Body Transformation:
Body Transformation- Most popular term in the most general idea about fitness. Whether it is weight loss or muscle gain, it is important to distinguish what is it and what you need to know about it.
We have all glanced at the pop up images or videos on our social media through smartphones about the body transformations. Individuals there somehow managed to radically ‘’transform’’ who they are and how they look, and we feel inspired and motivated to do the same. Before and after images always show an impressive change, and most of them are. Problem is in those that are as well, but not as much as the first ones. We are talking about the kind of transformations that wither away after a month or two, some even not that long.
The fault that some changes bring in such procedures is that they are not sustainable, and thus, not optimal for the long run. If you think that is something that shouldn’t be addressed, then you are probably someone who is just a beginner in fitness, and needs good advice or two to set him or her on the good track.
Talking about long runs doesn’t necessarily mean that a person that has transformed himself was a runner. Long runs relate to the length of the activity that we are referring to. This is a really big and important factor in discerning how and where somebody ends up, and where somebody others don’t. Think of it this way. Crime versus regular work. Everyone is aware of what is a crime and is usually done to obtain the goods in the shortest time period possible. Regular work makes one learn and realize that his worth may grow as he grows and understands more and more of the work he is occupied with.
What to make of this?
You hopefully don’t think that fitness is a crime. Because it is not. You can’t do something overnight and expect anything. You can’t just restrain yourself for time and look at what works in fitness in the sense of the smallest period of time invested. What makes any physical endeavour like work is the fact that it takes time. And that time, spent in good health, reaps benefits and makes you prone to more sensible decisions over the greater periods of time.
Since you live, even though the worst and the best of times, it is logical to assume that the time you are spending on a variety of things should be accompanied by healthy decisions. That is why you take your time and devote it to health and wellbeing, instead of skipping any progressive overload mechanisms that are tried and tested even before the onset of barbells and modern fitness equipment.
Greek wrestling legend
If you are not keen on believing in everything you read or see, take a look at this. There was this wrestler from the Greek city of Croton, who was called Milo of Croton. His wrestling career was not short of fantastic. After all, winning the Olympics six times is not some trifling matter. The reason we are here is that it has been said that Milo carried a calf for his training until it (not the Milo) grew into an ox. This is the first instance where the records show that progressive overload is being used, in such a focused sense, and for training purposes. This was in 6th BCE, so long before instagram models got famous for insta value.
Point of this is that health, as a characteristic that we all have, takes time.
Being healthy and strong is something that we all want to be. Taking into account the supposed quickness in which it occurs, according to some people, is absolutely absurd. All walks of life and all living people benefit from being healthy, across all periods of life. Little sense can be found in being healthy and good looking for a photo shoot, in which the supposed transformation occurred. Health is more than a feeling or a period. It is something that should last for a long time. For our families, for our work, for everything else we decide to do. We owe it to ourselves to be healthy for as long as we can. Sickness and frailty are something we will all come to when we are really old. Until then, we can embrace being in good health for as long as we can.
Where to start with transformation?
Good place to start is to look at change as a habit that we all have or don’t have. That way, the motivation will be abundant, and we will have more out of training. Truth be told, if you just trained for 20 years, with any method you like, you would be in good shape and full of energy. That is what time is.
Good news for those without 20 years at disposal is that it doesn’t have to take that long. Some really sensible and quality steps can be taken until that time, and they are surprisingly easy to do.
Some of them are:
- Quality sleep
- Optimization of the training
- Proper nutrition
- Focused nutrition
- Understanding fitness
- Manage stress
- Reduce or add calories
Body Transformation
Let’s elaborate some of these. Quality sleep is pretty obvious one. If you are the type of person that thinks breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and you come home at 7 am from night out, you are doing it wrong. Sleeping at random times makes your biological clock confused, and as a result, you are not exactly sleeping normally for the next few days as well. That just creates enormous energy fluctuations, and makes you moody and unable to focus on a lot of things, let alone training.
Optimization of the training means that you need to know what kind of training you are doing, at least. If you are doing low intensity, for example, you can’t incorporate some of the principles you would if you were to train with high intensity. That is also the case in vice versa. Simply put, training programs are called that, or routines, because they, through given periods, make changes. You stick with one of them for a training cycle, and make changes in that particular area. Advanced athletes can focus on many things since they have mastered the basics and have plenty of time to go back to whatever they did before new things, and come back. Beginners don’t have this luxury. Being a beginner and doing many things would just make your training interesting to you, but you wouldn’t progress much.
Nutrition should be adapted to the type of resistance we have on the training cycles. Endurance athletes can’t eat like strength athletes, and vice versa. They can, but in the offseason.
Understanding fitness is about being clever about your health and realizing objectively what makes or breaks you. Common sense is what will get you the farthest in this race. Sometimes the program may say some heavy weight, and you can be really exhausted. You know you are not able to lift that, and you will most likely get an injury doing that. So you lower the weight and proceed to do what you can, instead of chasing a number. Having common sense also means that you shouldn’t do this all the time.
Stress is pretty obvious as well. Training is also a stressor, and such is a bad boss, a nagging girlfriend or boyfriend, toxic friends etc. When those keep piling up, your adrenal glands make cortisol, which is a fight or flight system we all have. Too much of it, and you are unnecessarily alert and unable to focus on anything; and all that while having anxiety, trouble sleeping, trouble focusing, and problems with digestion. Training under a lot of stress is also highly unproductive.
Calories are also a pretty straightforward issue when it comes to training. Piling up on the calories makes sense when you are a seasoned endurance athlete with a good metabolism or a strength athlete for that matter. Being a beginner who has normal weight distribution makes this process really miss the point. Only seriously malnourished trainees should do this. Another extreme is overweight people starving themselves in order to lose weight. This method doesn’t work because it is not sustainable through any sensible period of time. Your body uses the calories you consume, and not eating has serious mental as well as physical detriments to your body and your mind.