If you’re a boot camp regular, you can skip this first paragraph and get into the “meat” of this blog post. If you’re new to AlaskaFit, welcome! I’m Chris. I’m a personal trainer, certified by the National Association of Sports Medicine (NASM).
Ginny asked me to help her out and start blogging, so here I am. I’ll cover all kinds of topics, including workout advice and tips and tricks from our boot camps, along with success stories and other fun stuff from Boot Camp. You’ll have to check back each week to see what I’m up to.
There are as many different types and styles of exercise as there are minutes in the day. Not only that, there’s often more than one name for each type of exercise! Trends come and go in the exercise community (remember Tae Bo and the ThighMaster?) and create new buzzwords to go with them. But the good news is whether you are talking about weight lifting, isometrics, Crossfit, or high intensity interval training there are a few basic principles that cover all exercise. Today we begin at the beginning and discuss the most basic principle.
The S.A.I.D. Principle: Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand. Everything about exercise is based on these 4 letters. In non-trainer-speak, it means that your body adapts to what you’re doing. So, if you want to be a better sprinter, leg presses may give you strength in your legs and that COULD make you faster. But if you want to sprint better, practice sprinting. If you want to be a better tennis player, play more tennis.
I know what you’re thinking…Chris, I practice boot camp. Do I want to be a better boot camper? Well, yes. But that’s not why you come to boot camp. At boot camp, we train your body to move better, balance, engage your core and overall we teach the pieces (arms, legs, core) to work together better. What does this get you? It gets you a better life. When your body works and feels good, everything in your life is better…right?
So my campers and loyal readers, the question for you is, what do you want to be able to do well? This can actually more important than weight-loss or fitness results, because if you’re training only to lose weight or keep your doctor happy you run the risk of burning out. Or worse, reaching your weight-loss goal and then reverting to what you did before you lost the weight. Think long-term. The people I have seen succeed at losing weight and keeping it off had very specific, personal goals they wanted to achieve. The weight loss was a great side effect, but their goals went deeper than that. Many of them simply wanted to be an example to their kids or to keep up with their grandkids.
Did you see April’s video? She won Your Best Body Spring Challenge. She lost more weight than anyone else, but that wasn’t her goal. Her goal was to change her life so she could not be put on Diabetes meds. She’s still losing weight, improving her muscle mass and staying away from Diabetes (and she’s setting the example for her 6-year old daughter). Think she’ll stay on track? I know she will.
So, What’s your goal? What do you want to do? Figure it out and then call us here at AlaskaFit. We can help you do anything.
P.S. Did you know we offer a free consultation? Just click here and tell us a little bit about what your goals are and we’ll tell you how you can reach them.
