The medium is the message.
Marshall McLuhan said that, and I didn’t really understand what that meant until I was a little older and started to understand how what we do daily impacts our lives in ways we can’t possibly hope to understand.
So, daily, I preach the restorative and therapeutic effects of exercise. I teach my clients how to move, how to lift, how to address their various strength imbalances, and I do it in the gym.
So, the gym is the message. That’s where they hear it and that’s where they understand it.
Let’s talk about weight training for a minute or two. Many people out there are still dispossessed of a great many myths about weight training.
Today, I'll be busting weight-room myths for the masses.
Myth 1: ‘I’ll get bulky and I don’t want to’
So, let’s talk about this one right off the bat. Yes, there will be a little bit of swelling of muscles post-workout, but that’s called edema (or ‘the pump’) and that will wear off. Bulk – muscle bulk, anyway – is created through massive amounts of protein being delivered to the body. To add lean muscle, it’s been said you need to eat one gram of protein per pound of body weight per day.
PER DAY.
No one I know eats that much protein.
So the weight room can be seen as a way to drop fat off the body, which will make the body look more slender and lithe rather than bulky.
Lean muscle is denser and heavier but takes up less room than fat. A diet made up largely of protein and complex carbs (fruit and vegetables) will also force the body to consume stored fat for fuel, which is how weight loss is achieved.
And A LOT of people I know could use that effect in their body.
MYTH 2: Carbs fuel athletic performance
So, this myth is true and untrue all at once. The myth that a big plate of pasta is a good way to fuel athletic performance is completely untrue. Once refined flour goes into a foodstuff, it has largely been robbed of all nutritional value due to the process of refining it. For that reason, bread and pasta are largely emotional foods, where they exist to fill a tummy and satisfy the eater.
Protein is a slower-digesting foodstuff and with complex carbs, the fibre contained within will slow the absorption even more and allow the bloodstream to refuel with nutrients in training.
Chicken and/or fish with vegetables and rice is a perfect post-workout recovery plate AND you’ll likely feel amazing.
All the while, we are never forgetting that daily movement is our responsibility to our bodies.
Movement is medicine.
But great nutrition helps, too.
I am grateful to all my site members and clients for their continued presence in my life. You allow me to spread my light and enthusiasm for this stuff far and wide and you liove te effects. You honour me with your efforts.
I am most grateful for the greatest angel in my life, period. You know who you are.
LET'S GET MOVING