There is one thing that is true of any profession.
The better you are, the more money you make.
While I am dubious about calling fitness a profession in the figurative sense, it is definitely a truism that what can start of as a hobby or a passion for some can become a career. Perhaps it is the case in a lot of peoples lives. Minus the odd guy who has worked in your local store for 20 years and seems as happy as a button.
So what about those of us who are budding weekend warriors, or perhaps those of us who take our fitness very seriously, want to be the best but down to circumstances we are not.
Itâ??s fairly simple, itâ??s a case of making much much more effort than those around usâ?¦ Hitting the weights 5 times a week is going to make you big and strong if youâ??re doing everything right, but youâ??re not going to be able to walk up a hill if your cardio isnâ??t nailed.
There is just no all rounder left in the world today. Yes some people can run, lift heavy weights and are agile, explosive and so on. But these people are called athletes. Their interest is not primarily fitness. Their interest is their sport. Fitness to them, is just a means to an end. A necessary tool in their arsenal.
So what of the fitness fanatics? Honestlyâ?¦ Who are we kidding? In the gym you have legions of women running on treadmills, legions of men bench pressing the weight of a 5 year old kid. Day in day out.
None of these people fit the standard weâ??re talking about.
What I am talking about is the fitness fanatic, who understands the need to incorporate multiple facetsâ?¦ Weight training, cardiovascular exercise, diet.
While many do this they do not do it wellâ?¦ While many do it well, they could do it better.
Imagine youâ??ve trained incorporating each facet you know ofâ?¦
Youâ??ve been doing it for 4 years and you are in the best shape of your life, and whatâ??s better still youâ??ve only done it in four yearsâ?¦
You started off doing 3 total body training sessions a week with weightsâ?¦ You understood the body well enough to know, as a beginner you canâ??t stress the body well enough to benefit optimally from a split training style, but you knew this was the foundation on which the split will surely come.
You started eating healthy around the same time you started working with weightsâ?¦ Using every modern and age old nutritional strategies known to man.
- Eating protein every meal, meat, nuts, fishâ?¦ Like the hunter/forager that we evolved to become and that led our physiology to the state it is in today.
-Limiting carbohydrates to the complex forms. Eating them only when you need to. Keeping your bodyfat low year round, without the need to bulk up or the stresses of cutting down.
-Learning and going beyond the stigma about fat. This has kept your vitality up year round, supplementing with fish oils omega 3,6,9 and to the right ratio for optimum results.
-Using nutrition science to supplement your bodies need for the right nutrients at the right time. A solid pre and post workout nutrion plan has led you to new heights.
-Using periods of fasting to trigger the right hormonal responses at the right time has helped you build muscle and burn fat faster than ever before.
You added in the running a few months into your plan re-assessing dietary needs so you are constantly reaching caloric requirements for whatever goal you had in mind.
You got injured running and decided to ditch the trainers and start running like our ancestors had done for millenia, your injuries alleviated but you still had some niggling issues.
You incorporate a good flexibility, pre-hab and dynamic stretching programme to fix your problems, but soon find pains you never knew you had just ebbed away.
Itâ??s summer now and you decide to go on a run and you quickly run 3miles without even breaking a sweat. You decide itâ??s time to increase the stresses of your training and start doing hill sprints, sled pulls, farmers walks and running with ankle, chest and wrist weights.
You continue your efforts, every so often, reviewing your progress and incorporating new forms of exercise, removing what was not usefulâ?¦ You are now doing a bodybuilding split focusing on being explosive, tai chi, hill sprints and taxing work with prowlers, sand-bags, tyre flips, plyometrics . As well as regularly running, further and further, swimming when you can. You have a blog and youâ??re training a small amount of people to make some extra cash.
4 years on, you are the size of a small bodybuilder but with extreme definition year round thanks to your effort with diet, cardio and consistent and persistent training. You walk up to the NYC marathon bigger than any endurance runner, you are the underdog of underdogs. But youâ??re confident. You donâ??t just win the marathon, but you set a world record, you did it faster than anyone ever believed possible. You get a big paycheck and you shoot to fame overnight.
In an interview people ask you how you did it and you say I just ran, thatâ??s all. A small laugh from the reporters shows their disbelief.
You head off to your local powerlifting meeting and qualify easily to the regionals. Once again an unknown newcomer in charge of the pack.
You set records and you set more records. Your a national celebrity. No one would ever believe it just takes hard work, persistence and the best thing of allâ?¦ The whole experience was fun, because you were doing what you wanted.
Now you can kickback and relax, take on whatever other challenge you decide to take up, not for fame, not for money but because you want to push yourself to the limits. Because above all else, you are about one thingâ?¦ Fitness.