Your Bank Account

Recently I asked a few people to review their resolutions from this past January as we just passed the halfway point of 2011. As I did this I reviewed my own goals and an interesting analogy struck me:

It seems that with few exceptions, people make resolutions around either fitness or financial goals. And in an odd way, the modus operandi for successful attainment of these resolutions is almost identical in scope.

When doing financial planning, you simply need to understand the concept that your deposits need to be larger than your withdrawals. If you accumulate more money than you spend, your net worth will increase. If you spend more money than you accumulate, your net worth will decrease. Pretty simple stuff: you don’t need to be an economics professor from MIT to understand it. The tough part is however, having the discipline to implement and track it.

It’s almost EXACTLY the same with fitness. Your level of fitness is almost entirely made up of a series of deposits and withdrawals. Just because the denominations are less tangible than money, doesn’t make them any less important or less measureable.

For example, I worked out today. Nothing fancy: just some foam rolling, some lower body strength work and some conditioning circuits involving ropes and sandbags. I view that as a deposit.

Now if I recover well today by drinking plenty of fluids, eating several small portions of high quality foods, and then go to bed early and get a good nights’ sleep, that’s another deposit. If I have 365 days like that, my fitness goals will easily be reached. I will have made a ton of deposits with no withdrawals - my fitness bank account will be in the same condition as my financial bank account would be if I made deposits all year with no withdrawals.

But not making withdrawals is not practical with either finances or fitness. As I’ve said one million times to my clients: there are times life is going to get in the way of your workout plans. As long as you limit it to minor setbacks however, it won’t be a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

For example: Your boss made you stay late at work so you weren’t able to work out as you planned to. That’s a withdrawal. Or your mother makes you a kick ass dessert when you visit and you don’t want to be rude to your mom and not eat her dessert that she slaved over to make you happy – that’s another withdrawal. Or if you meet up with some friends and that salad with low fat oil and vinegar on the side with your glass of tap water just isn’t cutting it. Especially not when they’re having food and drinks that taste good (and they’re having a lot of them!), so you decide to have some nachos and throw back a few with them – another withdrawal. What your common withdrawals are don’t matter, as long as they aren’t constant and consistent. Same as when you splurge occasionally with your money – not a big deal as long as it’s not all the time.

So the issue is this: at the end of the year, will your exercise deposits out number your exercise withdrawals? If the answer is yes, then you’ll be going in the right fitness direction. Just as you would be if your financial deposits outnumbered your financial withdrawals.

Some more examples and a WARNING:

Some deposits and withdrawals are bigger than others, start thinking of them as such. For example:

· A couple of slices of pizza? Small withdrawal.

· A couple of slices of pizza after a plate of buffalo wings and followed by baked ziti washed down with a few beers? BIG withdrawal.

· Some planks, pushups and foam rolling on days in between planned program workouts? Small deposit.

· A planned workout as part of a larger program that includes mobility, core stabilization, strength training and conditioning? BIG deposit. Keep making deposits like this one and your fitness bank account will grow pretty quickly!

Warning: Beware of bad investments!

There are many activities that may appear to be deposits that are actually bad investments. Think of them the same way you would as if you bought stock in company that’s going to go under. For example:

· Not eating often enough. This appears to reap immediate benefits because of the caloric restriction, but your metabolism will lower to compensate pretty quickly, which will worsen your situation. Consider it like investing in Borders.

· Jogging. Jogging is like buying stock in Blockbuster: Feels good when you got up and running, but eventually you’re going to crash. Statistically speaking, you’re going to be injured and you’re not going to lose body fat.

· Starting a crash/restrictive/fad diet. There’s just no way to stick to it if you’re a real person with a job, spouse, kids, etc. This is a waste of your fitness energy and resources - you may as well just toss cash out the window of your moving car.

If you’re interested in improving your fitness levels, my advice is to start looking at your habits as investments, deposits and withdrawals. Eventually, with sound planning and sound implementation you’ll be going in the right direction and you’ll get where you want to go.

This is Leigh: She's made PLENTY of withdrawals into her anti-extension account.

The Weight Is NOT Too Heavy!

Today we have a quick observation of a mistake made way too often that I haven’t seen anyone else jump on yet. I notice this mistake A LOT, and like most things, I don’t really understand the logic behind it.

That is the automatic assumption that if and exercise cannot be performed, that the weight must be too heavy. And this leads to the larger issue: the exerciser simply choosing a lighter weight instead of correcting the manner in which the exercise was being performed.

Now, I ask you, my educated fitness friends, what has this accomplished? Ding! Ding! Ding! You got it: It’s made the exercise MORE dangerous because now it can actually be performed incorrectly! The exercise couldn’t be executed with the heavy weight because the form sucked, not because the weight was too heavy (which is the message that typically goes unnoticed…)

Now of course there are instances where the weight may be too heavy, but I think they are in the minority – I think it’s more likely you have to check your form 1st. If your form is perfect and the weight can’t be moved, then go down in weight. But check yourself 1st, as it’s most likely not a weight problem, it’s more likely an operator problem as we like to say here at the TR.

Check out this video: I go into a little more specificity and give you the always helpful visual aid!

http://www.youtube.com/user/thetrainingrim#p/a/u/0/uv4_1oYDrXw

You think his problem is the weight is too heavy? Try again...