Working out/training has been one of the best experiences that I’ve had. Helped in boosting my confidence, physical ability and overall productivity. Being a nerd, I did my thing: gather as much information about working out, exercise and general fitness. Here I’d like to mention some intersting things that I’ve learnt. (Kindly take these insights with a grain salt, as newer research comes to light, we must update our beliefs as well.)
The adaptability perspective. Whenever starting out with exercise or training for any sport, it’s more beneficial to think that our body adapts to a specific sport or exercise. By adapting, I mean anatomically. Yes, any physical changes that we see in our body would be a result of it adapting to our specific training regime, in order to perform the specific activity. Every sport has an optimal physique, which our body converges to through the training it undergoes. Which also helps in understanding why it takes so long. Imagine the amount of time it would take your physical body itself to change according to the demands of your sport/exercise. It needs time to do so, but ounce adapted, the sport would feel like breathing air. (This point refers more to physically demanding sports, but NOT skill based ones. For example, to be really good in football does not require you to be physically fit, but to be able to even be decent in sprinting, your physical body would have to have a certain anatomical structure).
Diet. No one knows what is the “ideal” diet, not even reseachers and nutrionist. Most of the “research” we see uses an inherently flawed tool to come to their conclusion: statisitcs. Our body functions through extremely complex and intricate chemical as well as biological processes, hence our current technology can only provide certain estimates on certain processes. Not to mention not many studies have tracked the health effects of certain substances over a person’s lifetime, so any long lasting effects are speculative (except some very obvious ones, like carcinogens, poisons and toxins). So what do we eat ? A very simple aswer would be anything that is “natural” or un-processed, also called whole foods (basically what our grand parents used to eat.)
Longetivity. It remains a mystery (as far as I know, I would like to know about any evidence/research that has come up), what causes some humans to live longer than others, and while it might be genetic, it could also be a relfection of our daily habits (most probably it plays a crucial role). One common pattern that I see among >80 yr olds who are energetic and extremely active is that they are almost never sitting in one place and are always moving. Daily movement (doesn’t have to be any strenuous activity), plenty of sleep and good food habits seem to be the top contender for longetivity.
The outside inside dichotomy. Most of the modern gyms are inside air-conditioned buildings (some maybe open air), and focus on a new style of training: static lifting. I say new because this style wasn’t ingrained in our DNA through evolution because it wasn’t necessary for survival (though now it may be). This style of training, while very effective and rewarding, eventually has it’s own caveats: the lack of overall “movement” of the body as a whole. In the above section of longetivity, I mentioned one of the most common attribtues I see among older fit people is their movement throughout the day. It’s not as beneficial to have all of a day’s movement packed into an hour or two of gym, while keeping your body in a relaxed position the rest of the day. It needs to be uniformly spread throughout the day, indeed your body must be moving through the entire day (optimally). It not for naught that humans are THE creatures that have the longest stamina: we are meant to last.
Sleep. Very important, very hard to get it right (at least in the modern screen age). My best go-to technique is a heavy workout, followed by a hearty meal and no screen time at least an hour before sleeping (reading material with heavy language might be a boon as well)