Get Lean, Get Muscular!!! These catchy sayings are frequently displayed outside on the gym walls. These phrases were engraved in our brain that triggered our obsession over well-toned and slim physique. With the advent of internet and social media, we gobble down at least minimum of 5 articles related to health and fitness every day. Fitness is the current buzzword. Whole lot of celebrities training routine & their diet chart are available across the web, and to attain their amazing physique we follow suit.
Common man can have a celebrity mindset, but they cant afford their lifestyle
Reality hits you hard when you try incorporating professional workout blueprint into your training routine. The professional's workout and diet pattern requires spending substantial amount of money and significant amount of time. The Herculean task requires more effort and time, and hence their workout style doesn't fit into the average man shoes. Prior to following the celebrities fitness approach, find some time to research over the celebrities' work-out duration and their diet process. Typically, their workouts last 1 hour or more and their dietician usually recommend splitting the eating pattern into 6-7 small meals a day. Moreover, it's not only hard work and perseverance that got them this physique, behind the curtain there lies a dark secret of fitness industry which we are completely oblivious such as medication and steroids and cosmetics. I wonder how this process which need to be followed throughout the day could suit the normal officegoers. Though you have pledged to start this hard process which need to be continued in the long run to accomplish the goals, it goes without sayings that at certain point of time, you were coerced to discontinue this process due to extended working hours or irregular lifestyle or you might have felt boredom doing the routine on daily basis. People in the 30s and above have family commitments. Being the responsible family man, neither do you have time to spare, nor you were able to hire dietician/personal trainer due to financial constraint.
The Ideal Body Myths
Does that mean one shouldn't follow the advice of the revered ones from the fitness industry? The answer is no. My thoughts are, as Van damme said "God gave me a great body and it's my duty to take care of my physical temple", it's our responsibility to keep our body healthy, but the fitness buzzword of wanting a muscular, lean body appears to be alienating people. People were born and blessed with different physical traits (round physique, slow metabolism, hard to lose fat and so forth). The paradox is that fitness/fashion industry considers a particular body type (well-built and lean for men, hour-glass figure for women) as the ideal body type and rest of the body types were considered unimportant. Hence, People with different sizes workout to achieve the ideal body labelled by the fashion community. Unfortunately, despite working out harder and many years of dedication, many fail to get the ideal body. Think practically, the fitness industry One-Size-fits-all program can't accommodate everyone. The truth of matter is that everyone is beautiful in their own way. Even if you work out harder but see little to no change in your body, it doesn't matter. What matters most while training is your improvement in stamina, endurance, and conditioning. The least important should be the dream, desired body. Constant workout over a period of time helps you to become healthy both inside and outside. Your family never look down on you because you are not lean or muscular or size zero. Rather, they are happy when you look healthy and don't fall sick often. Helping your wife by carrying grocery bags, being a super dad by playing with kids is what matters most to family. So, remember this, Workouts should be done just to improve your health and well-being. Seeking desired body should be placed at the bottom in the priority list. Ideal body is sort of window-dressing.
Why do we gradually lose motivation in training?
Little to no improvements in your body during the nascent training phase provokes you to quit the excercise. Isn't it jumping the gun? Fitness is not miracle pill that could work within a fortnight. It takes substantial amount of time to notice some changes in your health. Hence, for the longer period of time, your fitness routine should be followed. Training consistently for longer period of time requires motivation. Motivation is the vital element that drives a man to achieve great heights. Humans needs certain motivational theraphies to get the success they were hoping for. You kick-start your day, charging yourself by listening to motivational tracks, inspirational speech and other motivation therapies. Despite the motivation factor, the charge you acccrued starts to drain overtime. Did you ever realize the motivation factor which propeled you to achieve success during the initial phase of your training or career, failed to create an impact in the long run? Promotion, apparaisal, praise, losing weight, desired body and other things motivate us to advance further in our respective areas. These external rewards that motivates you are called as extrinsic motivation, which contributes only to short-term success. For long-term success, the best answer is intrinsic motivation. In the intrinsic motivation, person is motivated over an activity, not for external rewards, but because the action itself is enjoyable. In simpler terms, a person is motivated by the fun, challenge, or satisfaction of an activity, not by an outside outcome, pressure, or reward. Loving your training routine process with great zeal will enable you to stay motivated in the long run. Exercise may feel like a way to punish your body at times, but it should be never considered counterproductive - It's rather an activity filled with lots of fun and attractiveness.
