Fitness fads or new trends in exercise?

Like everything else in life, fitness is subject to faddish developments in the hopes of making money. In fact, because millions of people are looking for the get fit quick fix device, fitness may be more susceptible to such fads than many other disciplines.  So how is one supposed to separate the good from the bad; what works from what does not; what you might SQUANDER your hard earned money on and what you SHOULD spend your hard earned money on? Well I don't know if I have the answers, but I will try to think it out, out loud, so to speak here.

First up: Diet.There are about a hundred different diet regimes on the market these days from the "juice only diet" to nutri system to weight watchers to the Atkins and Zone diets. Shit, there is even a diet called the South Beach diet! Do any of these work? Do any of them make physiological sense? Well, when I ask such question, almost invariably the answer leads me to what our physiology has been selected to do by evolution. That is, what our ancestors ate is probably what we should be eating. See, our ancestors did not have McDonalds, Burger King, Steak & Shake, etc. They also did not have sweets - candy bars, chocolate, and refined sugar. Guess what? Our ancestors weren't fat either! If they were than they would not be able to do a number of important things for their survival: evade predators, catch prey, maintain respiratory health to effectively collect tubors, roots, etc, and most importantly they would be unable to attract a mate. So what did our ancestors eat? Well that is an archeological and anthropological mystery that will never really be solved without that good old invention - the time machine. But science has uncovered a few clues about what our ancestors most likely ate by excavating archaic site of residence. It appears that our ancestors were a combination of hunters and gathers. We, our ancestors that is, most likely ate ground roots, leaves, and other 'wild' crops. We also probably hunted, at least small mammals, the occasional bird and most interestingly we also appear to have been meat scavengers. See, without nasty claws, teeth and the means to fend off other predators, our ancestors may have been left to ravage what was left by those big predators (think tigers, lions and bears (OH MY!)) Some evidence suggests that our ancestors learned (i.e. big brains are useful for something) to crack bones open using rocks to dig out the protein rich bone marrow. 

So, the point of this little archeological excursion - our ancetor ate a variety of foods - not just protein, not just fruit and veg, but a healthy (albeit availability might have also played a role) mix. I think that's what makes a healthy modern diet.  A good mix of fat, protein and yes carbohydrates! Carbs are good! They fuel you. The key is to not eat bad carbs - you know sugar and such. Instead replace with high-grain, multi grain and high fibre low sugar carbs. My wife and I recently found Thomas' English muffins that are actually fortified with extra fibre - they are fantastic in taste and the fibre is great for us. In fact, fibre is one of those things that is hard for your body to digest so you actually burn calories while digesting it. So high fibre and high protein is what I would recommend.

OK so all that sounds pretty good, but there is a down side: food that is good for you usually costs much much much more! Bite the bullet and buy it; it is worth it!

Second: Cardiovascular training.

The list of cardio machines that are in existence and that have been marketed for quick fix fitness is innumerable and far too great to list hear. Instead of listing all those crazy machines I will just impart a few recommendations that have worked for me:

1) Get your heart rate up to where it feels like your heart is going to explode and/or pop out of your body, then slightly decrease the intensity until you can catch your breath. Once you have caught your breath increase that intensity again to the heart exploding feeling. Yeah that's it. The whole 50-80% max heart rate - throw that lousy advice out with your Turbo Track and get that heart pumping (advice: if you have heart probs, then don't follow my advice). The key is really to get your hear moving. It increases your cardiovascular endurance and strength and your respiratory ability; i.e. your ability to utilize oxygen effectively. Here I turn to my martial arts training (which can hardly be called training at all, actually). In martial arts you have to withstand 3-5 minutes of pounding and being pounded. So not only are you jumping around and increasing your heart rate, but you are being beaten on and delivering it back (hopefully!) The thing is when you are fit like a proper martial artist you are fit as a fiddle! One of my students back in Liverpool is an amateur mixed martial artist who had been training for about 12 years. One day, literally, one morning he decided he was going to run a half marathon. I think it was to impress a gal, but that might also be rumor. At any rate, he showed up, paid the late regist

ration fee and ran the entire thing. The reason I know this. He showed up after the race to train; i.e. to train martial arts as if he had taken a drive for 13 some fucking miles. If that does not convince you of the interval training, high tempo, kill your heart rate training, then go fuck yourself and be fat! It sold me, mind you I am not going to rush out and run for 13 miles ANYWHERE!

Third: resistance training.

Need I really say more. Again, from my rather academic evolutionary perspective the thing you want out of a resistance training program, I would hope, is the ability to actually use your muscles. Pretty mirror muscles have no purposes, they have no place in today's day and age. So yeah there are loads of faddish machines from bow flex (which seems to be pretty good actually) to the Total gym, another one I kind of liked. However, at the end of the day, I think you want to use what works for you. Our ancestors did not have weights. Sure they carried around a club to beat you with, and they probably did scoop up women like in the cartoon. They might also have carried stones and animal carcasses. Note any similarity in all of these activities? They all seem to incorporate some very large muscles and a lot of total body strength (think dead lift, squat, etc). 

Now stop reading and go eat and train like a caveman!

Photo credit: 1)http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth1602/images/homo_habilis_img5.jpg

2) http://www.red-spirit-energy-healing.com/images/caveman-diet.gif

3) http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/jlv/lowres/jlvn337l.jpg