Episode 23: The Basic Components of Fitness

On this shorter episode of All About Fitness I discuss the basic components of fitness. We have a tendency to overcomplicate things, especially when it comes to exercise and working out, it's important to note that often the best experts in any field are those who do the basics extremely well. The basic components of fitness are: strength training, energy pathway training, mobility training, fueling, rest and recovery, community and financial fitness; I describe what each component is but don't take a deep dive on how to achieve it - those will be happening on future episodes of the podcast. If you want to understand how exercise slows down the aging process, here is an article I wrote a few years ago that covers the basic physiology. When it comes to exercise I'm a BIG proponent of a three-day-a-week split: Day 1: Force production - either strength or power training, the goal is to challenge your muscles to generate a high amount of force (strength) or to produce force at the fastest velocity possible (power) Day 2: Mobility training - technically flexibility is joint motion through a specific range of motion. Extensibility is the ability of tissue to lengthen and shorten. These two combined create mobility - the ability to control motion through a complete path of motion. Mobility training includes bodyweight exercises like gymnastics or TRX training, yoga, dance or martial arts. Mobility training will keep you moving but should not over stress the systems of the body. Day 3: Energy pathway training - there are three specific energy pathways in the body and training on this day should focus on one of those. We should do some high intensity interval training but no more than one or two days per week (three if we have really good recovery strategies).  Day 4: Rest or go back to day 1; however it's a good idea to take at least one complete rest day a week where the most activity you do is go for a long walk or catch up on chores around the house.   Following this three day split you do your higher intensity days on 1 and 3; if you do a high intensity day 3 of energy pathway training then take a rest day, if energy pathway training is lower intensity then you can jump right back into strength or power training on day 1. The other components of fitness: fueling, rest, community and financial will be covered in future episodes of the podcast but each individual component is important for creating a well-balanced, low stress, high quality of life.   If you want to see me in person, I'm speaking at SCW Mania Fitness Conferences this year: www.scwfit.com use code McCall17 for a discount on your registration   Please visit the sponsors of All About Fitness: Vicore Fitness the makers of the Terra Core use code AAF to save 20% on a Terra Core of your own SKLZ - the makers of products for all components of your workout, use code PM30 to save 30% on your order ActivMotion Bar - the first weighted bar with a dynamic, shifting resistance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices