It should come as no surprise that we need a functioning body to maintain our mobility and independence. I haven’t yet found the first person who doesn’t want to be mobile and independent. But many of us seem to go on autopilot when it comes to nutrition and fitness. I certainly did in my late 30s and 40s.
We come home after work, fix a drink, and collapse on the couch. We know we should go for that planned run. And then we rationalize that missing today won’t matter overall. And it won’t – if we don’t let one daily miss turn into two days, and then a week. Then suddenly we can’t remember the last time we exercised.
Or meet the work crew at the local pub for a beer after work. We ordered some fries and other pub food. And that’s okay. But again, if we suddenly realize we’re eating and drinking pub food and beer four or five or more days a week. Then we start to gain unhealthy weight, our blood sugar goes nuts, and our cholesterol increases to unhealthy levels.
When we’re in our 20s and early 30s, we may not notice the impact poor nutrition and low fitness have on our bodies. But it’s there. And it catches up to us in our 40s and beyond. That’s exactly what happened to me.
My Experiment with Poor Nutrition and Fitness
The word “experiment” is not exact. It’s more like making a series of poor choices. I explained on the Starting a Healthy Balanced Life page that during my 40s I didn’t take care of my body. I didn’t care what I ate, and my “exercise” amounted to hoisting a beer. Not a great way to nourish my body and build fitness.
The result of those poor nutrition and fitness choices over a 15-year period was that I ballooned to 285 pounds. And a person who is 6-foot 1 inch tall and weighs 285 pounds is not at a healthy weight. During an annual physical, my long-time doctor pointed out that I had been gaining weight for the last 15 years. I had high blood pressure, and my cholesterol was crazy high.
My (ignorant) response? I don’t care, you’ll keep me alive with pills for high blood pressure, cholesterol, and whatever else I need.
His next response brought me back to my senses. He explained that there is a difference between staying alive and living. He continued to explain that my trajectory would have me using a walker by the time I was sixty. I would start to lose my mobility. And all those drugs have undesirable side effects. I may be alive, but I wouldn’t be living a fulfilling life. He suggested I may want to rethink my strategy.
Adding Nutrition and Fitness to My Life
My doctor scared me enough that I told my life partner. She immediately jumped on the nutrition and fitness bandwagon by first signing us up for a gym. And then she cleaned up our nutrition by throwing away the bags of chips and cookies, sugar and salt-filled processed casseroles, and sugary drinks. That was when my life changed for the better.
It wasn’t difficult to make this change – it just took a little discipline. We spent no more than an hour at the gym 5 days a week. And I didn’t work out like a madman – I simply walked briskly on a treadmill for 45 minutes at as high an elevation as I could.
Replacing low-nutrition-value foods with fruit and vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains wasn’t a big reach. The most difficult part was skipping the cracker, chips, and cookie aisles at the grocery store.
Reaching a weight of 185 pounds over the next three years was the big payoff. I was able to move around without aches and pains. But there were other, unexpected benefits.
Even More Benefits than Beyond Losing Weight
Other than being able to move around without aches and pains, I enjoyed other benefits of reaching a healthy weight. My blood pressure decreased to the normal range, as did my cholesterol levels. I had more energy and wasn’t tired all the time. My blood sugar levels returned to the normal range.
But one of the best benefits was that the chronic aches and pains went away. I got into and out of the car without groaning, I got up off the couch without straining, and, after the initial soreness from the added exercise, I wasn’t sore anymore. For the first time, I could easily walk up to our seats in the football stadium. And that was a huge win for me.
So, how do we start taking care of our bodies?
Prioritize Nutrition and Fitness – And Don’t Forget Preventive Healthcare
We need to nurture our bodies to keep them healthy, and it doesn’t happen automatically. From personal experience, I (strongly) suggest focusing on:
- Nutrition,
- Fitness, and
- Preventive healthcare
Proper nutrition and fitness are essential for maintaining a healthy body. Nutrition fuels our bodies, fitness activities keep our muscles, bones, and immune system healthy, and preventive healthcare keeps us healthy or identifies a problem in the early stages when the treatment is easy.
A healthy body enables us to perform our daily activities without any aid or support. In addition, preventive healthcare is crucial in preventing chronic diseases. Losing mobility or independence due to a low or non-functioning body can be frustrating and can hinder us from enjoying our lives to the fullest. Although our brain may be healthy and sharp, it is held back by a body that cannot support it. Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic point out that it is not a pleasant sight when we are unable to go for a walk with our kids because our legs can’t support our bodies anymore.
The bottom line is that we need proper nutrition and fitness to support our bodies. And then we need preventive healthcare to keep our bodies healthy.
If You Aren’t Yet Convinced to Take Care of Your Body…
Even though I lost all that weight and lived a healthy lifestyle, the damage was done. I was 50 when my doctor got my attention. Nothing bad happened immediately, but there were ticking time bombs inside my body.
At 59 I was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. A normal cell mutated at some point into a lymphoma cell. And that happened sometime in my mid-50s. And my low-value nutrition and non-fitness plan of my 40s set the stage for that mutation.
Fortunately, the version I had was treatable with chemo. But chemo takes a toll on the body – it not only kills the cancer cells, but it also kills healthy cells in our bodies. Over the 7-month treatment plan (which was successful), my muscle structure slowly degraded, my red blood count was so low that I needed a blood transfusion, and I was winded walking up a flight of stairs.
Because my fitness level was high when I started treatment, they were able to hit me with a stronger chemo dose. And that stronger dose increased my odds of beating it. So, I’m very thankful I started to focus on fitness a few years earlier.
The day finally came when I left the hospital and could focus on recovery. I used the app C25K (couch to 5 k) to build up my endurance. We focused on meals that followed the seven nutritional guidelines. Within 6 months I was running a 5k, and a year later I competed at the Taekwondo Nationals, winning gold and silver. I was a cancer survivor.
Cancer Wasn’t the Only Ticking Timebomb
No one is sure what really caused me to experience cancer. But the heart attack at 64 was, odds on, caused by my 40s lifestyle. I had just finished a Taekwondo sparring camp and had walked my daughter down the aisle at her wedding. Four days later, on August 18, boom – my chest felt like electrical shocks were destroying my heart.
My life partner rushed me to the emergency room (our hospital was, fortunately, only a couple blocks away). Within 20 minutes, they were putting 3 stents in the arteries that fed blood to my heart. Then I was in ICU for a few days.
The heart attack was considered a “widow maker” heart attack. But getting to the hospital quickly saved my life. That and, according to the surgeons, cardiologists, and my own doctor, my high fitness level helped me survive the event.
I completed the cardiac rehab sessions by the end of December. I wasn’t ready to run a 5k (yet), but I was working towards it. And then my cardiologists told me my martial arts sparring sessions were over.
That took the wind out of my sails. I fully planned to return to the Nationals and win two gold medals. I couldn’t argue – I had a life partner, two daughters, and two sons-in-law that wanted me to stick around a little longer. Getting my head around losing something I loved took mental effort – a lot of mental effort.
Why Waste Time on Nutrition and Fitness? It Didn’t Prevent Two Serious Diseases
A colleague asked me if I was disappointed that I spend all that time exercising and eating properly instead of enjoying nice steak or burger daily because it certainly didn’t keep me healthy. I looked him in the eye and explained that proper nutrition and fitness increased my odds of surviving both those events. And in fact, poor nutrition and fitness is what caused at least the heart attack. Possibly cancer, too.
While I was in the ICU recovering from the heart attack, I lost track of the number of times nurses and doctors stated that I wasn’t the typical ICU patient they were used to. I could take care of myself and, as during chemo, started walking the halls, with the approval of my medical team, of course.
My doctor, seeing me after the heart attack, checked me over. My wife was in the room. After listening to my heart and checking me out, he sat back in his chair. He looked at both of us. I didn’t know what was coming. He finally said, “I’ve never, in my lengthy career, seen anyone bounce back as quickly as you do from these life-threatening events.”
He attributes that bounce-back to my level of fitness. So, I’m focused on fitness and nutrition, taking care of my body, every day.
Bottom Line: Take Care of Your Body
I’ve stepped up my nutrition and fitness game. I’m dedicated to the seven nutrition guidelines summarized below. And, of course, if you are having serious issues with your nutrition, talk to a registered dietician.
From a fitness perspective, I’m back to an elevated level of fitness. And I focus on all seven aspects of fitness. But you don’t have to – that’s just my goal, leftover from when I was allowed to spar. If you’re just after healthy fitness, then you don’t need to be a gym fanatic. You just need functional fitness.
What is functional fitness? According to the Mayo Clinic, functional fitness means your muscles work together to complete daily activities safely and efficiently. These daily activities are walking the dog, playing with the kids, getting in and out of the car, carrying the groceries into the house, or adding that 40-pound bag of salt to the water softener. Or moving sideways into a row of theater seats to get to your seats in the middle. Another example is walking up (or down) a flight of stairs. I have a few friends who struggle with more than one of those.
You achieve functional fitness by focusing on the first 5 fitness aspects I explain below.
And of course, I don’t miss an annual physical.
The good news: If you focus on a lifestyle that includes proper nutrition and fitness, then you are well on your way to a healthier body. The only other thing you must do is address preventive health care. The following sections explain what you need to do for each key item: preventive healthcare, nutrition, and fitness.
Preventive Health Care
Somehow, the COVID pandemic polarized us on health care. But if you want to stay healthy, science points to getting the vaccines you need and to having an annual physical. Your doctor will listen to your heart and measure your blood pressure, record your weight, and listen to your lungs as you breathe.
Vaccines
Annually, I get one for the flu and now, COVID. When I turned 60, I got the Shingrix vaccine to prevent shingles (that sounds like an awful disease), and I got the pneumococcal vaccine at 65 to help prevent lung infections that lead to pneumonia.
Vaccines are safe. I’ve heard people saying they are not getting the COVID vaccine because they don’t believe in it. I’m not clear on what those persons don’t believe in, but it’s clear the COVID vaccine has saves countless lives.
Colonoscopy
If you’ve had a colonoscopy, you know that the preparation isn’t a lot of fun. But I’ve had two doctors tell me that if everyone had a colonoscopy when they were supposed to, then colon cancer would be a thing of the past.
So, I had one when I was 50 and 60, and I’m planning to have one when I’m 70. The American Cancer Society recently lowered the first screening age from 50 to 45. Or sooner if you have certain risk factors.
Blood Work
Checking your blood is like checking the oil in your car for contaminants. Blood carries a ton of markers that tell health care professionals what is happening inside our bodies. Markers like glucose, cholesterol, and liver functions, to name a few.
I have a blood draw at least once a year, and since I turned 50 and started down a healthier path, I’ve used the blood work results to change my behavior as needed. Is my cholesterol high? Cut down a bit more on saturated fats to lower my bad (LDL) cholesterol or increase my physical activity to increase my good cholesterol (HDL).
Bottom Line
Develop a working relationship with your health care provider. At some point, if you live long enough, you will have a health event (think heart attack, cancer, or diabetes). It’s beneficial to have history with a health care provider who knows you.
Does this prevent you from having a serious disease? Unfortunately, there aren’t any guarantees when it comes to our health. But there are risk factors, and undergoing preventive health care is one thing that can significantly lower your risk of getting a serious disease. Proper nutrition and fitness also lower your risk factors, and who wouldn’t want that?
So, what are these 7 nutrition guidelines?
Nutrition Guidelines – What Should I Eat?
The following guideline summary will start you on the proper nutritional path. I’m oftentimes asked the question, “Where did you come up with these guidelines?”
