lifeguard present because safety should be your number one priority. So, what are you waiting for? Get on the floor and give me 20. Go out running until your legs fall off. I have given you the tools needed to help you on your journey to fitness. I have done my part. Now I need you to do yours. Stick to what I have told you, and you'll be whipped into shape soon enough. Remember, it's ok to fail, but it's not ok to give up. Go out there and get fit. 50 Appendix Table: RDAs and ULs for Vitamins and Minerals Vitamin or Mineral Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) or Adequate Intake (Al) Nutrients with Als are marked with an (*) Upper Tolerable Limit (UL) The highest amount you can take without risk Boron Not determined 20 mg/day Calcium •Age 19-50: 1,000 mg/day •Age 19-50: 2,500 mg/day •Women age 51+: 1,200 mg/day •Age 51 and up: 2,000 mg/day •Men age 714: 1,200 mg/day Chloride •Age 19-50: 2,300 mg/day 3,600 mg/day •Age 50-70: 2,000 mg/day •Age 70 and older: 1,800 mg/day Choline •Women: 425 mg/day* (Vitamin B •Men: 550 mg/day* 3,500 mg/day complex) Copper 900 micrograms/day 10,000 mcg/day Fluoride •Men: 4 mg/day* 10 mg/day •Women: 3 mg/day* 51 Folic acid (Folate) 400 mcg/day 1,000 mcg/day This applies only to synthetic folic acid in supplements or fortified foods. There is no upper limit for folic acid from natural sources. Iodine 150 mcg/day 1,100 mcg/day Iron •Men: 8 mg/day 45 mg/day •Women age 19-50: 18 mg/day •Women age 51 and up: 8 mg/day Magnesium 350 mg/day •Men age 19-30: 400 mg/day •Men age 31 and up: 420 mg/day •Women age 19-30: 310 mg/day Manganese This applies only to magnesium in supplements or fortified foods. There is no upper limit for magnesium in food •Women age 31 and up: 320 mg/day and water. •Men: 2.3 mg/day* 11 mg/day •Women:1.8 mg/day* Molybdenum 45 mcg/day 2,000 mcg/day Nickel Not determined 1 mg/day Phosphorus 700 mg/day •Up to age 70: 4,000 mg/day 52 •Over age 70: 3,000 mg/day Selenium 55 mcg/day 400 mcg/day Sodium •Age 19-50: 1,500 mg/day * 2,300 mg/day •Age 51-70: 1,300 mg/day * •Age 71 and up: 1,200 mg/day * Vanadium Not determined 1.8 mg/day Vitamin A •Men: 900 mcg/day 3,000 mcg/day •Women: 700 mcg/day Vitamin B3 (Niacin) Vitamin B6 •Men: 16 mg/day 35 mg/day •Women: 14 mg/day This applies only to Niacin in supplements or fortified foods. There is no upper limit for Niacin in natural sources. •Men age 19-50: 1.3 mg/day 100 mg/day •Men age 51 up: 1.7 mg/day •Women age 19-50: 1.3 mg/day •Women age 51 up: 1.5 mg/day Vitamin C •Men: 90 mg/day 2,000 mg/day •Women: 75 mg/day Vitamin D (Calciferol) •Age 1-70: 15 mcg/day (600 IU or international units) * •Age 70 and older: 20 mcg/day (800 IU) 53 100 mcg/day (4,000 IU) Vitamin E (alpha- •22.4 IU/day(15 mg/day) tocopherol) 1,500 IU/day(1,000 mg/day) This applies only to Vitamin E in supplements or fortified foods. There is no upper limit for Vitamin E from natural sources. Zinc •Men: 11 mg/day 40 mg/day •Women: 8 mg/day Source: WebMD. Vitamins and Minerals: How Much Should You Take? Available at: https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-andsupplements/vitamins-minerals-how-much-should-you-take#3. 54 Healthy Eating Plate Source: The Nutrition Source. Healthy Eating Plate. Harvard School of Public Health. Available at: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy -eating-plate/. 55 56