30 days of giving - Day#26: Are you fueling your high performance machine?
There is nothing better than the feeling of finishing a great workout. The sweat dripping down your
face, the slight fatigue of your muscles and the sense of accomplishment that you get when you complete another day of hard work. You are one day closer to your goals.
As I mentioned in my Ocotber 2nd post, the ACSM recommends 30-60 minutes of cardiovascular exercise most days of the week. This means five to six days of the week with at least one active rest day.
In the October 11th blog post I mentioned that the ACSM recommends resistance training at least 2-4 days of the week. However, in some specific types of athletic training a person may train with weights every day, or most days of the week.
Stretching, as mentioned in the October 21st blog post, is an important component of fitness that aids the body in recovery and repair. However, is stretching enough to repair and recover your body between workouts? No, we need more.
To adequately recover and repair we need to focus on these things:
1) Take rest days. If you do a hard workout 1-2 days, then you should do a lighter workout for 1-2 days and/or rest.
2) Drink enough water. When we exercise our body loses water. Since our body is over 75% water and needs adequate hydration to run efficiently it is important to drink water before, during and after exercise.
3) Sleep. It is recommended to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep. This is when the body recovers and repairs from the activites of the day.
4) Eat nutrient-dense, whole-food nutrition. This is more important that anyone realizes. People often feed their bodies with anything that looks like food (food-like substances) and expect the body to run like a high performance machine. However, think of your body like a Ferrarri. Woudl you put regular gas in a Ferrarri and expect it to perform at it's highest capacity? No! You would only put premium quality fuel in the tank and you would likely spend hours cleaning and buffing the paint job so it shines.
All it takes is One Simple Change to enhance your health. What will you choose?