They are compiled from research data from the following sites:
- National Institutes of Health and their National Library of Medicine (and the place I find a lot of accurate information)
- Food and Drug Administration (or FDA)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (or simply CDC)
- Cleveland Clinic
- Mayo Clinic
- American Heart Association
Why these places? Because they satisfy my criteria for reliable and reputable information sources (if you haven’t read that short post, you may want to do that next).
There are seven guidelines. The first three are what you should eat each day for a nutritious diet. The last four are food items you should limit (in the case of sodium) or avoid altogether (added sugar, saturated fats, highly processed foods).
If you follow these seven guidelines, you’re well on your way to a healthy body!
Guideline 1: Eat 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables daily
These are complex carbohydrates that will satisfy your daily fiber requirement and supply most of your daily vitamins and minerals. Include different colors because they have different nutrients.
Example fruit and vegetables to work into your diet are:
- Apples and Oranges
- Bananas
- Colorful bell peppers
- Asparagus and Broccoli
- Mushrooms
- Beans (of all kinds) and Peas
- Tomatoes
- Spinach
- Frozen or fresh berries of all kinds (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries)
- Carrots and Onions
Guideline 2: Consume 25 g or more of fiber daily
Fiber comes from those 5-7 servings of fruit and vegetables. But it also comes from whole grains, like brown rice and whole wheat. Fiber helps remove bad cholesterol from our bodies.
Here’s one way to consume 25 g of fiber:
- Apple: 5 g
- Black beans (half a cup): 5 g
- Chickpeas (half a cup): 5 g
- Chopped Broccoli (1 cup): 2.5 g
- Half an avocado: 7 g
We eat chickpeas in the form of hummus. The black beans are part of a pot of soup we always have ready for lunch. The apple is a mid-day snack, and broccoli and avocado make up the basis of a dinner salad.
Including this list highlights the importance of eating those 5-7 servings of fruit and vegetables daily. If you do that, you’ll satisfy your fiber requirement as well as other nutrient requirements.
Guideline 3: Consume 25 mg of lean protein four times daily
Our bodies can process about 25 mg at a time, and most of us need between 60 and 100 mg per day to support our bodies. Proteins are the building blocks of our bodies. If something needs repaired or increased in size (muscles), it takes protein to do it.
How do you consume that amount? Remember that pot of bean soup we ate for lunch? That also contains shredded chicken – and that coupled with the beans gives us 25 g of protein for lunch. Add some salmon or chicken to the dinner salad and you have another 25 g.
Protein is one area where we use a supplement in the form of whey protein powder. Add it to oatmeal for breakfast and to Greek yogurt for dessert – each adds another 25 g of protein.
Guideline 4: Minimize saturated fats
Saturated fats, commonly found in animal sources, lead to heart disease. The American Heart Association recommends limiting saturated fats to no more than about 13 g a day. And that’s only about a tablespoon a day. It’s not very much. Any fat that is solid at room temperature is likely a saturated fat.
Guideline 5: Minimize or eliminate added sugars
Added sugars are in a lot of foods. If I pick up an item at the grocery store and the label shows it contains added sugar, I put it back. The AHA points out that American adults consume 17 teaspoons of added sugar every day, more than 2-3 times the recommended amount for men and women, respectively. A 12 oz can of soda contains 8 g of added sugar, which is the recommended maximum.
And to clear up a potential sticking point, sugar contained naturally in whole fruits is okay.
Guideline 6: Avoid highly processed foods
Highly or ultra-processed foods come in the form of chips, cookies, candy, donuts, and pre-packaged foods in the freezer aisle. That list isn’t exhaustive. There are many more opportunities to consume ultra-processed food items, like fast food.
The problem is they typically contain more sugar, salt, and saturated fats than we should consume in a day.
Guideline 7: Limit sodium consumption to between 1,500 and 2,300 mg per day
Our bodies need about 1,500 mg of sodium a day to function. But sodium is a classic example of how easy it is to get too much of a good thing. A teaspoon of salt has about 2,300 mg of sodium –more than we need and the upper end of the daily limit.
The AHA states that Americans eat more than 3,400 milligrams of sodium each day — much more than the American Heart Association and other health organizations recommend.
Why are we concerned about sodium? Too much, and certainly more than 2,300 mg a day, leads to high blood pressure. And high blood pressure leads to strokes and other internal organ issues. And it’s added to most every food item that isn’t considered a whole food. It’s added to highly processed and canned foods. Look at the food label on a can of beans – you’ll find that one serving might contain as much sodium as you should consume in a day – and that’s only one meal.
Fitness Guidelines – What Should I Do?
The fitness portion of the “nutrition and fitness” powerhouse duo plays a large, and some may argue larger, role in staying healthy. And fitness certainly helps us maintain our mobility and independence as we age.
We achieve fitness by doing physical activity or exercises that trigger positive adaptations in our bodies (improved cardiovascular system, stronger muscles, lower fat in our bodies, improved balance, speed, agility, to name a few). The most common question I hear is, “How much time do I need to spend exercising?”
The good news is that the time isn’t as much as you might think. The CDC recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity (think brisk walking) and two days of muscle-strengthening activity each week. The muscle strengthening sessions work all the major muscle groups in our bodies (shoulders, arms, core, back, chest, hips, and legs).
While this may seem like a lot, you can reduce the 150 minutes to 75 minutes if you happen to jog instead of brisk walking. But even with the 150 minutes of brisk walking, you can break that up into 30-minute walks at the end of each workday. Or a 30-minute walk at lunch each day. And, if you’re capable, jogging is worth 2 minutes of brisk walking.
But the CDC makes it clear this is the minimum. If you can do more, then the health benefits ramp up.
I encourage people to include the first five aspects of fitness in their fitness goals. But first, the principle of “Use It or Lose It.”
Principle of Use It or Lose It - Adaptations
The 7 Aspects of Fitness
Our bodies are very efficient at conserving and using energy. And that efficiency makes the “Use It or Lose It” principle very real for us. Harvard Health points out that if we stop moving, deconditioning occurs. Our body stops maintaining our muscles, and they shrink. The same happens with our stamina. It’s not only that, but our brain “forgets” how to fire the proper muscles for things like maintaining balance.
So, if we choose to be sedentary, then our brain will create a sedentary body – minimal muscle development, low stamina, hard to balance, and low flexibility. If we instead choose to challenge our bodies during exercise, then:
- Our muscles will develop,
- Our stamina will increase,
- We can stand on one leg with our eyes closed, and
- We can bend over to tie our shoes.
The technical term for this is adaptation. Our bodies adapt, both good and bad, to what we ask of it. If we consistently lift a weight heavier than we’re used to, then our body adapts by making the proper muscles stronger and, if necessary, larger.
But unfortunately, it also works in the opposite direction. If we stop doing something, then a negative adaptation occurs – the muscles get smaller and weaker.
Keeping this principle in mind when you want to skip an exercise session will, hopefully, help you change your mind. In fact, I use this principle to motivate me to work harder during a workout – I go into the exercise session thinking about doing something that’s difficult enough to trigger my body to adapt.
There are seven aspects of fitness. I’m often asked if lifting weights or running is a better workout. My answer: YES. Both, as you will find below, are important aspects of fitness.
Most of us need to focus on the first five. Athletes and sports competitors need to focus on all seven to be successful.
Aspect 1: Cardiovascular Endurance
Cardiovascular endurance is what most of us think of as “stamina.” It’s how well our heart and lungs supply oxygen we need while we work at moderate to high intensity. Many of us think of running, but there are many ways to develop cardiovascular endurance if the exercise raises our heart rate.
And increasing your heart rate is necessary to trigger improvements to your cardiovascular system. Remember, we must challenge ourselves – not too much, though, or we may injure ourselves.
