What are you training for?

Here’s your options…

1. life
2. leisure
3. participation
4. competition

Lets elaborate…

Training to Live

This is the bare minimum activity that needs to be done to ensure that you get through your Activities of Daily Living (ADL’s) – i.e. personal hygiene, work, leisure activities, cooking, home chores, attending to kids, etc.  This is the type of individual who does not enjoy structured exercise or activity.  Or from my observations and experiences, this person has not yet found an activity or exercise program that they enjoy and can develop a passion for.  One cannot argue that energy is required to perform daily activities.  As energy is used it also needs to be replaced.  That’s where food and drink come into the picture. Unfortunately, these individuals also almost always have trouble finding that energy balance.  They are either on-and-off the diet merri-go-round or chronically deprive themselves of food groups that are essential to good overall health.  The only form of exercise by you (if you fit into this category) is in the form of the incidental type – i.e. walking the dog, household chores, walking to the train station, taking the stairs (when the elevator is out of order).

Training for Leisure

If you fit into this category, you have a fairly good understanding of the need and importance to be active everyday to achieve great health.  You are not interested in participating in fun runs or competing in a weekly indoor mixed netball competition.  The only exception that you’ll make to this rule is if it’s for a reason greater than your own – e.g. a charity event.  Your exercise type consists of the incidental variety although in a more structured routine.  For example… you take your dog for a daily power walk for an hour – and you don’t miss a day; rain, hail or shine.  To you, this is not exercise; it is a daily ritual that is as important as brushing your teeth.  You have your energy balance worked out, knowing the basic principles of good nutrition and applying them to you (and your family).

Training to Participate

If this is you, well done.  You have found  exercises/activities/sports that you love and have developed a passion for.  You have most likely been involved in sport since an early age, competing at school level in teams (netball, footy, soccer, etc) or as an individual (swimming, athletics, gymnastics, etc).  The activities that you participate in fit well into your weekly schedule (e.g. before or after work and on weekends).  There is no real obsession to train daily. Exercise is a means to a fulfillment in other aspects of health other than just the physical benefits – especially social interaction.  You have developed a network of friends that engage in the same/similar sports and activities.  In fact, in some cases you require this aspect of training for motivation.  You’ll give almost any type of sport a go, stick at it for a period of time, and then try something else. There is almost always a goal to train towards – e.g. achieving the fitness required to complete a marathon, or winning the C-grade futsol league.  Energy consumption is often a challenge.  You often justify excess consumption of food and drink by the fact that you exercise consistently and frequently.  Fact… “You can’t out-train a crappy diet.”

Training to Compete

This is the individual who loves the thrill of the chase.  You get a kick out of inflicting pain on yourself in order to excel in competition.  What starts out as an individual goal for personal bests, becomes a goal to be competitive within your gender/age group/league/club level (whatever your chosen sport may be). Be warned – there is often an unhealthy obsession to push your body.  This may be at the detriment of your health and relationships.  Goals are very important (short and long term), and are continually updated ensuring that there is always a tougher challenge ahead.  You live by the motto, “It doesn’t get any easier, you just get faster.” Post-mortems or debriefs after each event is common, examining your results with a fine tooth comb – learning from your mistakes (or the mistakes of the team) – and develop strategies for improvement. Nutrition is considered as the fuel required for excellent performance. Therefore, the social aspects of food and drink consumption is often of little significance.

Please remember that these are my views from 15 years of observations and experiences working in the health and fitness industry.  I have described the extreme scenario in each of the 4 categories.  You may have certain traits from one or more category or fit in somewhere in between.  This is merely meant to be food for thought – post your comments and questions for replies.

I’ll leave you with this great quote… “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

Train smart, eat right, live well.

Joe