Fitness Confusions
There are so many contradictions and
confusions in the world of fitness training, don't you agree? All the so called exercise
and nutrition experts can't seem to agree with one another on the most ideal way to
train and eat.
Training
Some exercise physiologists say 'Volume
Training' is superior for muscle building, others claim 'one set to failure' is the best.
Then there are even groups who think that 'Volume Training to Failure' is the ultimate
system. Repetition cadence is also compared, super slow lifting experts insist that their
method gives the fastest results but the proponents of the explosive lifting method
strongly suggest otherwise. For fat-burning, some experts say that low-intensity for long
duration is the most efficient while the others argue that high intensity for short
duration burns the most. Some say periodization works best, others say it is time wasting.
Pilates, Yoga and TaiChi followers say that all other exercise methods suck, that theirs
were god-send perfect systems, yet others condemn them. Belt or no belt, cardio or no
cardio, stretching or no stretching are some other examples of incongruity in exercise
training.
Nutrition
Recently, there is a contradiction about the
recommendation on the amount of water to be consumed during intense activity. Aren't we
all taught previously to drink as much water as possible? But according to the latest
research, doing that might kill us, as would be the case also through dehydration if we
don't consume enough water. Is the widely promoted, governments endorsed, pyramid way of
eating (with emphasis on more carbohydrates and little protein) or the highly
controversial Atkin's diet (with emphasis on more protein and little carbohydrates) better
for weight loss? Is vegetarian diet or lacto-vegetarian better for overall health. Is
organic food superior? Is supplements necessary? Low calorie or Low Fat? On and on...
Does anyone know the ultimate answer? I can
safely say 'NO". If there was a definite answer to the world of fitness training,
there is no real need to conduct any more research.
Recommendations
There are merits and risks to all the exercise
and nutrition recommendations, in varying degrees. Some are developed to cater to certain
group of people (e.g. the sports people, elderly) but are widely promoted to suit the
general public, which can be disastrous. There are many factors to be considered here,
including: lifestyle, tolerance level, goals, ethic, age, gender, background, religion,
experience, fitness/health level, availability of equipment/certain foods etc. These
should be pitted against the recommendations. Don't be naive and easily be bought in by
magazines, newspapers, book, sales people or even friends that claim that certain method
is the best and works for everyone - nothing is. There is no cure-all pill or
one-size-fits-all training, probably never will. You and only you can determine what works
for you. Wise up!
The secret here is to discover your own ideal
method by yourself. Read as much as possible about the approach that attracts you most,
scrutinize it and determine if it might be suitable for you.
For example, if you have limited time to train
and have good tolerance level you can choose the 1 set to failure training method. If you
limited success with the high carbohydrate diet, you can experiment with a lower carbs
version and increase the protein a little. In any case, stick with it for at least 3
months to evaluate its effectiveness. Along the way, if you discovered something is amiss
or you felt uncomfortable in someway, be it your health or lifestyle, see if you could
modify it in some way to suit you better. Give yourself ample time and keep an open mind
about it. Don't knock it until you seriously tried it. If that doesn't give you the result
you were seeking for or doesn't suit you, move on and try something else. If you want to
be just moderately fit and healthy, stay the middle path by following the general
recommendations, you shouldn't go wrong. Moderation should be the motto here. If you are
after more specific goals, you have to be careful about the selection of path.
Here at Fitness Tutor, we are 100% objective
and always stay abreast by keeping ourselves up-to-date. All that were discussed earlier
are still subject to argument so nothing is concrete. There are old recommendations that
are no longer useful or dangerous in practice, hence discarded by us. We don't claim we
know everything but we always do our homework by reading up on the latest researches and
put some of it to tests. In fact, we have used some of the methods long before any of the
researches were even conducted. And we do know that some methods work better than the
others. We will only recommend those that are effective, safe and unbiased. "Knowing
when and where to use what/which and how to use it for who" is our advantage. By
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