One of the most common mistakes people make when putting together a PT routine is a lack of balance. I have a good buddy I work with, who is our SET (Specialized English Training) instructor here at the international school house. A couple years back he pulled a tour in Afghanistan training Afghan officers english. While he was there, he decided to lose some weight and get himself in better condition. Now as a DOD civilian and never having been in the military, his go to PT was mostly playing sports like basketball and softball. Despite that he started walking and running around the airfield and he put himself on a strict diet. Slowly he got in better shape and lost weight, the fact is he lost a lot of weight. He went from over 260 lbs (at 6’3”) to 190lbs during his year deployed. When he came back home, his family didn’t recognize him. It was a great accomplishment and he was determined not to regain the weight.
So then he comes back to the states and even though he continues running, his reintroduction to a normal life and 24/7 access to food (and beer), had him gaining weight again, (another common occurrence). His response was to increase his running mileage. But despite running around up to 50 miles a week he couldn’t keep his weight down and he was becoming completely burnt out on running. Things then went from bad to worse when his back started acting up. Obviously too much running was causing it. I had tried to get him to vary his workouts, as I knew that just running everyday would lead to this, but as he had such good success before with running he resisted my advice and just tried to gut through it.
However with his injury and burnt out attitude he eventually relented and we got him started on some weightlifting, calisthenics and a lot of stretching (something he hadn’t been doing much of), every other day. As you could guess his upper body was weak and he was very stiff, but we started slowly and he cut his running down in the process. With that he got his diet back on track, as when he was running a lot he felt he could eat anything and as much as he wanted, but he found out the hard way that you can’t out run a bad diet.
After about a month he had pretty much healed up and his weight was back down to 190. More importantly his attitude was reset. I wasn’t surprised, as I’ve seen the same thing in people that just run, lift weights, or just do any single activity for their PT program. You have to give your body and mind some variety if you want to maintain a successful long term workout routine and eating plan. We all like to do what we’re good at, however its been my long experience that people do better at their favorite activity if they throw in some different stuff on a regular basis. They often find out that they really enjoy something new once they give it a try. Like most things in life, keeping it in balance is the key to long term success. I’m off to Antigua for a few weeks to train some of their Coast Guard and Law Enforcement people and I’m sure I’ll see something there to talk about when I get back next month. Till then; “Be safe Always, Good when you can.”
Semper Fi
MGunz
