Five Fitness Facts the Experts Won't Tell You

You're going to be sore somewhere. It's just a fact of life and you know it. If you take a person who is essentially a physical lump and that lump suddenly starts a fitness routine, the lump gets sore, someplace.

Even a well conditioned, athletic person will be sore when they incorporate a new activity into their usual fitness routine. Fitness in one sport or physical activity oftentimes doesn't translate well, meaning that I can run five miles a day and still find myself wheezing my way through an aerobics routine, complete with burning muscles, strangled gasps for breath and thoughts like, "Whose stupid idea was this, anyway?" running through my head. And even with my five-miles-a-day capability, please don't ask me to walk hills. My fanny will still be aching days later. I'd rather run a hill than walk it. Why? Because that's the way my muscles are trained and because of that, running hills doesn't make them sore and burning. Walking hills does.

Muscles are creatures of habit. They get use to being used (or not used) in a certain way and it takes a bit of coaxing to get them to adjust to new circumstances. So what's the answer to sore, achy muscles? Gentle stretching and another moderate workout. You need to coax the soreness out of the muscles while at the same time gently continue your new routine. The key word here is gently.

Gentle stretching, gentle, varied workouts and rest periods. If I'm starting a walking routine, I might try for a half mile my first couple of days (based on my current fitness level and my dislike of walking) with gentle stretching before and after. If there's going to be any sore and achy muscles involved, they'll hit no later than Day Three. On that day, rather than taking the day off, I'll do my gentle stretching and maybe walk a flat quarter mile, followed by more gentle stretching and then take Day Four off.

The burning, aching muscles are caused by lactic acid buildup. Lactic acid is the waste product built up by working muscles. If you run your car, you burn gas. But you also create waste with the exhaust. Consider lactic acid as your muscles' equivalent of exhaust. It needs to go away or we'll poison our fitness efforts. Gentle stretching, varied workouts and intermittent "rest days" relieve the aches while also teaching your muscles to work more efficiently, burn fuel more effectively and lessen the amount of lactic acid buildup which occurs. The workout that seems to leave you a near cripple today will your "light" workout in a month or two as you fine tune your muscles and they become more efficient and stronger. And don't forget to hydrate. Water helps flush the lactic acid out of the muscles and allows them to recover faster.

You're probably going to look worse before you look better. Most of the ladies know by heart that cellulite is subcutaneous fat and that it's the last to go when we diet and exercise. That's nothing new to us. But here's the phenomenon no fitness and dieting guru will tell you, yet it's true and very logical: Since you lose overall body fat first, your "top layer" of fat as it were, the cellulite becomes more noticeable because it's less buried behind other fat. In other words, for a little whileyou might actually look lumpier. Smaller, certainly, but lumpier. But it's temporary. Keep up with your fitness routine and this temporary condition resolves itself pretty quickly.

But you will be smaller. Workouts build muscle and reduce fat. Muscle weighs more than fat but it's more compact, sleeker and obviously more toned. As your healthy muscles build and replace the fat you're losing, you will become sleeker looking. And smaller and sleeker trumps big and lumpy any day of the week.

Getting in shape is ugly. I get so sick of fitness shows and infomercials showing smiling, toned thin people in full makeup bouncing like corks in the water through their fitness routines in brand new matching sports bra and spandex pants.

What most of us know logically is this and yet we still fall for the fantasy: These folks are in a studio with flattering lighting, they have stylists and makeup artists on hand and this "fitness routine" probably lasts all of 30 seconds at a pop. Not to mention God-knows-what surgical enhancement's gone on. Let's face it: In real life we don't see too many natural 36Cs out there with washboard abs. I know from bitter personal experience that when you start to lose body fat, the boobs are the first to go.

That's not to say there aren't some truly attractive, real people out there exercising. I see them sometimes. But I also know this, too, at least about my workouts:

It's not a fashion show and it's not glamorous. I will sweat, I will be gasping for air at some point, my face will be red, my sweat-soaked hair will be plastered to my head and I'll probably be grimacing. I will, in other words, look like hell. And I'll stink, too. There's nothing pretty, feminine or appealing about a workout. At least not mine, anyway.

Getting in shape is work. Sometimes it's psychological work - just getting amped up and in the right frame of mind to even get dressed out is tough some days, even for seasoned athletes.

