Many fitness professionals have focused on one aspect of being fit. The personal trainer is mainly focused on exercise fitness. The nutritionist is focused on nutritional fitness. The psychologist, hypnotherapist and the life are focused on mindset. Some doctors are focused on sleep. While each component is important, it’s time to put them all together in order to realize the full fitness component.
In today’s world it seems that many people will neglect at least one part of what I refer to as “The Four Pillars of Fitness”. Each pillar supports the dome of fitness. While it seems that, for example, fitness is enough, it’s not. One pillar is never enough to keep fitness going. To be truly fit and strong it takes all four pillars, just like the Greek Parthenon and it’s pillars holding the top for many a millennium.
The first pillar of fitness is mindset. Mindset is the driver of fitness. Without it, no action will take place. Yes, granted, someone with a bullwhip can get you going in eating right and working out. Though, you probably won’t sleep and stress will be high. Part of mindset is also reducing stress. Stress reduction is key to reducing cortisol levels and increasing leptin. So are other components, as you will discover. Additionally, you gotta want to get fit. It starts with your mindset that leads to your motivation to do everything else. Oh, the mind is so wonderful when use to its full potential.
The second pillar of fitness is diet and nutrition. While you can exercise to burn off fat and lose weight, in certainly doesn’t compare with a good and healthy diet. Even after exercising, a recovery nutrition is important. Healthy foods is also important for brain health. Cortisol can affect our brains as much as our bodies. Foods have a direct affect on mood. Vitamin B-12 has a direct affect on neuronal health. And we all know the importance of high quality protein to help feed muscles for growth. Heck, it’s needed in all of our cells. You gotta eat right in order to get your body right.
The third pillar of fitness is exercise. Sufficient and consistent exercise is important for fully vitality, muscular strength, endurance, flexibility, bone health and more. Those that keep their bodies going will keep going throughout their life. Strength exercises are important to help build muscle and high intensity exercises are important for cardiovascular health as well as ramping up your metabolism (fat-burning). After each exercise session it’s important to stretch. It help keep your body going as well as keep your arteries flexible. You may have seen older people who walk with short steps and slow, right? It’s because they’ve lost flexibility as well as muscle strength, which also affects balance.
The fourth pillar of fitness is sleep. In today’s fast-paced world and long commutes, more people are getting less and less sleep. At the end of the 19th Century, the average person slept 9+ hours. Today it’s under 7 hours. And getting worse. Sleep is vital for brain recovery and health. Since the brain has a direct affect on the body, sleep is a key to fitness. Those that don’t get enough sleep also will have shorter telomeres. These are the endcaps of DNA. Think of the endcaps of shoelaces. What would happen if they are gone? Well, they would unravel. It’s the same with DNA. When that happens, cells can no longer reproduce and death will happen faster. So will aging. Sleep has many more important functions. And that’s for another article.
It is very important to incorporate each of these pillars into living a fully fit life. Take out one or two and your building becomes weaker. You can get help from professionals in each one of these areas that will help you build a powerful and fit self, mind and body.
Much success in your fitness life.
Bob