Exercise

Well I'm going to get the ball rolling! There is always some form of exercise one can do regardless of most physical walls. First things first, what are your goals? Fat loss? Strength? Hypertrophy? They all come down to four simple things: resistance training, conditioning, mobility and nutrition.

I'm not going to promote any one system or bash any other. Exercise, working out, training, whatever you want to call it will always come down to preference. But one thing I do dislike to see is exercise that is built purely around cardio, whether it be walking, jogging, gym classes, etc. Aerobic and anaerobic cardio is great to do to develop overall health, but it's not going to help you build overall muscle development and health that can greatly improve fat loss and the physical demands of life; such as the simple joy of picking up your child.

I constantly hear "something is better than nothing" when it comes to just doing cardio, and yes it's great that people aren't living a sedentary lifestyle, but to me it's an excuse to not do resistance training. Our bodies were built to lift things, develop muscle and be strong. This doesn't mean that you're going to end up looking like a bodybuilder either, that takes years of specific training, nutrition and dedication.

Resistance training comes in many forms: barbells, dumbbells, bodyweight, resistance bands, machines, sand bags, kettlebells, etc! I encourage you to play around with the different tools and find something you like or even a mixture.

They can be performed in many ways: circuits, sets, super-sets, drop-sets, many of the Crossfit methods such as 'on the minute' are good to use as well.

You can progress on an exercise in many ways: increasing the reps, sets, weight, time under tension, decreasing the rest. Depending on your goals certain methods will be better than others, but we'll cover those in a later blog post.

A lot of people also talk about not having time; it's recommended that one should spend about an hour exercising, in my opinion, if you only have 10 minutes a day, use it. Grab something heavy and perform a circuit for 10 minutes, that way you're using resistance and developing your cardiovascular system. If you can make more time to exercise then do it, try and get into a routine, set days and times if you can.

So remember to find that balance between cardio and resistance training, come out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself.

- Adam