And sometimes it's physical work - sweaty, achy, wheezy physical work. After all, it's called a "workout" not a "funout." But here's the thing:

Once you conquer the psychological work - in other words, once you've gotten yourself off the couch and into your workout gear and step out the door (or into the gym) and get moving - the physical workout will take care of itself. Trust me.

I've been an athletic person (running, aerobics, biking and such) off and on for 30 years. I've been chubby and I've been thin. And during those 30 years there were prolonged periods of inactivity where all I did, and wanted to do, was eat and sit around.

I used to push myself to do better each day - run farther, run faster, get sweatier, "feel the burn," and on and on and on. I'd worry over form and technique. When running, I'd worry over time versus distance. In aerobics, I'd worry about pointed toes, breathing technique and being on the beat.

I don't worry anymore. Or very little anyway. Here's the reason why, the key to the whole thing, and it only took me 30 years to figure it out:

If I just put one foot in front of the other, the workout will come.

The workout will come whether I'm concentrating on form or thinking about my grocery shopping list. The workout will come whether I run the hill in 30 seconds or 45 seconds. If I'm in our spare bedroom and jump around for a half hour, it doesn't matter whether I'm jumping to the Black Eyed Peas or jumping while watching Seinfeld reruns. It doesn't have to be pretty and it doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be.

Disconnecting your mental self from what's going on with your physical body can be a blessing. I've run big hills that I can't specifically recollect because my brain was free-floating while my body handled the hill. When you put yourself on autopilot and let your body do with work (after all, your brain can't run hills, can it?), working out also becomes a vacation for your mind and spirit as well as a healthy habit for the body.

Someone, somewhere, is going to discourage you. It may be well-meaning and unintentional or it may be a very pointed, specific sabotage attempt. It's just human nature that we are comfortable with the status quo - it doesn't matter whether the status quo sucks or not - we, on some level, crave our comfort zone.

If sitting on the couch and weighing 180 pounds is my current comfort zone, that's where I'll want to be. Is it good? No. Healthy? No. Am I happy? No. What I am is comfortable. We stick with the devil we know versus the one we don't. And I become my own saboteur.

Or family members who are used to seeing you sitting around on Sunday mornings, drinking coffee, reading the paper and noshing on bagels or donuts, are uncomfortable when you try to get up and out the door for a workout. Why? Because you have gone out of your comfort zone, thereby affecting their comfort zone without their permission, and they don't like it. It's not spiteful, it's probably not intentional and they probably couldn't even explain it themselves. But it can be threatening.

For women, this concept can be particularly difficult. No offense to men, but the world is generally conditioned to accept a man doing something that makes him happy. Going to a bar, hanging out with the guys, taking in a football game..any activity which is entirely centered around the man's pleasure, and only the man's, is both accepted and acceptable.

But what happens when mom does something for mom's benefit and mom's benefit only? You're taking time away from the kids, away from the house, away from the spouse and making you the center of your universe for thirty whole minutes. Almost like you were a real person.

Old habits die hard. Old, ingrained reactions die even harder. Everyone will get used to your new routine and the world won't come to an end. Just be aware that discouragement, both self-generated and other-generated, is part of the game. Don't let it take you by surprise and don't let it hang around too long. Remember that the big giant controversy we're talking about is a 30 minute workout three or four times a week. Keep it in perspective. If you're not plotting to rob a bank or relocate the family to Sri Lanka, then there's really no big deal afoot other than maybe bumping yourself up a notch or two on the mental priority list we all have running through our heads every waking hour. Big deal.

And don't take it personally. As human beings our kneejerk emotional reaction is to fear the unknown. You might fear your fitness routine because it's new and unknown. Your family might be uneasy with your activities because it's new and unknown, and therefore threatening. It's not a big deal in the long run and it'll pass.

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Big, life-altering changes often happen to us a little at a time, building block by building block, without us hardly being conscious of them. I wish you good luck, encouragement and a healthy sense of perspective with your fitness routine. Each step you take gets you one step closer to where you want to be. Literally. It doesn't have to be pretty and it probably won't be. Just keep taking one step at a time - which is really the only way they can be taken anyway, right?

Sources:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulite

How to Get Rid of Sore Muscles
http://www.howtogetridofstuff.com/health/how-to-get-rid-of-sore-muscles/