Philosophy For General Fitness

• Establish a great understanding of posture and movement competence.  You must be able to move properly, with good alignment before considering other fitness qualities.
• Basic, general strength is the single most important fitness quality one should acquire.  Strength is the productive application of force. Lifting a child, standing up from a seat, or pushing a car out of a ditch are examples of strength displacement.  Strength is developed from lifting heavy weights.
• Simply ‘eat less’ today.  Caloric restriction  is the foundation to leanness.  Having an ideal body composition is the best thing you can do to eliminate and reduce the disease and aging process.
• High heart rate, high intensity interval training will drain your reserves, more than they will establish them.  Programs like P90X, CrossFit, and popular boot camps have some value in proper dosages. Not 1 aging athlete, or older trainee every said, ‘I wish I would have participated more frequently in CrossFit and heavy Powerlifting when I was younger.’
• Dedicate 1 hour per day, 5 days per week for scheduled walking.  Walking is the most underrated form of physical activity.
• Don’t confuse exercise with activity.  Exercise is the planned training and execution of specific exercises to establish fitness.  Activity is the pursuit of sport, or an active lifestyle that depends on fitness.  A great way to establish fitness is through training.  However, never let exercise, or the pursuit of fitness interfere with activity.  Develop meaning by pursuing activities that bring value to your life such as golf, skiing, sailing, cycling, hiking, climbing, fishing, etc.
• Master movement basics.  Keep exercise simple.

Acquiring general fitness for healthy adult populations can be summed up in this hierarchy:

general-pyramid

Are You An Aging Athlete?

• Do you participate in the Ironman?  Do you play in a men’s hockey league?  These  examples represent two extremes on a continuum of possible training situations to prepare for these events.  A marathon runner’s lifting needs to be as extreme as a weightlifter’s running program.  Set clear expectations and attainable goals for your sport and train accordingly.
• Never compromise joint positions and mechanics (exercise form) in pursuit of increased capacity.  The system will break sooner or later.
• Acquire general fitness competency in strength, work capacity, and power.
• The greatest fitness quality to obtain for most sports is power-the ability to perform work quickly.  Develop this ability.
• The second greatest fitness quality needed for aging athletes  is work capacity-the ability to maintain posture and skill execution in the midst of muscular, and mental duress.
• After general preparation, develop specific fitness needs based on your sport.  If you’re a swimmer, you must be getting in the pool for the vast majority of the training time allocated.  A gymnast gains nothing, and loses everything by jogging several miles per week.
• Recovery practices such as diet, sleep, rehab, and massage therapy are absolutely critical for the aging athlete.

A simple hierarchy here:

specific-pyramid