Weight Training -The Poor Man's Revenge

Here’s a question for the ages; how many things in this life are really fair? I mean really fair, like the way things are fair in movies and fairy tales. Not many. And just to add salt to the wound, here’s another observation that’s hard to argue: Money can solve a lot of life’s little problems. But there are exceptions to these truths, one being your own personal fitness. Some might argue that money will buy you the best equipment and the most knowledgeable trainers in town, and that is true. But that trainer can’t be paid to train on that equipment for you. The effort, sweat, and pain, has to be personal. Period! It doesn’t matter what you’re wearing or where you train, the results will be directly proportionate to the amount of energy you devote to your goal. No one is exempt. No one can purchase his or her way to the front of the queue. It’s realistic that one guy drives a 2006 Ferrari and the other, a 1990 Ford and when they get out of those cars the guy in the ford has a perfect six-pack and arms to die for, and the guy in the Ferrari has a potbelly and high blood pressure. Now that’s equity! Your InvestmentYou need to put real effort into a fitness program to get results. You can have the most expensive, reputable trainer hired to set up your program and even train WITH you daily, as I already mentioned, but they can’t train FOR you. I once heard a woman ask her trainer “Isn’t there a lazy way to do the same thing?” I can assure you, her results directly reflected the way she viewed her training. Her trainer was more of a captive listener than a fitness advisor. She would talk about the latest episode of Survivor during her most difficult sets. With effort like this, maintenance or status quo is the best she can hope for.KitHere is one of my favorite topics of discussion when it comes to fitness enhancement. I’ll put a tough poor man training with sand bags against a lazy rich guy training with a state of the art Bowflex any day. Some equipment has bells and whistles, but an old rusty barbell set will do just fine. Effort is effort, and your body can only tell how hard it’s working, not the price tag of the equipment it’s working on. Clever marketing can make a person believe that a certain machine can do wonders for anyone in mere minutes a day. Case in point is the infamous Thigh-Master. Please accept my apology if you are one of the millions that actually purchased this marketing masterpiece. But come on people, you didn’t really think 12 minutes a day, squeezing a spring between your thighs, during the commercials of re-runs of ‘The Dukes of Hazard’ was going to give you a Daisy Duke body, did you? Be aware of this type of marketing and don’t fall victim to doling out cash for something foolish. Remember, if it sounds to good to be true, it is. DietNo matter how you cut it, your body is a true reflection of diet and lifestyle. Some will say, “I can eat anything and I won’t gain an ounce.” This may be a temporary truth, but rest assured, time will catch up with poor eating habits and will be reflected in poor health and a soft physique. Maintaining a healthy body through eating a varied, sensible diet and using the proper supplements is your best bet. There is no ‘magic bullet’ in the dieting arena either. Contrary to current marketing schemes, there are no pills that will allow you to eat as much of what you want, and “block” the assimilation of excess carbohydrates or fats. Sorry, but you have only your own self-discipline to rely on. This means denying yourself that bag of chips or pizza and beer for the longer-term goal of a six-pack. Rarely does someone have a set of abs without self sacrifice. And if you want to argue that eating properly is just too expensive, add up the price of a Big Mac, fries and milkshake for a family of four. Compare this to chicken breasts, broccoli and a baked potato and it’s not even close. Once again, it is distilled down to discipline. Intestinal fortitude beats big bank account, hands down.But I can afford plastic surgery…Some people think problems can be addressed with surgery. Rarely will the results be satisfactory and if the person remains sedentary other issues will be compounded. For example, if you have fat cells removed from the outer thigh area, and maintain a diet that exceeds your caloric output, you will keep increasing the size of fat cells everywhere else. That means your thigh, in that specific area, will maintain it’s current size, while the fat cells everywhere else will continue to grow. There is no way around it; your current physique is a measure of your current lifestyle. Besides, you don’t reap any fitness benefits from surgery. You can’t increase muscle tissue, increase cardio-vascular fitness or reduce overall body fat through surgery. You do however, risk surgical complications with each procedure.RealityReality is that you are born with the genetics your parents gave you. You can’t change that. But isn’t it a welcome revelation to know that there is one thing you do control; the amount of benefit you receive from your training and dietary habits is directly proportionate to the amount of effort and will-power that you invest. It’s completely fair and as unwavering as death and taxes.

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