There’s no short cut here – but a brisk walk suffices if your goal is to be able to walk a distance. If your goal is to run a 5k, then you must put more effort into your training. Remember that C25K app and Use It or Lose It principle? We need to put in enough effort to trigger our bodies to adapt to the challenge.
Methods to improve cardiovascular endurance:
- Brisk walking
- Running (or walking) on a treadmill
- Elliptical trainers
- High or moderate-intensity interval training
- Stair stepper
Whatever you decide to do to improve your cardiovascular endurance, increase the intensity slowly to avoid injury. And slowly means over the period of weeks, not hours or even days.
Aspect 2: Muscular Endurance
This is another type of endurance and is developed through resistance training. It’s the ability of a muscle to avoid fatigue – can we carry a gallon of milk home from the grocery store.
We develop muscular endurance by lifting weights, using body weight as resistance (pushups, squats, planks for example), or using resistance bands. Endurance is built by lifting lighter weights for a high number of repetitions (15 for example).
Technique:
- Proper weight: light enough that you can complete 12-15 repetitions and number 15 requires a bit of effort, but not so light that you do 20 or more.
- Raise and lower the weight slowly – the ideal tempo is 2 seconds to raise, and 4 seconds to lower. Don’t obsess about those times. Lift the weight slowly and lower it slower than you raised it.
- Do this twice for each muscle group.
Enjoy your improved muscular endurance. And you’ll feel stronger, too.
Aspect 3: Muscular Strength
Muscular strength is the amount of force you can develop lifting a weight. Strength is different from muscular endurance, in that strength refers to the maximum amount you can lift.
Can you lift that 2-year-old grandchild into a car seat? You develop muscular strength by lifting heavier weights for lower repetitions.
A word of caution – always make sure you develop muscular endurance before working towards muscular strength. During endurance training, you learn how to lift weights properly and stably, and your brain learns when to activate specific muscles to lift the weights. Jumping right into muscular strength training leads to injury, and no one wants that.
Technique:
- The proper weight is one you can lift for 6 repetitions but not more than 10.
- Raise and lower the weight at the same tempo – about 2 seconds.
- Complete 6 sets of 8 repetitions.
Enjoy your increased muscular strength! You will, over time, notice an increase in muscle size, assuming you eat a sufficient amount of protein (80-100 g per day for most of us).
Aspect 4: Balance
Balance is a fitness aspect that oftentimes people do not maintain, especially as we age. Balance is the ability to control your body’s position, whether stationary or moving.
We might think of standing on one leg as balancing. And it is. But balance while you’re moving may not be something you think of as balance. But consider any of these:
- Gymnast turning in the air (how do they do that?)
- Stepping off a step – do you have to hang on to a railing for support?
- The act of walking – it’s been described as a series of losing your balance as you step forward, and then stabilize your balance as land on the forward foot. Repeat each step.
- Standing up from a seated position – are you a little unstable?
Except for the first one, these all fall into the category of functional fitness. They are movements you do several times each day.
We all need to practice balance. If you don’t, then a fall is in your future. And no one wants to fall going down the stairs.
We mentioned the “Use it or lose it” principle earlier. Balance may be the first fitness aspect that you noticeably lose if you don’t spend at least a little time challenging your balance (stand on one leg, and then move that foot forward and backwards). I work balance into several exercises, so I don’t have to take the time to do something extra. For example, I complete sets of dumbbell curls standing on one leg (this technique also develops your core muscles).
And Tai Chi, a slow-moving martial art, is great at developing and maintaining balance. Harvard Health states that practicing Tai Chi reduces the number of falls in seniors by 45%.
Aspect 5: Flexibility
Flexibility is the ability of a joint (shoulder, knee, hips) or a series of joints to move through an unrestricted, pain-free range of motion. Most of us think of stretching which is the way we lengthen and stretch our muscles so they can move joints freely and without pain. Here are five signs you need flexibility training:
- You can’t get into and out of the car without pain in your hip and knee joints.
- You have little range of motion in your shoulders.
