Fit to Post Health10 fitness training mistakes to avoid (part 2)
In last week's post we discussed three mistakes that are common in many training programs. These can lead to poor progress or even injury. This week we will continue with two more.
Not taking care of injuries when they happen
From the hundreds of consultations my team and I do each year, we can see that most people have had some kind of injury before.
Sometimes it is acute or sudden, for example, it is the result of an accident like falling down or a car accident.
Sometimes it is chronic and annoying, such as nagging shoulder, neck or back pain.
The two keys to handling injuries in an effective way, while not using them as an excuse to get fat and lazy are...
Using the right treatment method for the problem you have. For example, if you got hit by a car, acupuncture is not what you need! You need to go to the A&E at a hospital.
For accidents and torn ligaments like your anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the knee, a hospital is the way to go.
For minor strains, acupuncture, massage, soft tissue work and Trigenics work well.
For chronic annoying pain that is bone structure related, a good chiropractor or bone setter tends to do a good job.
For chronic annoying pain that is muscle related, the soft tissue massage or the Trigenics method works well.
All injuries do well with good nutritional support. A low inflammatory diet without refined food, along with nutrients like omeaga-3s and curcumin speed healing.
Train "around" the injury. Whenever you have been injured the best thing to do is to do safe exercises that do not make the injury worse. For example, in my early days, I had a slipped disc injury in my lower back from a sports accident.
It was super painful, and I could not lift anything for a few weeks. In fact even getting out of bed or off the toilet seat hurt. However, two days later I was swimming. I was lifting light weights with exercises that did not involve the back, and as soon as the pain was duller, I started doing light stretches and exercises for my back to help it heal.
We never put a person at risk for further damage, but training smart and around an injury has the benefit of creating a growth hormone release which aids healing of your injury.
It also prevents you from getting out of shape. This means you have a shorter road back to full health when the injury is healed.
Using training to overcome bad eating habits
"Oh, right after this meal, I'm going for a run" is one of the things you may have heard or may even have said as you stuffed down the last crumbs of cheesecake from the buffet table.
While I enjoy a good meal just like any of you, it is important to understand that it is next to impossible to out-train bad food habits.
Why? Even a hard training session uses about 600 calories per hour. However, that is just one big mac worth of food. Add fries and a soft drink and you are up to more than 1000.
While I'm not a big fan of calorie counting as a lifestyle, it should be pretty clear that it is impossible to eat "whatever I want" and get great results.
The only exceptions to this reality are those who are genetically very adaptable to eating a lot (naturally skinny people who can see their abs and veins even if they don't exercise or eat healthy at all) or those who do massive amounts of activity per day e.g. manual laborers or professional athletes.
Even this group would still benefit from healthy choices.
So what do you do? You still need to exercise about four hours per week, a decent amount if it is all challenging training. A hard workout in the gym or a set of sprints on the track counts as hard.
Meanwhile, you will still need to make excellent food choices of healthy meats, veggies, good fats like fish and coconut oil, and unprocessed carbohydrates like sweet potatoes and some fruit.
There we have it, two more things to avoid if you are trying to get the most out of your training program.
For the best fitness boot camp program, ExpressFIT program in the CBD, and personal training in Singapore visit www.genesisgym.com.sg or the Genesis Gym facebook page. Or visit Coach Jonathan's homepage and blog at www.coachjon.com
