The Fundamentals of a Strong Body
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Humans have been around for a long time, but it’s only been relatively recent in our history, with the development of agriculture, that we’ve settled ourselves into villages and, ultimately, cities. Before that, we were nomads, traveling by foot around the countryside in search of food and moving with the seasons. As a result, our bodies adapted to this kind of physical activity. Today, with our modern lifestyles, we’re much less active than we previously were. We do a lot of sitting, at work, and at home. In other words, the modern way of life is not what our bodies were adapted for. This relatively recent decline in activity can, generally speaking, result in our bodies becoming physically weaker than they really should be. And today we see the effects: a commonality of obesity and a host of other issues like heart disease.
Of course our diets are important for keeping our bodies strong. Eating healthy is a vital start. But putting the right fuel in is only half of it. You need to pump the handle! Human biology requires that to stay fit, we need to, at least in some way, replicate the active lifestyles of our ancestors. And that, of course, means exercise.
Building a fit body through exercise does extraordinary things for many aspects of our overall health. Improved strength supports joints and bones and, especially, the spine. The spine, after all, is a pillar of the neurological “superhighway” through which the brain exchanges vital information with the rest of the body, and, in turn, through which the body takes care of the brain. A strong body for good posture keeps that superhighway healthy.
Other benefits? The obvious one is that exercise boosts our metabolism, thus reducing the amount of fat stored in the body. Leanness alone is worth the moderate effort it takes. Exercise also circulates nutrients and oxygen-rich blood to organs and every part of the body, essentially making everything stronger and more resistant to injury.
Furthermore, strengthening your body helps to eliminate everyday aches and pains. Your body heals faster. It’s ironic, isn’t it? Many people shy away from exercise because of aches and pains, and yet there’s no better way to avoid physical discomfort in the long-term than by strengthening the body! Exercise fortifies the muscles in the body around those everyday aches and pains, creating an incubating environment for the healing of the weaker areas. Exercising the core can lessen back pain, for instance. The increased oxygen rich blood flow reduces inflammation so the body’s restorative healing life-force can get in there to work its magic.
Done properly (as we’ll discuss), exercise essentially becomes physical therapy. I’ve never stopped being amazed when I witness this at the Infinity Wellness Adventures. People experience six days of intensive exercise and leave with their everyday aches and pains gone, or at least substantially reduced.
I’ve experienced it firsthand myself. Years ago, I suffered from a variety of aches. Due to inflammation, I had plantar fasciitis in the arches of my feet, carpal tunnel in my wrists, and pain in my shoulders (thoracic outlet syndrome). I went to a series of specialists, some of whom recommended various surgeries. At the time I was wearing braces on my wrists and doing virtually no exercise other than limping around my living room. Finally, a doctor said something startling. “You need to take those stupid things off your wrists and get to the gym!” I took his simple advice and worked with a professional trainer and my aches and pains all went away within a few months. I didn’t need surgery; I just needed to make my body stronger. The impact blew my mind. What a lesson!
Need more reasons to exercise? The data are overwhelming that exercise is a great stress-reducer—quite unlike anything else. Plus, it gives you a sense of achievement, helping to build your self-esteem. As mentioned in Chapter 10, if you exercise outside, you might even pick up some vitamin D from the sun. Not to mention that you’ll pick up some peace of mind just by getting outdoors, something tried and true for millennia.
Most people who decide they’re not going to take the time to stay physically active through some kind of consistent exercise have no idea how powerful it can be and what they are missing out on. They lack the comparative experience. But for those who engage in it, they know the benefits can be enormous. Bottom line? The value of exercise is in its ability to significantly enhance life-force, longevity, and happiness. Priceless, wouldn’t you say?
Aerobic and Anaerobic
As you may know, there are two general categories of exercise: aerobic, also known as “cardio,” and anaerobic which is generally load-bearing or the expenditure of energy in bursts, like sprints and lifting weight. You need to get the heart rate up with sustained aerobic activity, but you need to build muscle via anaerobic activity, too. By building muscle with load-bearing exercise, your body naturally burns more calories on a consistent basis. You’re building a bigger engine which requires more fuel! So the priority isn’t necessarily losing weight, it’s building strength which produces a leaner body.
