Written By Paul Breheny
In my last blog I identified a number of observations related to the actions consistently taken by successful people. From it I created a simple four step model that anybody could use to realise their health and fitness goals:
Know Your Objective.
Take Action.
Assess The Results You’re Producing.
Keep Refining The Plan Until You Get What You Want.
To use it you first need an answer for step one, and to do that you need to define precisely what your health and fitness objective is, and why it’s important.
To make this decision we need a little more information and it may help to think about all the different physical attributes that you have; cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, agility, power, speed, strength, balance, coordination, accuracy and stamina.
They are all seemingly important to develop. But which is the most important? Which, if made your primary fitness objective will give the most “bang for your buck”?
A lot people would probably answer that cardiovascular endurance is the most important, or say “it depends on your goal”, or “they’re all equally important”.
At ‘PB Strength & Fitness Mentoring’ we would suggest you start with strength. Not because strength is all we care about, but because strength- defined as a muscles ability to produce force against external resistance- is the foundation to all human and athletic movement, and so the most important of physical attributes that we posses. This is the one attribute, that if made your primary objective this year, will give you ‘MASSIVE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK’, making the effort more than worthwhile!
Don’t believe it?
Consider this; without muscles you can’t move your body, without strong muscles you can’t move it effectively or efficiently, and without healthy muscles you can’t metabolise nutrients effectively (I’ll expand on this later in another article).
In a nutshell, you have to have muscular strength just to demonstrate any of the other physical attributes and to be healthy. By making this one attribute better, the rest also get better.
Still not convinced it should be your primary objective?
Then it’s important to realise that it’s not a two way street. For example, just because you train cardio and can run 5K doesn’t mean you can put the lawnmower in the back of the car, or do any other daily activity that requires the remotest ounce of muscular strength.
But if you make strength your primary objective you’ll find that not only will you have stronger muscles, stronger bones, less painful joints, and a more toned body, you’ll be able to train cardio, or any other physical attribute, more vigorously and effectively.
Getting that 5k time down, or burning off the fat to get a beach body, suddenly becomes a lot easier, never mind everyday things like moving furniture, or getting on and off the toilet.
Our physical strength and muscular health really are a big piece of the puzzle as to what determines the quality and the quantity of life we get, and is why, as somebody who has never tried to develop muscular strength, or as an older, or sedentary person you should focus on making this your primary objective at first, regardless of what the end goal is.
So, for the first stage of this process:
1) Know Your Objective = Increase Strength
You will not regret it, and are likely to achieve success far beyond what you thought you where capable of.
In the next article we will explore step two – how to take effective action on our newly defined objective. Until then keep on training!
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