Fitness Information Center

Interested in getting the most out of the next six weeks of Basic Training? Embarking on a fitness program means expending a lot of time and effort, but if you want to succeed, it should also mean learning some of the basics of physical fitness.

Personal fitness has come in many ways to be almost synonymous with weight loss, and that's understandable given the struggles most of us have maintaining a healthy weight. However, there are two things we need to remember with regard to losing those extra pounds. First is that it is possible to be thin, and yet be in poor health. Second, by ignoring some of the cardinal rules of fitness, you can actually undermine your attempts to lose that extra weight.

Below you'll find information on the three primary components of fitness: muscular strength and endurance, cardiovascular fitness and flexibility. We'll briefly explain what each is, and how it impacts your overall health. We've also included links for those who would like to do some further study.

Muscular Strength and Endurance

Muscular strength deals with power- your ability to exert a certain amount of force with your muscles. Muscular endurance deals with stamina- your ability to exert muscular force over a period of time. Both are a measure of your muscular fitness.

The major benefits of muscular conditioning include protection from injury, increased ability to do daily tasks, improved physical appearance, better sense of wellbeing, improved circulation, strengthening of bones, decreased risk of certain diseases, increased stamina and energy, better sense of balance and protection from falls, improved sleep, stress relief, and fat loss.

How do we address muscular conditioning in Basic Training? The Basic Training program doesn't include weight lifting as a normal part of its regimen, but instead relies on various calisthenics, or "body resistance" exercises. The benefits of doing calisthenics are many. While callisthenic exercises focus on individual muscle groups, they also work the muscles in a functional way- that is, they work them in concert with the other muscles of the body just as you would in "real life" situations, which help you to develop practical strength, and even a fluidity in movement that comes when muscles are trained in a "real life" manner.

Want to learn more? Click here 

Cardiovascular Fitness

Technically, cardiovascular fitness is also a form of muscular fitness. Specifically, it deals with the efficiency of the heart, lungs, and vascular system in delivering oxygen to the working muscle tissues so that prolonged physical work can be maintained.

The major benefits of muscular conditioning include protection from injury, burning stored calories, increase in bone strength, reduction in hypertension, reduction in cholesterol, better sense of wellbeing, increase in sensitivity to insulin, increased stamina and energy, decreased risk of certain diseases, improved circulation, improved sleep, stress relief, and fat loss.

In Basic Training, everything we do builds cardiovascular fitness. Every class ends (and sometimes begins) with a run of 1 to 2,5 miles (varying speeds for beginning and advanced runners), and the calisthenics portion of the class is structured to keep the heart in the training zone.

Want to learn more? Click here

Flexibility

Flexibility is simply the ability to move your joints and muscles through their full range of motion. The major benefits of increased flexibility are decreased susceptibility to injury, increase in athletic performance, improved circulation, and better posture.

Flexibility is primarily promoted through stretching. In Basic Training we always begin each class with a short period of warm-up and stretching, but we encourage participants to engage in regular stretching on their own to increase flexibility.

Want to learn more? Click here 

Activity Journal

In addition to the Daily Plate's food journal, it also includes an activity journal that will help you to track how many calories you're burning each day. Click here to access this valuable and free online tool. 

More Fitness Tools

Interested in calculating how many calories you burn in the course of a day? Want to know what your body mass index? For these and many other fitness tools, click here