Fit2Fat2Fit (14 page)

Despite my own failed attempts at golf and my decision that nothing good could come from the sport, golf did give me a new perspective. As I continued my journey back from Fat2Fit, I realized that every time I entered the gym I was surrounded by individuals who were taking the same approach to fitness that my friend had to golf.

We see the “golfing” exercisers every day. Many times, we are the “golfing” exercisers. There's the person on the treadmill, clearly running too fast for her current level. To compensate, she's gripping the sides of the machine or dangerously placing her feet on the sides of the treadmill to catch her breath.

Not far away, you'll find the biceps curler. Clearly overdoing it, instead of a smooth and natural lifting of dumbbells, he uses centrifugal force and every back muscle possible to swing the weights to his chest. It would be much better to use less weight and get the form right than to buckle his knees and back in an attempt to lift the weight.

And a little way down from him is the expert cruncher. If you listen quietly, you can hear the counting nearing a hundred, yet on closer examination the head is the only part of the exerciser's body actually moving. You're not sure what muscles are being worked, but you're quite sure that the abdominal region isn't being affected at all. (Perhaps this person is working to build stronger neck muscles?)

The Essential Exercises: Dumbbell Push-Ups with Dumbbell Rows

Alternate arms after each push-up set
.

Three examples that can be witnessed in every gym in America, every single day—and one reality. It's not enough just to exercise. It's not good enough to do hundreds of reps. You need to do them right. You need proper form. Otherwise, you're just like the bad golfer—swinging incessantly and not getting better in the slightest.

A lack of proper form has a variety of causes. For some, it's a lack of knowledge. They were never taught proper technique, so they do the best that they can. For others, there's a desire to do more than they can handle, caused by either peer or internal pressure to perform. Still, for others it's the belief that more good will come from three hours in the gym than from one, no matter what the technique.

The truth, however, is quite different. It's not enough that you've made the decision to exercise and do it consistently. It's of great importance to learn how to do each exercise, and to focus on proper mechanics and movements rather than trying to set a weight-lifting or cardio record.

If people exercise with improper form, the desired results will not come. Worse still, potential injury is a real possibility. And more importantly, both injury and lack of results lead to individuals dropping exercise routines and getting farther away from the health and fitness they desire.

Equally important is understanding what typical exercise lingo actually means. An individual can be doing too much or too little because they don't know the difference between a “set” and a “rep.” The number of times that you perform an exercise represents the number of sets. The number of times that you lift each weight represents the number of reps, or repetitions. The combination of proper form and knowledge helps even the most inexperienced gym “rookie” to reach new heights.

When you engage in a new routine, it's important that you do your homework and analyze the movements, routines, and exercises that you will participate in. It's better to do a single set of reps properly than it is to do double sets the wrong way. And as your body grows stronger, it will tell you clearly when it's time to increase the intensity and resistance. For examples of the increasing resistance as strength increases, see the various workout plans and exercises in the back of this book.

If proper form in any given exercise or sport is difficult for you to understand or achieve, reach out to fitness experts and find the resources required to do the exercise right. Because without exercising the right way, you will mistake activity for accomplishment and your fitness goals will stay an arm's length away.

After multiple golf lessons, Tom admitted that while his overall game had improved, the strides were slow going. Yet every time he approached the ball, he no longer thought about trying to become the next Tiger Woods. He thought about his grip, his hips, and his follow-through. He ensured he used the same precision every time. He'd become a proper-form nut. And the results were slowly taking hold.

Every single time we get the opportunity to exercise, we have the ability either to do it right, or to just be satisfied that we're doing it at all. The question is, do you want to be the person who exercises, or the person who's fit? The difference is all in the form.

I've always had mixed emotions about New Year's Day. On one hand, the number of personal training clients always increases. A vast number of individuals decide (year after year) that January 1 will be the kickoff to better fitness. On the other hand, the fitness nut inside me dislikes it greatly. The days, weeks, and months after the New Year make exercising at the gym nearly overwhelming. Almost all equipment is in use, poor exercise form is rampant, and there's an air of annoyance from the gym regulars. We all wait for the end of February to come so that the crowds will subside.

That's the routine I saw. Each year, people would make a New Year's resolution to get fit and would show tremendous drive for a couple of months. When the new program became difficult to maintain, or the results didn't come fast enough, the newest members of the gym would disappear. Once April or May hit, gym participation was back to “normal” levels.

As a fitness-obsessed personal trainer, I thought I understood what was happening. People didn't have a game plan, or the proper support to make a long-lasting commitment. And when push came to shove, they didn't have the strength to stay the course.

As an overweight and purposefully lazy person, I realized that I'd been wrong. I had spent more time in gyms by the age of 30 than most people would in their entire lifetimes, but now I was scared to go back and face the judgment and physical difficulties.

I struggled through my workouts, and the soreness and lack of energy made the couch look all the more inviting. Scarier still, specific routines and workouts that used to be the foundation of my fitness nirvana were now difficult and unsettling.