Consistency beats Talent
In the next section, i have provided my workout pattern chart. Quite frankly, I could almost read your mind over my fitness advice. A slew of doubts arise in the reader's mind.- "Is this guy aware of fitness? Does he have the fitness competencies?" Without a doubt, I strongly concur with your thoughts over my limited fitness knowledge. To be honest, I am just an average Joe who doesn't have an ideal body and doesn't possess the skill set of fitness professionals. Morever, i am not fitness freak/enthusiast counting over the calorie intake. So, what is the main determinant that inspired me to write down this article? To begin with, I first started working out in my college gym. Though i had limited fitness competencies, I was consistent with my workout routine. Once I began to reap the benefits of excercise, I never looked back. Back in my 20s, I used to workout vigorously six days a week and train for one hour every day at gym. I got married in my late 20s, and soon i had lighbulb moment which pushed me to modify my training regime so that it didn't conflict with my professional and personal life. I had to commute 4-5 hours to and from work eachday, so I stopped visiting the gym as counter balance to spend quality time with my family. At home, I started anew with the little weights i had with me. I trained 3-4 days in a week and slashed the duration of workout to half-hour. I had been consistently doing it for almost 10 years at home - Trust me, I was able to maintain my physique in the same condition as it had been during my gym sessions. The best part over the years of working out is that i had little to no workout injuries - i didn't push my body to it limits rather i understood my body and established the threshold limit which served as deterrent against overtraining. When boredom hits you hard because of repeated exercise pattern, try incorporating new workouts into your exercise program My sole purpose to walkthrough over my workout journey is not to showcase my skills, rather its about how consistency could enable the average man with minimal skills to achieve good results overtime.
My workout routine
Stretch for 5 minutes to warm up your body.
Skipping/Jumping rope (3 sets, each set with duration of 3 mins and 1 min rest in between sets). When you are beginner, begin with 1 min of jump rope. Once you have gained endurance, increase the duration of skipping overtime. Please do consult the doctor before doing this, especially for those who have crossed 35 years of age. Skipping is one of the very few exercises which reduces heart resting period, resulting in more blood being pumped and flown throughout your body. Increased blood circulation improvishes your cardiovascular system. Our bone density declines as we age. Skipping reverses bone density loss. 10 mins of skipping is equivalent to 30 minutes of jogging (Time Saver). When boredom hits you hard because of repeated basic jump rope routine, try incorporating various jump rope skills into your workout - Double under, Criss Cross, One legged hop, Boxer's stance, Jogging and so forth. Trust me, once you have mastered the multiple jump rope skills, jump rope activity will be fun to do. There are likely chances of injury when done improperly. Trust me, when performed safely, they put less pressure on knees than running - Knee friendly exercise. As a matter of fact, it will strengthen your knees. Beauty Tips - If you keep skipping for a few months, your skin will eventually glow.
Since skipping is high-intensity work-out, it has to be performed every other day for muscle recovery.
Bodyweight exercise.
Pushups (Decline/Normal) - 3 set * 15 reps (1 minute rest in between sets).
Pullups - 3 set * Max rep (1 minute rest in between sets).
Karlakattai (or) Indian Clubs - do single set of 50 right hand & 50 left hand swing in one go with heavy Karlakattai. This traditional form of workout existed since ages. Ancient warriors improved their grip, shoulder strength through Karlakattai swinging. This exercise improves your shoulder posture and enhances mobility.
Russian twister - 3 sets * 15 reps. Do this for strong core and you will start to notice your love handles dissipates overtime.
Stretch for 5 minutes to cool down your body.
Go for a long walk (10-15 KM in one go) at least once in a month. Walking doesn't put strain on your knees however i consider it to be lazy man's workout for people below 50. People below 50 can still move their body 360 degrees, hence i request them to do include high intensity cardio and strength training workouts along with walking.
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