Hello, everyone! A while ago I wrote a pretty long treatise
on my entire training philosophy. You can read it here if you like: http://mitchrothbardtfitness.com/Philosophy/
In a nutshell the main point I tried to get across was that
I feel that many, if not most, people are working on the wrong things when it
comes to their fitness, specifically too much cardio and flexibility, and not
enough mobility and strength. I don’t want to go into all the reasons why right
here (you can read the original article for that) but I made the statement that
whatever your goals are (and yes that absolutely includes losing weight) if
getting stronger is not part of your program you will most likely fail in the
long run.
I don’t think that’s an exaggeration at all and I have lots
of clients and many years of experience that have informed that opinion. What I
want to talk about today is why I think it’s so important.
1. Mental strength.
Many times I see people that have, quite honestly, have had a history of
failure when it comes to their goals. Many have tried to lose weight for years
with little or no success. Many have started and stopped exercising countless
times with nothing to show for the effort. When this happens there is certainly
a toll that is taken on the body but it’s nothing like the toll that is taken
on the mind.
They feel they can’t do it. Exercise doesn’t work. Diet
doesn’t work. They’ve failed and they walk around with that failure all day,
every day. I won’t go into the legitimate reasons why they might have failed (thanks
Planet Fitness) but they see others getting results and that leads them to feel
that it’s not within their power to get the results they want.
When you see someone who is coming from that type of
background and watch as they start doing things they never thought they could
do, you see a change occur. I can’t tell you how many times a client has seen
the word “Squat” on their workout sheet and told me, “I can’t do that.” I just
tell them, “Sure you can,” and show them how to do the version they can do. You
see, over time a squat to a high box becomes a squat to a lower box and that
becomes a squat without a box, etc. What happened there? They got stronger and
they realized they can now easily do something they thought they could NEVER
do. Now what happens? As this realization hits their mind they start thinking
that, “ Maybe I CAN do this”. Let me tell you this. Once the mind starts
believing that you can do something, the world opens. You’ve gotten stronger.
I had a client doing deadlifts one day. When she first started
a few months prior she was doing a 15 lb. kettlebell. Over time she started
doing heavier and heavier weights and soon graduated to the 45 lb. bar. The
weight continued to get heavier and one day after her last set she asked me how
much was on the bar. (She never wanted to know before her set.) When I told her
it was 100 lbs. she nearly cried in shock. She came to me because she wanted to
lose some weight and feel better. If I told her that within a few months she’d
be lifting 100 pounds or more on a regular basis she would never have believed
she could. Is there a price you can put on this?
2. Physical strength.
Quite simply, do you want to be able to function in life? Do you want to be
able to carry the clothesbasket up the stairs? Do you want to be able to play
with your grandkids? I don’t care if you can touch your toes easily, that won’t
help you carry the groceries in from the car.
You might respond by saying that strength won’t help you if
you’re a runner. Well, you’re wrong about that. When your foot hits the ground
you produce force, which allows you to push off and stride forward. What
happens when you get stronger? You produce more force, which allows you to
cover more distance and RUN FASTER!
What else happens? The stronger you are the more resistant
you are to injury and if you know runners like I do, that is a huge issue.
3. Improved movement.
Life is really all about movement and strength can help you move better. How
many times do you hear about someone who puts out their back picking up a
pencil? Well, it wasn’t that pencil that threw their back out. It was a lot of
bad movement that put constant strain on the back and the pencil was just the
last straw, so to speak.
What proper strength training does is take a basic movement
pattern and load it. Let’s take the example of picking a bag of groceries up
from the floor. This movement pattern is known as a hip dominant pattern. This
means that the hips and the muscles surrounding them drive the movement. Well
to put it nicely, many people have pretty poor hip movement. What that means is
that each time they pick something up they are putting unnecessary strain on
certain muscles. Their back in this case. What we do is teach someone the most
basic hip dominant movement. Once they can perform this movement well we make
it a little harder, whether by changing the exercise or by adding weight to the
movement. The reasons for this are many, but in this case it teaches someone to
perform the movement well in adverse circumstances, which will translate to
that person performing the movement extremely well in everyday circumstances.
Guess what that means when it comes to picking up that pencil or your grandson:
No injury!
4. Improved
conditioning. I’m going to be as plain about this as I can be.
If you do a working set of squats during your workout (by a
working set, I mean one that’s not a warm-up) and you’re not breathing heavily
afterwards YOU ARE NOT WORKING VERY HARD.
I don’t mean to burst your bubble but that’s the truth. Strength
training with intensity is in many ways the best conditioning you can do.
People ask me about cardio all the time. What I like to tell
them is that just because you’re not walking on a treadmill doesn’t mean you’re
not exercising your heart! Obviously that’s important. The heart is the second most important muscle in
the body! (After a set of HUUUUUUGE biceps). As I said before, if you’re
lifting weights and not breathing heavy in the slightest after each set, YOU
ARE NOT WORKING VERY HARD! In other words, strength training done correctly is
ABSOLUTELY exercising your heart. As a bonus you also get stronger, move better
and get more confidence from it as well. You can’t say that about 30 minutes on
the treadmill.
5. Better appearance.
OK. I can talk all I want about
better function and strength, etc. but in the end the thing that most of us
want from exercise is to look better. Well, strength can help with that, too.
As we build strength, what else do we build? Muscle. Did you know that muscle
weighs more than fat? What does that mean? Well, it means that if you gain 5
pounds of muscle and lose 5 pounds of fat, you will get smaller and leaner and
look better!
Also, since muscle is more metabolically active your
metabolism will go up making it easier and easier for you to continue to lose
fat if you choose to do so. Again, all the cardio classes in the world will not
help you do this.
What about the thing many women are concerned with: getting
too big. Well, the primary hormone that aids in muscle growth is testosterone
and women have, on average, less than 10% of the testosterone that men have so
in reality it’s just not all that feasible that you are going to get too big. If you feel that you are, I’d say that the
vast majority of the time it’s your diet that is going to be the culprit here,
NOT the strength training.
So let’s see. Strength training will improve your mental
strength, your physical strength, your movement, your conditioning and your
appearance. That’s a pretty convincing
argument to me. I’ve said this before, but my clients that have embraced this
philosophy have ALWAYS gotten better results than those that haven’t. It’s that
simple.
Let me know what you think and have a great day!
Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach, FMS
2861 Grove Way in Castro Valley
510-754-7113
I Help People Discover Their Strength!
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