Is Exercise Really That Complicated? (Blog Post)

Short answer, no. It's not.

But we should dive in and explain why it's not, and what makes it seem so complicated to hopefully free up your mental space and perspective on it, so you can start getting after it without the worry of, "am I doing this wrong?"

It's pretty wild to think that at your fingertips you have the knowledge of the entire world with the tap of a sensory enabled screen. I won't go down this path right now, but with a bite taken out of an apple on the back of my phone, and access to endless knowledge (actually, there is an end because all of this definitely isn't from God), it seems far too similar to a story in the Bible that we all know, but I will save that for another post.

I know that, if you've connected with me, surely you are following other fitness-type accounts, therefore you have a plethora of information coming at you daily in context to exercise. Health and Wellness is a 4.9 TRILLION Dollar industry (can we just take half of that to reduce our national debt, please?..anything would help the 35 Trillion) and it's growing, so we know knowledge isn't the issue when it comes to getting people to set their beer down and get up off the couch.

Having coached hundreds of clients over the years, the most common answer I get to the question, "why don't you exercise consistently?" is, "I just don't know what to do." The keyword in that question is consistently. I know that almost every has tried to workout in some form or fashion at least once in their life. We've all taken gym class, or P.E. Surely you've jumped rope, ran, been inside a weight room, or stepped foot on an athletic field/court, yeah? You know what exercise is, but maybe you don't understand how to string it all together. Let's start with, what I believe, is the ultimate goal should be for every Dad out there: General Physical Preparedness (GPP).

GPP is very much what is sounds like: a readiness for any situation that life may throw at you. That encompasses running, lifting, throwing, pushing, pulling, jumping, and having the range of motion necessary to complete these tasks without injury. If we were to break all of that down into a workout program, we'd get something that looks similar to CrossFit, which is the methodology they stand on: Constantly varied, functional movements, done at high intensity.

And I'll step aside here for a moment and say, CrossFit has gone astray in their vision for the "sport". What suited everyone best was the warehouse gym off a side-street in a neighborhood that felt like an underground cult where moms, plant workers, and busy corporate employees went to destress and get a good workout in while feeling like family. THAT is community, and that is where CrossFit thrives. Not so much the emphasis on it trying to become a popular sport that produces monsters in men and women alike.

Now, we understand that we should train for GPP, but how do we actually do that?

You should start by looking at your training month ahead, and programming it as such: 3 days on, 1 day off with a balanced mix of gymnastic skill (controlling bodyweight in motion), weightlifting, and mono-structural cardio. I like to program the start of the workout with a strength or skill piece (think back squats, deadlifts, Olympic lifts, or gymnastic skills like muscle ups, handstand walk, rings, etc.), and then a metabolic conditioning piece balancing out the rest of the elements.

So it should look something like this:

Strength: Power Clean + 2 Jerks - 5x1 (5 sets of 1 rep of the complex)

MetCon: 5 Rounds for Time - 10 Pull ups, 100m Handstand Walk, 10 Box Jumps, 10 DB Thrusters.

There, we have a weightlifting strength/skill (as there are skill elements with the oly lifts), and a metcon that is balanced with all of the elements we need.

Now, you don't have to have a perfectly balanced workout every day, but your month of training should reflect that balance of elements throughout.

This style of programming will create more fitness, strength, muscle growth, and cardiac output, which all results to more work capacity and GPP. That's exactly what we want. Can you go to the gym and do a push/pull/legs program. Absolutely, but it's not the only way, like most influencers will have you believe.

The thing I really want to drive home in this post is you don't need to stress about your workouts, you just need to do them.

As a man, you really do need to be able to have some strength about you because everyone needs Dad to be able to lift that thing no one can lift, or open that jar, or whatever the task at hand may be that no one else can accomplish.

On top of that, having a level of fitness and work capacity will only lead to longevity, and dude, everyone wants you around as long as possible. Think playing with your grandkids in the yard on Thanksgiving, being able to get in on that football game at the age of 65. That's what we want. That's what we're going for.

You are worth the investment of training for longevity and health. Remember that.

1 comment