What the World DOESN’T Tell You About Working Out.

As documented in my previous blog post, I’m in the middle of a journey all my known in the quest to get health, get fit, and overall just improve my quality of life. Doing that though means that I more than likely do a lot of research and seeking out of knowledge so that I’m doing things correctly.

Google (and the Internet) make it simple to look up the facts you want to know. Many times over the last 7 months I’ve taken to good ol’ Google to look up different exercises to do when it came to weights, as well as some good cardio options, obviously within my means of reason at the gym. But in doing so, you find the one glaring thing that’s kinda disconcerting. Maybe I’m just finding this out, maybe the world already know this, but…

Getting that body you see in a magazine isn’t as easy as they make it out to be.

Guys can look in a magazine and see chiseled six-pack abs, muscles coming from everywhere, everything is just…. popping out, if that makes sense. That’s what the media portrays, that’s what the desired body type is. That’s what everyone wants to go for, and that’s what everyone shoots for. The thing is, the media makes it look like it’s the easiest thing to do. Clearly, that’s not the case, and I have a problem with that. 

When I first started working out, my dad was giving me a lot of advice on what to do, how to do it. Given that he’s a bit of a fitness nut, I was more inclined to believe him. But as time went on, nothing that he had told me about was really working for me. Plus, there were some things, like spin-cycling, that I wasn’t really interested in doing. Granted it’s a GREAT workout, for me at the time, I didn’t really like it. (PLUS, the classes I was going to with him didn’t allow me to listen to my own music obviously, which was a HUGE issue at the time).

Now that I’m on this new-ish workout regime, I’ve taken the time to look things up on my own, and a lot of things that you see in the media today…. We’ll just say that impressionable minds would easily believe that this is what you have to do in order to look like the guys (and gals) you see in the media, however that may be. 

There are so many misconceptions out there, so many things that are blatantly wrong, but at the same time, if you’re wanting to bulk up or lose weight, and you don’t have anyone telling you otherwise, you’d be more willing to follow the advice and knowledge of these things. I remember that my dad was getting a subscription for a fitness magazine, and I remember being enamored at all the muscular people in the magazine, and at the same time wanting to look just like them. 

I also was willing to do whatever possible to achieve it. Or, at least, that’s how I was thinking at the time.

As I look into things more, you see a lot of the things out there are almost preying on the ill-informed to get some money out of them and con them into thinking that what they’re putting their bodies through or what they’re putting INTO their bodies is actually making a difference. The truth is, a lot of these products out there can be rather dangerous, and if nothing else does nothing to help get you where you want to go. What’s worse, imagine what happens when, if it IS something that is working, you stop taking said product OR you stop doing said regiment. Look at what happens to your body. 

It isn’t anything short of negative. 

Some people go into a lifestyle change thinking that it is easy. I went into this knowing the challenges ahead and the obstacles that lay ahead of me. But there are people who take to drastic measures just to look like that person they see in the magazine. 

It just makes me upset.

Today I was doing some research into different body types…. Ectomorph, Mesomorph, and Endomorph. Here’s a link to one of the pages I was looking at that laid it out pretty well as to what each body type is like: 

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/body-types-ectomorph-mesomorph-endomorph.html

[Ignore basically anything OTHER than the description of the body types on this page. There are others out there, this was just the first one I found again.]

This was something I’d heard about before but never gave it much thought. Again I thought it was something that didn’t make sense. Upon further review, I saw that there was some truth to this, and it explained a lot about my own body and its growths and shrinkage since I hit puberty. Myself, I fall a bit between a mesomorph and an endomorph, leaning more towards mesomorph. It’ll be hard to really figure out until after I’m further down the line, but right now that’s what I’ve guessed. 

Each body type responses differently to exercise, as you might imagine. Some are more prone to gaining muscle, some are more prone to gain fat, some find the right balance, and others are somewhere among the mix. There’s no way to really tell, but there’s one thing that’s true: you have to work out for your body and what your body can handle. You can’t do someone else’s workout and expect the same results in most cases. Each body is different, and each body responds differently to what you subject it to. Not everyone is the same.

It just sucks because as I read more and more, you don’t see people readily talking about this. I wish more people would. A teenager who’s wanting to be like his favorite body builder may not be able to do so simply because of his genetics and his body type. I’m not saying nothing is impossible, I’m just saying that things like this should be taught. It would have been great to know at a young age that my workouts need to be more cardio-intensive; I would have stuck with the bike-riding more so than anything else. But, you live, you learn, you grow. 

Just… focus on your body and yourself. Don’t look at the Media for what you should and shouldn’t do. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice along the way. Research yourself, figure out what is out there, and from there, make educated decisions on what you should do. 

Of course, work out with a friend though if you can. Support is a great thing. 

Speaking of which…. Anyone reading this who works out at 24-Hour Fitness in Fairfield…. Hey there. : )

Until the next blog….