There’s one particular exercise that, for the money, is the most efficient in combining both cardio and load-bearing activity: hiking. After all, trekking up and down hills is just what our ancestors did. The distances we are capable of hiking are commonly underestimated. During the one-week program at the Infinity Wellness Adventure, we hike with the guests seven to fifteen miles a day for six days straight! And not everyone has always been the most fit. But again, hiking this kind of mileage is what we are adapted to do.
Of course, generally speaking, we don’t have the time to hike for hours every day. But even going a few miles at a sturdy pace two or three days per week can have a tremendous impact. You’re getting your heart rate up and lifting your body weight as you trek up and down hills, making hiking the perfect cardio and load-bearing activity, all in one. Plus, you’re exercising the largest muscles in your body— namely your gluteus muscles and quads in your legs—which therefore has the most effect on your metabolism. And you’re strengthening your core, too. When you’re hiking over uneven terrain, you’re also exercising your smaller, stabilizer muscles—lots of little muscles that all add up. There’s a lot you can cover by just walking up and down hills.
Popular ways that people try to replicate this kind of physical activity are in the gym via stationary bikes or treadmills. These are obviously much better alternatives than not exercising at all. But when doing only the same repetitive motion that’s offered by stationary bikes or treadmills, you can’t really get the same kind of workout provided by hiking over uneven terrain. Essentially, all of those stabilizer muscles aren’t really working. And, you’re not getting outside which is always the place I prefer to do at least a portion of my exercise. Do you live somewhere flat? No worries. A brisk walk, followed by doing a few sets of squats while holding a dumbbell to your chest, qualifies as an awesome workout.
As for load-bearing exercise, remember that the gluteus muscles and quads should be your highest priority for enhancing your metabolism and building your overall strength. The seldom-done squats and deadlifts are hands down the best gym exercises you can do because of the emphasis on these bigger muscles as well as your core strength. Deadlifts have an undeserved negative reputation that comes from too many people doing them inappropriately, with too much weight and with the wrong form. The name doesn’t help either—better would be “life-lifts” or “anti-death lifts”!
Just like hiking, bending over or squatting to pick up heavy objects is something humans have been doing for quite some time; thus our bodies are well adapted to do these exercises. But don’t risk an injury. Do them right. Your best bet? Work with the theme “less weight, more reps.” Also these lifting exercises don’t necessarily need to be committed to with a bar. Using dumbbells or kettle-bells is a great, low-risk way to get started. Rubber exercise bands can be excellent tools as well. And why not work with a trainer? I do, and I can’t recommend it highly enough!
Remember to maintain stretching as a part of your physical activity, too. Maintaining elasticity of muscles is vital for a whole host of reasons, the most important of which is prevention of injury, inflammation, and those everyday aches and pains. It’s important for maintaining good posture, too. A full body stretch doesn’t need to take more than a few minutes. Actually, a common mistake can be over-stretching, which can make muscles weaker. Of course muscles can be re-strengthened, but why put your body through unnecessary stress? If you choose a yoga practice, the idea is to hold the stretching poses for only seconds. It’s the strengthening poses that can be held for longer. There is some reasoning however for holding the stretching poses longer, and it’s for the releasing of deeper tension. So in a sense there can be a benefit to this. My suggestion if you do the longer stretching poses is to do them only on an occasional basis, especially if building strength is what you’re going for.
While we’re on the subject of stretching, here’s an often over- looked part of the body you should definitely make a point to stretch: your arches! In a way, our feet are a foundational element. Taking care of them is reflected throughout the body. The key is to spend at least some time on your bare feet. Around the house, for instance. Arches are your body’s natural suspension, vastly better than the foam cushioning you find in shoes with arch support (the role these shoes can fulfill is running on pavement, but are needed for little else). Going barefoot stretches out the arches, and stretching anything means getting oxygen-rich blood to the areas that need it.
I learned this the hard way from my experience with plantar fasciitis. I was told I needed arch support and so I bought expensive ones, wanting to make sure I had the best available. By then, the pain was so bad that it hurt to walk anywhere and, consequently, I did very little of it. Thinking I was better off supporting my arches, I wore shoes all the time, right up to the moment I got into bed each night. Turns out, just like with the wrist braces, I was doing the exact opposite of what I should have been doing. On a camping trip, my shoes got so muddy one day that I had no choice but to take them off and walk around barefoot. And a funny thing happened. My pain went away all in one day. Why? Because I was stretching my arches out. Just another example of how the body can heal naturally if we just let it.
Speaking of going barefoot in the great outdoors, did you know that there is an electrical current in the ground? Now consider the fact that, to a very real extent, our bodies are finely-tuned electrical organisms—the brain, heart, and nerves being prime examples. Internally, there are conductive networks that deliver necessary electrons throughout all parts of the body for the purpose of neutralizing otherwise harmful free radicals. These important electrons are the very same electrons that we have the potential to absorb from the bare ground into our feet. This is perhaps one of the reasons walking barefoot at the beach is a common favorite. Conduction of these electrons into our feet is effective only on bare ground. Concrete (not asphalt) and brick are the exceptions. Today, because we are generally wearing rubber-soled shoes, we are missing out on this natural grounding effect. There’s plenty of data to support this, and this is not a ‘hippy philosophy’ so let’s do ourselves a favor and spend at least a little time outside on our bare feet.
Hire a Pro
As mentioned, I highly recommend working with a fitness trainer. What you learned in PE class in high school about exercise probably isn’t going to cut it. And going to the gym on your own and doing the same routine day in and day out only does so much. It’s much more effective and time better spent to shake things up. The variety of fitness activities is endless, and changing up the exercises you’re doing on a regular basis will make you stronger faster. A trainer knows best how to do this.
Find a trainer who believes in sticking with the free weights. Free weights have exponentially more impact than machines. Remember that core and lower-body exercises are the most important since, as we discussed above, they’re the biggest muscles. Men especially tend to get preoccupied with upper body workouts, partly because they’re easier overall since the upper body muscles are smaller relative to the muscles in the legs. It’s a matter of balance between lower and upper-body exercises, but placing more of an emphasis on lower-body is the way to go. And of course we’re not talking body-building here. We’re talking about strength and life-force building.
In my mind, working with a professional trainer is one of the very best ways you can spend your money, right up there with diet. When you think about how much we spend on educating our minds in school, working with a trainer is a small price to pay for improving the body (which improves the mind, too!) In the end, it’s an extremely cost-effective way to build and enhance your health. And it needn’t be time-consuming. With the right kind of intensive exercise, you can get a lot out of a single hour, or even less. Believe me, I’ve seen the results firsthand through trainers I have worked with, and by my own experience as a trainer. I’ve witnessed incredible transformations in people of all body types and starting out at all different levels of fitness.
Keep in mind you don’t have to work with a trainer every day. Why not start with just two days a week? Of course a good trainer will teach you how to work out on your own, too. I’m confident you’ll be very impressed with what you get out of it.
The other days of the week? Hike or go for power walks! I am very much a believer in fast-paced walking. Too easy for you? Try carrying five or ten pound dumbbells (or water bottles) and pump your arms like you mean it. Now we’re talking. Or maybe you’ve got other athletic pursuits—sports that you like to play. Being physically active should be enjoyable, something you look forward to. Yoga, soccer, swimming, and biking—they’re all good. Need I share my opinion of the contact sports like football, hockey, and boxing that invite injury and wear and tear on the body? Get creative with the healthy stuff. Join a softball team. Take up tennis. Or what about ultimate Frisbee. And dance! (This one is among my favorites, on which I’ll elaborate in Chapter 14.)
Hey, want a good workout, of a different nature? Ratchet up the times you’re intimate with your partner. Seriously! You’ll notice an increase in stamina there, as well. Do it for health. And for love of course.
Exercise is certainly neck and neck with diet, in terms of importance for overall health. They’re both critical links in the chain of well-being. Remember that when we neglect our diets, we lose the energy and enthusiasm we need to be physically active. It becomes hard to exercise even if we want to. So create the right chemistry and fuel with your diet and then pump the handle with exercise. And don’t forget that your mental well-being is connected directly to your physiological health. No question a strong body is one of the foundational elements for a strong mind, only to make us more fit to better navigate through the world of modern stressors. And, sure, live a better life, too.
If you feel overwhelmed by the idea of increasing your exercise, don’t worry. That’s normal. But take a few steps forward. Even giving yourself just a few hours of physical activity in a week will have tremendous payoff. And I can promise you you’ll be so glad you took the leap.