Everybody Can 03 Jan 2008

By Fitness Expert Nash Jocic

During my many long years of training and advising people in the fields of fitness, nutrition and lifestyle, I have experienced countless cases of fear, low confidence, low self-esteem and the underestimating of peoples’ own capabilities. If I had to recount the most common phrase that people use in order to defend their current unsatisfactory physical and fitness states, it would definitely be: “I'm not one of those people who can do it…” The reasons that can lead a person to think this way are many, but the most common ones are due to age, gender, fitness level, amount of fitness and nutritional understanding, professional engagement, lack of time, and lack of professional advice.

I believe that most people are intelligent enough to find an excuse to justify their inactivity or faulty eating habits. The problem is that I have never judged people, therefore I have never expected or wanted them to defend their current state. So, all the energy spent in order to find excuses and justifications is really just a wasted effort. I would always advise my clients to save that energy for the work that will be waiting ahead of them. Excuses and justifications will never change your current situation. Proper information, motivation, hard work and discipline will!

The most rewarding discovery that I made a long time ago, and that has been driving me ever since then, is that everybody who wants to change himself or herself for the better, and makes a true effort to achieve their goal, succeeds! This is true whether it deals with improving one’s health or physical appearance, increasing one’s confidence, or becoming more productive in different areas of life. So, after 24 years of life coaching, fitness/nutrition consultancy and personal training, I can freely say that, when it comes to personal improvement in the areas of fat loss, increased strength and body shaping, EVERYBODY CAN DO IT!

When people come to me and point towards their enlarged midsection or huge hips and with very low confidence expect that only magic can quickly eliminate the problem, even though they are ready to do anything to improve the situation, I always ask them the same question: “How long did it take you to get to this stage and how long have you been the owner of this oversized body?” The answer is usually the same: “Many years…” So, I would continue:” All right, if it took you 10 years to get into this situation, then how much time would you allow yourself realistically to undo it?” After posing this question people usually become more realistic in their expectations and begin to understand that commitment, effort, discipline and physical and mental engagement are what is needed in order to improve and maintain the body’s physical condition.

The most important thing that I want my clients to understand is that only through a holistic approach, an ultimate lifestyle change, will they achieve the desired changes, whether they be fat loss, muscle gain, lower back strength, better posture, better shape or an overall physical and mental improvement.

Weight training alone though is not enough to give you the desired results. A healthy diet by itself will never get you in the shape you always dreamt about. Thinking positive by itself may make you feel better but will never shed the extra pounds around you waist. Success in business alone will never offer you the optimal quality of life. Only the whole approach that consists of optimal physical, intellectual and moral engagement will get you where every single one of us wants to be. But the crucial thing to remember is - EVERYBODY CAN! 

In order to create new healthy habits that will enable a person to get back to their own self and start enjoying the miracle of life to its full potential, we have to break the powerful old prejudices and lift the bar for our own potential capabilities and expectations. Let’s break some of the most common prejudices now:

• I’m too old to start that gruelling weight training and some difficult diet in order to lose fat and get in shape.

Suffering that comes from self-inflicted diseases due to an unhealthy lifestyle (ie. most of the chronic diseases we suffer from) are what I would call gruelling. Weight training on the other hand is effective, injury-free and one of the most natural physical activities we can engage in. It merely consists of adding resistance to the full biomechanical movements of the various joints and muscles of the body. Full joint rotation with maximum muscle contraction is the key to achieving maximum strength and health.

Following a healthy diet should not be difficult, but rather rewarding, fulfilling, energizing, fat reducing, strength and muscle building and illness busting! If rewards such as these are your ultimate goal, I wouldn’t consider that difficult, but rather motivating!    

When it comes to weight training and healthy eating, there simply is NO age limit. Anyone, regardless of their age can start training with weights and expect great results!  The benefits of weight training are vast and they greatly improve the quality of life in people over 50, 60 or even 70. Contrary to popular belief, weight training is the safest type of training and only type of training that can strengthen your bones, joints, connective tissues, and cardiovascular system, while decreasing cholesterol levels, increasing testosterone production etc, regardless of your age! So, if you think you are “over the hill” but still want to improve your quality of life, think no further than engaging in a weight training regime along with improving your diet! The stairs that you climb every day will become less and less of an effort; you will become much stronger and more energetic so that walking to the shop will no longer be a problem. Your bones and joints will be greatly strengthened and protected by stronger muscles that will stabilise them like never before. Walking with your back straight up will also never be a problem again. All you can expect in “old age” from weight training and healthy eating is a better quality of life.

• Weight training is only for men, women can get big muscles from it and I don’t want that

First of all, this misconception is caused by of a lack of knowledge of female physiology. The hormone responsible for muscle growth and increased strength is without a doubt the mighty testosterone! Understanding that women produce up to a hundred times less testosterone than men will explain why women have less muscle tissue and significantly less body strength than men. Therefore, weight training will not dramatically increase muscle size in women, but instead increase metabolic efficiency, muscle tone and improve overall hormonal balance. Weight training and proper diet in women will also decrease the chances of developing osteoporosis late in life by increasing bone density and preserving the calcium within the bone tissue.
Weight training also dramatically improves the posture and overall appearance in women because of the tremendous fat burning effect and overall body tightening and toning. Incorrect information creates the biggest prejudice in fitness: that weight training is not desirable for women. My opinion is that women can benefit even more than men by conducting proper weight training on a regular basis and eating a healthy diet. So girls, if you are after tight legs and buttocks, firm midsections and still want to wear those dresses that will show off your back and shoulders, don’t waste your time; start training with weights and eat a healthy diet! A great looking yet feminine physique is what you can expect!

