IT ONLY TAKES 4 SECONDS
New Year, new you fitness resolutions. Some think that working out means grinding it out for hours. Others, like myself, think of it as moving meditation. Being fit, however does not mean being SKINNY. If you do NOT work out alongside eating right, your clothes might get smaller but so will your bones, your heart, your lungs, your muscles and your cognitive function.
There are so many misconceptions about how long it takes to get fit, lose fat, drop weight. The weight loss industry is a multi billion dollar institution that runs the gamut from proposing real nutritional guidelines to following coaches that received their titles from joining multi level marketing programs of which many have no formal nutritional education.
As someone who gritted out my weight loss of 24 pounds, five years ago, it didn’t happen overnight. I didn’t starve myself. I did not go on a diet that made someone else money. I did it with intention to not just lose weight but to LEARN how my particular body worked with food and my personal caloric energy engine. My journey was not a one size fits all, no pun intended. I intimately learned my specific macronutrient needs and off I went with my handy little food scale.
After spending 20+ years in higher education learning about anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, kinesiology and nutrition, I can tell you this one thing emphatically: IT TAKES A VERY SHORT TIME TO BECOME UNFIT! 2 weeks to see quad atrophy after a knee injury for example.
If you do not stress your muscles, they will deny your bones the opportunity to become stronger. Menopausal ladies, that one is for you!
If you do not move your muscles, you diminish lymphatic mobility, your defense mechanism to disease and inflammation.
If you do not raise your heart rate, you are neglecting the master pump of your body to move blood flow which is the life force of every part of you.
If you do not inflate your lungs, you are depriving yourself the life sustaining properties of oxygen.
So, for all of you who want to lose weight in 2021, can you do yourself a favor and also focus on getting fit? And AGE is not an excuse!
Recent research, coming out of the University of Texas, studied 2 groups. First group was young and super fit. The second group was men and women over the age 50.
Findings: Short bursts of 4 seconds of max effort for 15 reps over 8 weeks made substantial changes in everything from bone, cardio, pulmonary and cognitive health in both groups!
Tip: Start where you are! Short bursts to someone sedentary could be quickly marching in place for 4 seconds. If you are an athlete, sprint up a hill for 4 seconds.
Here’s to a FIT you in 2021!
Comment if you don’t know where to start and maybe we can brainstorm what might work for you!