Yesterday, my 12 year old son had track practice in the morning. Track was followed by a mini triathlon (which was part of a school phys. ed program). After school he put on his boots and cycled to and from his 60 minute evening soccer practice. Upon returning home-a massive dinner was inhaled- followed by a saucer size bowl of ice cream for dessert. After dessert, he then proceeded to have an epsom salt bath and just before bed: micro stretching.
As he trundled to bed my wife said to him ‘I wish I was as fit as you’ to which he replied ‘you won’t be as fit as me because you are not committed.’
Cheeky. Indeed. But he was right.
Getting fit doesn’t just happen. Getting fit is a commitment. And if you’ve ever been in a relationship you know commitments are tough. With exercise these commitments range from the proper nutrition, the application of effort and consistency, the routine, the recovering, the monitoring, and the doing when you feel like don’ting.
Commit full on and like any good relationship there will be quiet rewards, such as fitness and an athlete’s body. Do it haphazardly or chaotically and the rewards will be smaller. Therefore, the third rule of getting into Narnia is advice taken straight from the mouth of a fit 12 year old. You must be committed.
Are you?
I have been working strength & conditioning full time for 15 years and I am going to give you some insight: when someone stops a lifting program: usually everything stops. Activity absorbs into sedentary almost immediately. Usually happily sedentary. But sedentary all the same. A new lifestyle begins that involves less moving, easier effort, more sitting and added relaxing. Nothing wrong with this. It just becomes the new way.
Why?
TLA has a theory. A quality lifting training program builds body confidence. After all, if you can squat your bodyweight for reps–in your mind & in your being–you are more likely to be ready to snowboard or surf. If you can run and sprints, saying yes to team sports and other events becomes a natural progression. If you can do chin ups, bench press, and pull tires than damn right you can do a tough mudder. If you are a young athlete and have been doing olympic lifts alongside reaction and speed drills when you face an opponent head on you are more likely to say bring it on. Aesthetically, if you have been working out consistently and watching your nutrition buying clothes becomes an experience to enjoy because hey: you look pretty damn good in your new digs.
However, take away a consistent training program and a new attitude emerges: a lack of body confidence.
A friend asks you to snowboard and rightfully you might be worried about your leg strength over the course of a day. The chances of joining in on a team sport or going for a run radically diminishes because body knowledge says you are either going to be sore for days or so ill prepared a muscle pull or strain is likely. Meanwhile, if you haven’t been lifting or involved in an endurance program there is no way you are going to just do a tough mudder. Likewise, if you are a young athlete and haven’t been training speed drills then hey! maybe you will just pass it instead. Aesthetically, when you don’t work out or watch your nutrition trying on new clothes becomes an experience of dread.
They say exercise does so much for your health. They say you will never ever ever replicate the effects exercise has on overall health with a pill. That’s all true. However, one of the best things general exercise does is it becomes the root in providing individual body confidence. This brings me to Narnia training rule 2. To get into the other side of the Narnia cupboard you absolutely must have BODY CONFIDENCE to enjoy the full experience.