• I would like to do it but I have no time

Faced with an excuse like this I know straight away that the obstacle involved here requires setting a goal and selecting priorities. By denying your self the option of getting involved in the most effective physically enhancing activity you can engage in, you decrease the possibility of achieving the quality of life that is there and waiting for you. Amongst the other responsibilities you must undertake, it also means effectively activating and supporting the more than 600 muscles that your body is made of with a diet that will properly benefit and nourish them!

Our physical health and fitness has to be regarded as a prerogative to our overall existence. We can only exist first physically, and than intellectually. Intellectual superiority at the expense of a weakened physical mechanism is not the greatest way to live. This is why we have to find time for our daily weight training sessions and dedicate ourselves to healthy eating. In the worst case scenario, just cut one hour from your sleeping time and invest that time into your weight training; you will be much better off!

• I want to start weight training but I have to first lose some weight through running

Think twice before you decide to do this! If you are overweight, the risk of injuring your tendons and ligaments through running is very high. Being able to run safely has more to do with skill than will (running is a skill, not necessarily a reflection of fitness level). Other important factors that affect how beneficial running is for your body include the length of your spine, your femur bones, and the natural flexibility of your hip joints, knees and Achilles tendon, not just your desire to run.  Running also favours lighter body weight. So being overweight you are not “born to run” and like a majority of people, would be better of starting with the safest fitness training of all: weight training.

The ontrolled movements of weight training along with the ability to regulate the weights that you use (depending on your strength level and fitness ability) are the best guarantee that your training will be injury free while allowing you the most important commodity in physical training: uninterrupted consistency. Because weight training speeds up your metabolism and adds new amounts of lean muscle, you will also lose weight by decreasing the number of calories and the amount of carbohydrates needed, made even more pronounced by improving your diet. The fastest and safest way to lose fat, without a doubt, is through a combination of weight training and proper diet.

• Weight training will never help me to loose fat, I may get stronger and bigger but not leaner

The old prejudice that so called “aerobic” training is the best form of training for fat loss is unfortunately still very prevalent. This prejudice is one of the main reasons why we as a nation are getting fatter and fatter despite the fact that we have more joggers and runners than ever. The only people who benefit in this euphoria are running shoe manufacturers. The simple truth is that so-called “aerobic” training is very inefficient when it comes to fat loss. The amount of calories that you can possibly burn during your jogging and fast walking on a daily basis are simply too marginal compared to the amount of calories that must be burned in order to lose 1 pound of body fat! In the best-case scenario, the average person will burn around 300 calories from a single aerobic session. In order to lose 1 single pound of body fat you need a caloric deficiency of 4500 calories! Now calculate the invested time in running and its efficiency in burning fat. I call that a total waste of time! Compared to eating a proper diet in tandem with high-intensity weight training, “aerobic” training is simply too inefficient for this purpose. Aerobic training may help you to lose weight, but that lost weight is not going to be from fat tissue. The weight that you will lose from aerobic training and a starvation diet (that usually accompanies aerobic training) will be mainly from the most metabolically active tissue in the body - muscle tissue. By losing muscle tissue you will decrease your chances of losing body fat, and also increase the chances of damaging you tendons, ligaments and bones.

• I would like to do it but I have no knowledge of fitness at all

That have may been a valid excuse in the past, but now with ultimateshape.com you can arm yourself with the “second to none” information that comes from my 24 years of experience in the fitness industry. Advice that will save you time, money, and effort and maintain your enthusiasm in the long run. Ultimateshape.com exists in order to overcome this lack of knowledge and make it a thing of the past.   Once you possess the proper information, it is much easier to get motivated, knowing the rewards that await. This information coupled with your renewed motivation will culminate into putting you into action so that you can achieve your expected results and continue to maintain the optimal quality of life you deserve.

The major reason for producing the wide variety of Ultimate Shape products is to offer essential and highly productive information to the general public. My knowledge and experience is no longer only available to just a few privileged clients; now everyone can benefit from them and achieve great results in an astonishingly short time! And as more people improve their lifestyles, my effort becomes more and more rewarding for me.

There are many other prejudices related to weight training, healthy eating and lifestyle improvement. Many people would use their vast intellectual power to defend these prejudices and remain in a so-called “comfort” zone, where with little or no effort, things seem to be ok. In this article we have tackled a few of these prejudices, at least those that are in my opinion, the most common and most responsible for keeping millions of people from achieving their full physical potential. Life is all about action and death is all about inactivity. 

Since we cannot logically deny a lifestyle improvement and the enhancement of the positive and creative life forces that we all posses, there cannot be any room for excuses that prevent us from getting there. And never forget that now EVERYBODY CAN!