Diet & Fitness 

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The fitness prescription for life

Josh Salzmann offers the 3-step alternative to the seasonal gym frenzy

Whether it’s a new year's resolution or a pre-holiday fitness blitz, most people join the gym in reaction to an excessive and unhealthy lifestyle.

However, if you are not obsessing about rushing out to the gym after a period of indulgence, you are probably healthier than most. You don't have to turn yourself into a wannabe gym queen and calorie watchdog, just because you've overeaten or partied too much. If you push yourself too hard after not having worked out regularly, your muscles will retaliate and you’ll risk injuring yourself. What most people don’t realise is that, being fit shouldn’t be (and can’t be) a one-hit wonder, but part of your life.

Committing to an exercise routine, feeling healthy and getting the body you want, takes discipline and a little focus, but it doesn’t take obsessive behaviour. If you work out moderately, have a balanced diet and get enough sleep, you’ll have a high resistance to illness and injury, a load of energy, and you’ll look fantastic.

Here’s my three-step prescription for maintaining fitness for life:

1. Exercise for quality, not quantity. No one needs to exercise more than 5 times a week, and each session can last from 20 minutes to one hour, depending on your fitness ability and your goals. The easiest and smartest way to get fit is to combine strength training, cardiovascular and flexibility workouts.

   Strength training (lifting weights or doing exercises like yoga or Pilates) is crucial for toning muscles, and staying flexible. Using slow, precise movements, and doing up to 20 repetitions, when lifting weights, can elevate your heart rate enough to improve cardiovascular fitness, and will strengthen your core muscles (abs, spine, hamstrings, adductors and abductors (inner and outer thighs). Don’t think of exercise as deprivation, but as an empowering discipline. Working out should be a benefit, not a penance.

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