Not many people really know how to exercise properly. A lot of people thinking playing sports or walking is exercise. There’s nothing wrong with sports or walking. The problem here is that people are mistaking being active with exercise. There’s a difference. They both have their benefits, but they are very different benefits.
- If your goal is weight loss, focus on diet, exercise has little effect on weight
- Walking is not exercise
- Exercise and being active are not the same thing
- Sports have a lot of mental rewards, but very few physical ones
- Exercise means making physical progress to the body
- Knowing how to exercise effectively can increase results and decrease injury
- Steady state cardio has very little benefit for overall physical health
- Rest is underrated and extremely important
- Strength training is the most beneficial exercise for physical health
How to Exercise
Think of exercise as strength training. Anything that pits your muscles directly against an extremely stressful force that will eventually over powers you. Our body adapts specifically to any imposed demand. Whether it’s the stress of not knowing another language in a foreign country or not being able to pick up a heavy object routinely. If the stress isn’t extreme enough, adaptation won’t happen.
Some people believe cardio is a different form of exercise. That idea is wrong because when you work your muscles, you’re also pumping more blood into your heart to support them. This means your heart works harder and needs more oxygen. That means you breath harder. Your lungs are working harder now as well. You can’t separate cardio if you’re doing intense strength training. Running on a treadmill will get your muscles, heart and lungs tired. The problem with this is that there is very little intensity, so the adaptation doesn’t happen. You only get drained and tired. Maybe you can go longer next time, but there is no other major benefit.
Sports and walking are of course physical activity, but they are not enough to cause a physical adaptation. Sports can cause a psychological adaptation, when we adapt the specific skill, but that’s about as far as it goes. The only way to progress physically (exercise wise) is to get stronger. Walking and sports are nothing more than leisure and hobbies. The most effective way to get stronger is to pit our muscles against extreme resistance. That causes our body to demand more strength and our muscles will grow. The best way to achieve this is to lift heavy weight, slowly and safely until we cannot physically lift it anymore.
Our muscles need to completely fail for our body to consider the stimulus a big enough demand. Since the intensity is extremely high, the rest period needs to be very long for that adaptation to occur. Muscles need time to rebuild. A good rule to use is waiting a little longer before the next workout. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Learning how to exercise means learning to not exercise as well. There needs to be very long periods of rest until our muscles are 100%. They MUST be 100% before we hit the gym again!
What Exercises to Do
When learning how to exercise, a lot of people do way too many exercises. All we really need is a leg exercise (squat, leg press, etc), a pushing motion (up and forward) and a pulling motion (up and forward). These 5 exercises will work every muscle in your body! These exercises should be done slow and controlled until complete muscular failure. The equipment used for the resistance isn’t that important.
There really is no difference between machines and free weights when it comes to resistance. The only difference is free weight require technique and have a learning curve so it’s important to do the exercises properly. Slow and controlled with proper form. Machines on the other hand have a controlled range of motion with no balancing required, so there is less room for mistakes.