WHO'S WORLD OF FANTASY WILL YOU DIVE INTO NEXT?

SHOULD I SAY it up front, or should I lead you up to the conclusion? Well, how about both?

Here’s a fact: the main difference between you and your car (or whichever vehicle you consider the coolest) is the adaptability to more and constant use.

Irrespective of how many times in a week you drive your vehicle or take it on long road trips or test its speed limits, it will ALWAYS depreciate in value. Always. The tyres will wear out; the steering-wheel cover (if you use one) will show signs of wear and tear; the engine light will come on….

On the other hand, if you stress your body by using it multiple times in a week; or take it on long walking, or cycling, or jogging trips; or even test its speed limits, your body will ALWAYS adapt to the stress. Always. Sure, you might get tired and fatigued and sore…but after a good rest and stretching and eating routine, you will see the results.

And that is what I find fascinating about our human bodies, and it is what athletes have learnt to master as they aim for the epitome of sporting prowess in their various fields.

But wait, is this applicable to the civilian?

Yes, yes it is, and I will show you how.

Do you remember the first time you went out jogging? Or perhaps the first time you tried weights in the gym? Or maybe even the first time you went swimming? How did you feel? I bet that you may have cursed in all the languages you know due to the pain and stress you were undergoing at the moment. Perhaps your feet were hurting; or maybe you were running out of
breath…whatever it was, it can’t have been easy. Well, unless of course you were taking it very, very easy, hehe. And even then, I bet it was something your body was not used to!

Now, there may be some of you reading this who may have decided to quit after that experience saying that perhaps running isn’t your thing, or that maybe it’s not that serious (and this is, by the way, the most used phrase these days, just saying). Or perhaps you didn’t quit after the first day but after the first week or the first month.

Then there are those who are still at it, and they have realised that the daunting distance that used to scare them isn’t as frightening anymore as it used to be. The 30 minutes of running aren’t as tough or exhausting as they used to seem. In fact, you would be able to do the same thing with your eyes closed. Don’t try it out though 😆

Case in point, your body adapted to the stress of being consistently worked out, and it got stronger, faster…sexier 😉
But wait, does it stop here? Was the aim to make the running comfortable or to get fitter? Just because you got fitter doesn’t mean that you cannot get fitter.

As my old man would say, “There is no last number because you can always add one”.

The interesting thing about our body is that it will only adapt if there is stress applied to it, and the stress has got to be more than it is used to. If you, for example, can run 5kms in 25 minutes and you do not stress your body much further than that, then you will always run that distance in that time.

If, however, every two to three weeks or so you increase the pace such that you are always targeting a faster time for the same distance, your body will adapt and get faster. Another way to add stress would be to increase the distance.

The take-away? If you have been running the same distance for as long as you can remember at the same pace, then run faster or run a longer distance.

Oh, and this applies to all the workouts that you’ve been (thinking of) doing. If bench-pressing 100kgs has become too easy, increase the weight; if swimming 100m Individual Medley (Butterfly, back-stroke, breast-stroke and freestyle) has become too easy, increase the pace or increase the distances.

There’s a lot more on this topic, but let’s leave it there.

You may not be as fast as your V8, but you for sure are not on the same class as it is. So, why not unpack your workout gear and go build that body you’ve been looking for? 😋

Cheers!