It all comes out in the wash: The five factors of fitness
Are you a person who notices patterns? Just like we use systems to fix a car, learn a baseball swing, bake a cake, or use a washing machine, we can use systems to maintain each and every body.
When crafting your fitness regimen, you have to look at all the factors that contribute to wellness to succeed with your program. In short, you need the right input to get the desired output.
For example, restricting calories alone won’t make your clothes fit better. Well, it might in the short term, but can you sustain that? And does it assure you are healthy? Working out four days a week instead of two might make you think you’re getting there, but you won’t get there if you are injuring yourself in the process.
For real and sustainable fitness, you need to attend to all five fitness factors.
Take that washing machine. What happens when we add too much soap and not enough fabric softener, or fill it with too much or too little water? Clothes can come out too stiff, or they don’t get clean, or the machine might overflow. The five factors of fitness are a lot like washing clothes: water is needed for both, soap=nutrition, agitation=activity, soaking=rest, and both need to accommodate environmental factors. Bear with me, this analogy really works. Here’s how:
1. Hydration: This one’s easy. Clothes washers and bodies alike require water. Without water, the washer is useless. Without water, the body can’t work; its metabolism grinds to a halt. Lean muscle tissue is about 70 percent water. Water is necessary for the body to repair itself, regulate energy and blood sugar, support thought processes and movement, reduce soreness and remove waste material.
2. Nutrition: We all know that if you put too much soap in a washer, it overflows, causes build-up and eventually ruins the machine. For bodies, food also needs to be balanced. You need enough to do the job, but add too much and the fat overflows diminishing the body’s ability to move properly and self-regulate.
3. Activity: In order to get the best results you have to shake things up a little bit. In the washer, that means agitating clothes to get them clean. For bodies that means moving muscles. We like to say that you only need to exercise the muscles you wish to keep. Bodies are not designed to be stationary, they were designed to move. Just as the washer uses the agitation to combine the water and soap to reach the desired end, moving your body integrates water and nutrition to allow all necessary materials to reach their intended targets.
4. Rest: Once you have shaken things up, the next step is rest. In the washing machine, that’s the soak cycle, where the soap and water can work on those tough stains. In the body, that means allowing the body to repair itself. When you exercise, you create microscopic tears in the muscles. Rest—when coupled with the right nutrition and hydration—repairs damaged muscles by replacing cells. Allowing your body the proper timespan to rest will enable it to affect change on itself without or minimizing the use of pain relievers.
5. Environment: There are always factors out of our control. For the washer, we might not be able to control the water quality. Perhaps the machine doesn’t fully agitate because it wobbles. If the water pressure is low, it might take twice as long for the machine to fill. To compensate, we install a water softener, adjust the machine’s feet so it doesn’t wobble and are patient while the machine is filling. For the body, you have to deal with what you have and find a way to maximize it regardless of your challenges. For example, you might be like that washer in a low water-pressure situation. Your fill time—i.e. your metabolism—might be slower, so you need to adjust your anticipated rate of improvement. The key is to accept what you have and adjust to that openly and willingly—without introducing unnecessary stress—so you don’t create additional difficulties for yourself as you pursue your goals.
Just remember, it isn’t about competing with anyone else. It’s about moving forward from yesterday, and you need all five factors to make that happen.
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Brent Steepe, a personal trainer since 1992, is CEO of Advanced Training Techniques Inc. in St. Clair Shores. Brent, a former bodybuilder and powerlifter, worked at a number of gyms before founding Advanced Training in 2006. He earned a bachelor of science in Exercise Science at Michigan State University, and holds a number of certifications in personal training, senior fitness, sports nutrition, and from the American Red Cross. An avid recreational enthusiast, Brent is vice president of the American Ultimate Disc League. For more information, visit www.traininyourhome.com, email Brent at bsteepe@traininyourhome.com or find him on Facebook or Twitter.
