Sunday Story…Fitness Challenge 7

Here we are…Food first, Sleep, Recovery and now Training. If you just did the first three you would be head and shoulders ahead of everyone else. You can’t out-train a bad diet. You can’t out-train poor sleep and no recovery so let’s suppose you have those things dialed in. You are now ready to start training.

Notice I use the word “training” not exercise. In this day and age just about everything passes as exercise. Training is different. Training is intentional. Training is mindful; Training has an endpoint, an expected outcome, a reason to be. Get on the treadmill for 20 minutes, read a book, watch some T.V….exercise. Have a fitness plan, execute the plan, be fully engaged in the process, measure your progress and be more fit when you are finished…training. The difference is obvious. Exercise is something you do without thinking…playing scales on the piano, walking after dinner, leafing through a magazine. Training is what you do to achieve an outcome.

You show up to train. You put all your attention and energy into the process. When you are finished you record your results.

Don’t exercise…Train and train hard.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Fitness Challenge 6

Food, sleep, and now Recovery. These things create the base for our expanding and growing fitness. But what do I mean by recovery?

Recovery isn’t just sleep. Recovery isn’t exactly rest, either. Recovery is an active process of putting your body in the best possible state in order to return to its “ready” state. Every time I work out my body breaks down…depending on the workout the damage could be a lot but it is always something if I am really training (not exercising!). So I need to do what I can to return to the most optimum position I can for the next round.

Everything helps…a nap, a good night’s sleep, post workout nutrition, a proper cool-down (get on the bike for 10 minutes)…everything. When my work out is over I can throw my street clothes on and rush out the door or I can spend 15 minutes stretching, slow-moving, and rolling the body parts out that I just asked so much of. Maybe tomorrow I need to not be intense and just do a little lsd…long slow distance, designed to flush lactic acid and create some movement in my muscles. This kind of planned active recovery movement is super important to your health and longevity. There is a reason pro athletes don’t play at “game day intensity” every day. There is a reason for an “off-season.” Every body needs to recover from high intensity work.

What are you doing to recover? Plan it out and make it happen!

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Fitness Challenge 5

Sleep. Snooze. Nap. Shuteye. Sawing logs. Call it what you will but the most overlooked part of your fitness is sleep. It doesn’t show up on the pyramid (unless I “sharpie” it in) but it should and we don’t spend as much time on it as the rest of this stuff…food and workouts.

As a matter of fact, we usually assume sleep is something that just happens. I mean we’ve been doing it our whole lives; we should be pretty good at it by now. But we aren’t being intentional with our sleep. We haven’t analyzed it the way we analyze our workouts or our food. But since you spend about one-third of your life sleeping (as opposed to about an hour a day working out) maybe you should take a deeper dive into your sleep habits.

Here are some basic tips:

Go to bed and get up at the same time every day.
Stop your screen time at least an hour before getting into bed.
Sleep in a completely darkened room.
Keep the room cool.
When you go to bed you go to bed. You don’t watch TV, work, talk on the phone or play games. You sleep.
No caffeine after 2pm.
Use a sleep app like “sleep cycle” to start tracking both your time and quality of sleep. You will be surprised by what affects your sleep.
Read “Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival” by T.S.Wiley

If you want to be more fit, sleep more!

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Fitness Challenge 4

Years ago someone asked me, “What are you training for?” My answer was a simple, “life. I’m training for my life.” The other day someone said something along the lines of, “Is this how we exercise in this day and age?” and the corollary question was: “do we really need this level of conditioning?” If exercise is defined as mental or bodily exertion then yes it is and the answer to part 2 is it depends on what you want. If you want to be operating at an optimum level of health and fitness then yes, this is the level of conditioning you need. It is my position that your level of physical conditioning has everything to do with your level of mental health and happiness.

Look, the base, the starting point is nutrition. You cannot out-exercise a bad diet. If you eat crap your results will be crap. Garbage in garbage out. This gets more and more important as you get older. The effects of poor nutrition get magnified as our bodies struggle to keep up with the effects of aging.

Part 2 is your metabolic conditioning. This is the work we do intending to increase and improve the storage and delivery of energy for any activity. This is why we work in various time domains with an infinite variety of movement patterns. Each workout will challenge and improve your (among other things) your muscular stamina, cardiovascular endurance, resistance to fatigue, and mental strength.

Why do I train? Why is fitness important? The answer to this lies inside each of you. My answer (for me) is simple: for life! My job is to be the best I can possibly be at any point in my life. What’s yours?

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412