There is a crucial distinction between exercising and training. It can mean the difference between you the acheiver and the non-achievers in health and fitness.
It can mean the difference between frustration and elation with your results.
In Chinese philosophy life exists in balance with a ‘yin’ and the ‘yang’. The Chinese apply various characteristics to
Yang including Fire, Sun, Male, Excess Active, Energy and Function. In contrast Yin includes the characteristics of Water Moon, Female, Deficient, Inactive, Matter and Form.
What’s interesting is we can apply this time honoured philiosphy to human movement.
Yang being our more intense forms of exercise such as weight training, sprinting, interval training and aggressive team sports.
In contrast yin would include more balanced forms of exercise such as yoga, stretching, walking, swimming, deep breathing, massage.
We all need balance. Most of us in all honesty leave pretty ‘yang’ or ‘fire’ lives. Our stress buttons are constantly ‘on’ and then participating in some intense form of conditioning may not be the best way to start a healthy lifestyle or a fat loss programme.
Don’t get me wrong, training with intensity is the best method to get the best results. When you train with focus and purpose and push your limits instead of sitting within them all the time you inevitably adapt and grow stronger.
In physical terms we change our body shape by becoming more toned and frm with a drop in body fat.
To begin with if you wish to ‘train’ you need to be able to handle the stress of it.
The foundation for you train must be in place. How good is your nutrition? Will it support it or hinder it? Will it give you the energy for you to make progress or will it throw a spanner in the works?
How about your sleep patterns? Are you getting enough sleep to actually recover from training?
What about your hydration levels? Are you drinking enough water?
How about your stress levels for the day? Can they handle even more stress that you will be putting onto it?
Training is intense, uncomfortable at times and a stressor to the body. You need to make sure your fiundations are in place before you push the throttle down.
Before you think about posting your backside to the couch to avoid ‘training’ up steps exercise to the plate and this requires minimal effort.
To begin with any helath programme from cancer patients to eleite level athletes will include some form of exercise.
Why? Because it creates balance.If you are training all the time then exercise comes as a balancer. If your foundations can not tolerate training due to yoru current nutritional habits, stress levels or other concerns then exercise is prescribed.
It is not uncommon for athletes to have an easy day of a light jog and some stretching. Some might exercise by hitting the sauna or a yoga class. Some might go for a walk or add in a cat-nap.
I prescribe exercise to all those beginning a health programme if I know (through testing) that they can’t tolerate an intense training schedule. This transition to a healthier state, which normally involves an increase in energy levels required via cleaning up of their diet, lasts 3-4 weeks – not long!
I recently trained a divorcee and as you can imagine he was keen to get in shape. He lost 14lbs of fat and gained 8 lbs of muscle in 8 weeks of which only 4 of that was spent ‘training’ (his photo is up on the site)
The rest of it was spent in the kitchen preparing and nourishing the body and hitting the gym, park and sauna/pool for ‘yin’ activities.
There is a place for both. Exercise for too long and not push the body and little will change. Yet the same is for training too. A good coach will know based on results and experience how far to push you and how to plan your training for optimal results. My 5 week yourhealtcamp.com in May is an excellent start to knowing the difference.
Find the balance between yang and yin and your body will reward you with health and vitality.
