adminInnocent Choga : Fitness
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I am most flattered, honoured and humbled by the number of people I meet who say they follow this column. This confirmation motivates me to put more effort into my work. However, I wish to make it clear that whatever we discuss does not relate to any people I know unless so stated. Any other apparent match to any unnamed individual’s life circumstances is mere coincidence. The idea is to motivate each other to exercise and never to pull anyone down.I have been asked why I no longer feature current sportspersons and discuss their fitness regimes. I tried it earlier on, but I thought about it and I think it is very unfair.
Personally if I was in their shoes and still competing, I would never reveal my strategies. At times sport is like business, most sportspersons will not divulge their training strategies because by revealing their secrets they will be exposing their competitive edge.
If you pester them they will either skirt around the issue or lie to you.
These issues will only be divulged when their careers are over when they have retired as they reminisce about how they achieved those feats. However, in some sports such things do not matter.
I have also had a word with some retired sporting heroes and they are reluctant to speak about what they did because they have often been taunted that they belong to the past, or because at the moment they are not in shape.
But I think there is need to get an insight into their old programs because surely they must have done something right to achieve what they did. We can compare the old training regimens with the new or even adapt some of the old methods and fuse them with the latest trends. Sometimes, only the physique gets old but the mind stays tuned to the latest ways of doing things as the old and retired athletes will, at times, wonder what strategies they would have applied to win in this era.
Make exercise a priority
I meet so many old friends who I used to train with in fitness centres around the country and most of them have stopped exercising. As we grow older we have a lot of things to take care of and exercise is not a priority. To older people this is a justifiable reason so we let go of exercise when we need it the most. As we grow older we become more vulnerable to diseases, and the physical conditions deteriorate so there is need to exercise and preserve the physical condition.
Most people value medical aid, life assurance and funeral insurance ahead of exercising. But I think they are all in the same class. Insurance and medical covers are there for restitution, peace of mind while exercise is there for protection, and preservation.
So where possible we need to negotiate for gym fees along with the other benefits when we start new jobs as professionals. Just like insurance, exercise is a necessary evil and should be up there on that priority list.
As we have discussed before the purpose of being introduced to exercise and sport earlier on in life is that we get familiar with the fitness life style so that we exercise throughout our childhood, adolescence and continue to do so even in our middle and old ages.
We cannot talk of exercise necessarily as a way of prolonging the span of one’s life, but as way of enjoying the span of life that we have been allocated by the almighty. The idea of staying fit is to enable us to cope effectively with our daily chores and stresses in order to be highly productive; to the best of our abilities. That is why fitness is critical to the performance of athletes in tournaments.
Taking this into consideration we can say fitness training is specific, and therefore should be planned. Many people lack the drive to exercise because they have no set goals; they have no direction as far as exercising is concerned.
Plan to be fit
Setting goals and planning how to achieve them is a important factor which instils confidence and improves performance during exercise. Planning allows you to focus on the areas that need attention and more work. It mobilises the energy within you, thereby motivating you to put more effort in accomplishing your set goals.
Planning improves the quality of your training sessions because you have clear expectations; you are not just going through the motions. Planning makes the whole thing interesting and challenging, eliminating chances of boredom because you are motivated to achieve set goals. Goals that will make you feel proud when you attain them. Planning also ensures continuity as someone who has their eyes on certain goals stays focused and will not quit midway.
Concentrating becomes easy because there are clear attainable goals. You will feel satisfied and build self confidence within you. To avoid frustrations, these goals should be realistic and be capable of being readjusted. Over confidence should be avoided as it results in delusions and disappointments.
Part of the plan should be to change your lifestyle to create time for physical activity. So your plan is to take action first, to move and join that activity you wish to take part in. This comes after a critical analysis of your present condition.
Your needs should determine the type of activity to take part in, whether it should be cardio (aerobic) exercise or strength building (anaerobic) program or both and in what sort of ratios the activities should be undertaken.
There is need to plan on the frequency of workouts, the intensity and the duration.
What regime suits you?
For cardiovascular endurance the choice of activities is skewed to aerobic exercises and for strength obviously anaerobic exercise. For muscular endurance I would say it should be a fifty-fifty ratio. For cardiovascular endurance and weight loss the frequency should be high, i.e. more days to train per week; five to six days or even twice a day. The intensity should be high as well, to stimulate a high heart rate, for example more miles to run.
For weight gain and strength training anaerobic exercises should dominate. Intensity can be high as this is determined by the amount of weights lifted, the number of sets done.
Since this training is all about hypertrophy, breaking of cells and rebuilding for size and strength, the frequency should be low with breaks in between the training days to allow for full recuperation.
Time taken to exercise can be determined by the amount of weights lifted and this also determines the length of breaks taken in between sets. If heavy weights are used longer breaks in between sets are appropriate.
Brain aids brawn
One thing that I learnt from an interesting, great old timers’ boxing encounter is that planning fitness can win a match. The fight between Mohammad Ali and George Foreman in 1974 in Zaire was won by cardiovascular endurance.
Foreman was physically powerful and dangerous. He had great power to knock out an opponent, as he had proven when he had earlier knocked out Kenny Norton, Joe Fraizer etc. Ali and his coach knew Foreman was strong but he lacked stamina. They researched and analysed him as a “bully type of boxer” in the ring. For his psychological benefit, Ali nicknamed Foreman a “Mummy”comparing his slow footwork to his quick shuffles. Although Ali was pummelled in the first five to six rounds he exhausted Foreman and stretched him to the eighth round and it then became easy to knock out the tired George Foreman.
Foreman admitted that although he had an upper hand in the earlier rounds, in the late sixth round Ali suddenly turned into a nightmare. Foreman’s strength reserves were depleted; he had no backup plan.
The lesson here is you have to plan. Most important of all is, you have to know what you want to achieve. You should know the fitness components you have train which ones to give priority and work the most in your sessions.
Talking of boxing, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Charles Manyuchi on the historic win in Russia. I hope one day when he trains for another fight he will invite fans to watch him train as boxers do, When he retires it would be great to get an insight into how he got fit for this fight because surely for one to win after reaching the twelfth round in a foreign country with a different altitude and weather involves a lot of stamina and cardiovascular endurance.
Email: [email protected] Innocent Choga is a six time National Bodybuilding Champion with international experience. He is studying for a science degree in Physical Education and Sport.
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