Yet I went to the gym every day, because I had to. I knew that my nutritional changes had started to reap benefits, but true health could not be found only in a proper diet. My body needed physical activity; it needed to be challenged.

I also had to learn that I had different limits now than I had when I was fit. Back then, the idea of struggling to do a push-up would have been laughable. Now, my arms would shake violently, and the sensation of my stomach hitting the floor was uncomfortable. It would have been easy to push the gas, though, and to make myself hate the pain (or worse, the failure).

As difficult as it was, I had to learn to balance myself. It was the physical activity that was important, not the level of push-up being performed. I dropped to my knees so that I could continue my workout with proper form. As days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, the pain and soreness began to subside. I started enjoying working out again, as I could sense that my body was starting to depend on the exertion once again. And it was encouraging to see the progress in my strength and conditioning.

Getting tremendously out of shape on my journey from Fit2Fat helped me realize just how hard getting into shape is when you're nowhere close. Until this journey, I was always in great shape and very active. This weight-gain process helped put into perspective the journey back to physical fitness. My old routines didn't work. My gym ego had taken a beating. Strength and conditioning take effort to maintain; they are surprisingly fleeting if we're not careful.

In the end, the most critical lesson I learned is that the only true path to fitness is that of balance. We must find balance in our lives to make time for our bodies. We must find balance at the gym to make certain that we don't lose interest and so that we continue to see results. And we must find balance in our form and our approach to the exercises themselves.

In other words, torture through excessive pain or through boredom is not the answer. It's about making a choice to become fit and then taking it one day at a time. My friend's payback smile was the first reminder of many that my journey back to fit was going to be challenging. But with every challenge in our lives, the rewards soon speak for themselves. My motivation never waned—well, not for more than a moment—though I was forced to take a new and more measured approach. I soon found that with my consistent nutritional plan, the results continued to mount in my second and third months of Fat2Fit. After the first month of weight loss, which was extreme, the weight loss started to fall into a more consistent pattern.

In month two, I dropped another 12 pounds. In month three, I lost over nine. While the days of losing 19 pounds in four weeks were gone, the fact that I was still losing weight was encouraging. It's easy to get excited about the sheer volume of weight loss early on, and about the final pounds that are lost when you reach a goal.

It's the middle pounds that are tough. At that point you're still struggling with obesity but starting to understand what it's like to feel healthy. Once those middle pounds start to fade, with progress slowing, the journey to becoming fit gets more difficult. We realize, as 10, then 20, then 30 pounds have been shed, that we'll need something beyond the right nutrition or fitness plan.

For all of the spinach shakes, push-ups, fully prepared meals, and pull-ups, there's one final ingredient that's critical for any turnaround from Fat2Fit to be long-lasting. Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with the person who is overweight. It has everything to do with those around him or her.

Because taking control of your health is not a journey that can be undertaken alone.

I
didn't want to do it. It was too soon, too much, and too scary. Even worse, I felt guilted into it, and I wasn't sure that any number of excuses would get me out of the activity he had planned for me.

This was supposed to be a relaxing long weekend. I didn't have to work, it was the middle of the holiday season, and my brother Erik was in town. Besides, I was experiencing something I'd never experienced before becoming overweight—the complete desire
not
to work out.

As you know by now, working out used to be my drug, my addiction. I couldn't get enough of it. In fact, I found myself going through withdrawal if I hadn't been to the gym in a couple days. But after seven months of being sedentary, I'd gotten used to long afternoons in front of the television.

I'd assumed that my brother's visit was going to be low-key. He knew what shape I was in, and this was the holiday season, after all. I should have known better. Erik was a tremendous influence on me as I grew up. He was just as active as I was, if not more so (which helps explain my original interest). And he hadn't gone through seven months of rest and relaxation; he was still fit, and no amount of extra weight on me was going to stop him from a brotherly tradition.

Exercise was how we bonded. Every visit was filled with hikes, exercise routines, runs, and the like. Erik tried to push me to new heights, even when I was fit. It was a tradition—and it was going to stay a tradition, in spite of my changed attitude toward exercise.

When Erik sat down to talk to me about our “activity,” he seemed to sense my trepidation. Before I could spit out a single excuse as to why we should take it easy, he laid out an aggressive hike that would have pushed me when I was healthy. This wasn't going to be pretty.

I took the necessary precautions, loading myself up with so much water you'd have thought I was a newly graduated Boy Scout, and gave my wife an extra hug in case the wilderness got the best of me. Then off my brother and I went for a hike.

It took only 15 minutes before I started getting winded. That would have been the perfect moment to turn around and head back down the mountain. But my brother knew me (and what my body needed) better than I did. So he kept walking. He stayed slightly ahead of me, forcing me to keep up and not get too far behind. When I took extended water breaks, he'd push me to go a little farther up the trail.