- When you turn your head to look to the side, you must turn most of your body, too.
- It takes effort to get out of bed in the morning.
- You can’t stand up from a seated position without some form of help.
Mayo Clinic cites several benefits of stretching, including:
- Decreased risk of injury
- Improved pain-free joint range of motion (can you reach your upper back with your hand?)
- Increased muscle blood flow (which not only feeds but also heals our muscles)
- Improved ability to do daily activities (getting in and out of a car, turning your head without your upper torso moving)
Flexibility is a complex process that begins with the brain letting a muscle stretch. And that takes practice. The good news is that our bodies adapt to flexibility training by making it easier for a muscle to stretch (bend over and tie your shoes).
I begin every exercise session with dynamic stretching (not static!), and I end every exercise session with static stretching and, maybe, foam rolling.
Aspect 6: Speed
This is a more advanced fitness aspect that everyone may not be interested in. That is, until you jump out of the way of that car that just ran a red light.
Speed is how quickly you can move from one point to another, such as sprinting or running down the field to catch a ball (or avoiding that car).
If you’ve tried to sprint for the first time in a long time (or ever), you find that you feel clumsy and might lose your balance. In fact, you may have seen someone do that in a sporting event. But after “practicing” a few days, your brain learns what muscles to activate at the right time to sprint, and the clumsy feeling disappears.
The take-away from this is that if we want to get faster, then we must practice. And practice will make you faster.
Aspect 7: Power
Combing speed and muscular strength, NASM states power is the ability to produce large amounts of force quickly.
Consider a football lineman who must move his weight and create force very quickly to push the defending lineman out of the way. If he’s heavy but slow, then the opposing player moves by him. If he’s fast but small, then he bounces off the opposing player.
I was a professor at Kansas State during the Bill Snyder years. Coach Snyder took the football team from a perennial cellar dweller to national title contention. It was fun to watch – then he retired.
The new coach was vocal about wanting linemen who were small and fast. Three years later, he was fired after taking K-State back to its losing ways of yesteryear.
Coach Snyder returned. On his first day, a reporter asked him if he preferred the small and fast linemen, or was he going back to heavy and slower linemen?
His response: I prefer large AND fast linemen.
He understood power, and further understood that you can train to be fast no matter how heavy you are.
How do you train for power? For most of us interested in developing power, plyometrics is the answer. Our brain learns to explosively create a force in a short amount of time. For example, lower down and then jump explosively into the air. It will seem awkward at first, but then your brain learns what to do AND your leg and core muscles adapt.
In most sports, if you don’t have power, then you’re not going to perform well. And these are sports like tennis (hit the ball with power), football, basketball, baseball, and martial arts. In sports of all kinds, power can be the difference between winning and losing.
What Next?
Now you have the tools to maintain a healthy body – it’s prioritizing nutrition and fitness and taking care of preventive healthcare. Now what?
The answer depends on your body today. But a few key steps work for everyone:
- Prioritize the seven nutrition guidelines.
- Make changes slowly – start working more fruit and vegetables into your diet, switch to salmon and chicken as your protein sources, or fix a pot of healthy bean soup for lunches.
- The one thing you must do: is throw away all the junk food in your pantry. If it is overly processed, like cookies and chips, or sugary drinks (sodas, sports drinks), fill up the trash can.
- On your next grocery trip, plan for healthy meals throughout the week – prioritize fruit and vegetables, and lean proteins.
- Increase your physical activity
- Go for a 30-minute brisk walk most days of the week. This is a wonderful time to decompress after work or walk with a friend or partner and discuss whatever is on your mind.
- Challenge yourself with some balance exercises (stand on one foot while reaching forward, to the side, and then to the back with the other foot)
- Join a gym and start developing muscular endurance
- Download and follow the C25K app if you are capable. If you can’t jog, then still use it but walk more briskly when it says to jog.
Hi, I’m Kirby Chapman, the creator behind The Healthy League. You can read about