The Logic of Fitness
April 26th 2007 10:59
They do not take it easy.Neither should you.
One of the ways to mess up all the effort expended to get yourself in shape is to convince yourself that there is an easy route to get where you want to be. There is a whole army of hucksters that are intent upon selling you all kinds of things based on the premise that their offering will make it easier for you. They are myth makers and their myths are very alluring.
Recently I received a piece of mail in which I was assured that I could be "ripped to the bone" and yet bigger than ever if I just purchased and used their "stack"-a combination of drugs. One of the drugs was tauted as an amazing fat burner that the solicitor had managed to secure in a foreign country where it is actually used by veterinarians on race horses. The subtext is that I would surely be willing to take animal drugs if I could get my body fat to a ridiculously low level.
In the grocery store I encounteredd that other end of the easy spectrum. On the same magazine cover I read about the easy tone up exercises that would get me bikini ready for summer. Inside I found pictures of someone doing some simple twists and bends. The cover also offered a surefire exercise program that would have me looking good without, it claimed, ever going to a gym. I didn't check for details after my previous experience. The headline just below assured me that the magazine had the secret of happiness for me to simply read. I wondered why I would go to the trouble to work out, if I could just be happy.
I was reminded,however, how easy it is to let yourself be seduced into easing up, because taking it the easy way comes so naturally. The easy way is a myth. What you are going to succeed with is the hard way. If you would like larger muscles you will get them with big weights and big weights only. You will need to go into the gym and use the heaviest weight you can handle. If you are doing high repetitions you have to use the heaviest weight you can which allows you to reach your rep objective. If you are doing low reps the same principal applies.
Nor will you ever get bigger by failing to go all out on every set. If you count your reps to 10 and say that you are finished because you reached this predetermined number, you will be smaller that you might be if you go to failure. If you do a routine over and over without change you will have discovered easy but not fit. If you are a woman and you buy into the baloney about getting too big if you work hard, you will never get any muscles at all. On and on I could go.
Here the reality to contrast to the myth. Big muscles =big weights. Big weights=big work. Therefore big muscles =big work. Apply this syllogism to diet and you have no myth fitness. Your servant, as always.
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