Waking earlier is something that many people don’t like to consider. Not because it holds no benefits, but because people love to sleep. I mean, what sounds more appealing: getting up at 6am to work out, or sleeping in a nice cozy bed for a few more hours? I know what I’d prefer to do. Unfortunately though, this is something that you need to consider if you want to be ready to run a marathon, whether it is in a few months, or in a year’s time. Set your alarm at 6am, park it at the end of the bedroom, far from your bed, to prevent you from hitting the snooze button—you’ll be good to go in no time.

2. Hire a babysitter

If you have kids it’s unlikely you’re going to find ‘alone time’ very often. Instead, you’re going to be changing diapers, driving them to sports, and in general, looking/cleaning after them. Don’t get me wrong—I am not condemning spending time with your children. There just needs to be a line drawn for when you need a break from the realities of parenthood to make some time for training. If you cannot afford to hire a babysitter, hand them off to Aunt Barbara and Uncle George. They’ll take good care of them, and you’ll finally have that desired ‘alone time’ to work your body to the maximum and become fit!

3. Work out with your children

Depending on the age of your children and exactly how you are training, sometimes you could run with your child in a pram, or you could get your child to jog along with you if you’re alone; in essence, get your children involved. If you work out at a gym, see if there’s anything for them to do there. Encourage them to become healthy with you, and be a positive role model in their lives. This, however, depends on many variables. But, something can be arranged to benefit everyone.

 4. Start earlier than usual

This point may seem similar to the first point, but it’s not. Instead of it being earlier in the sense of morning, it’s in the sense of time before the marathon. In other words: begin training six months before the marathon if you know you’re going to be stumped time-wise, and you can’t do much about it. Distribute training over a long period of time, and try your best to stick with it. Providing you acquire the fitness and shape you’re aiming for, this is a completely viable solution to a very real problem.

5. Run away from distractions

Turn off the television, put the magazine down, and go for a run. Imagine you’re being chased by the television, and all you want to do is run and become fit for a marathon. This includes weekends and other days you may not have to work, as well as times after work. It may seem impossible with all the commitments and obligations, but I hope that after a while, you’ll soon adapt to living without distractions. Worst comes to worst, you throw the distractions out [as long as they’re not alive!] and get to work.

6. Schedule your workouts

When I say schedule, I mean write it down with all your other commitments, and stick with it. Simply writing what you need to do can be a motivating factor, and even more so if you actually follow through with your schedule. Don’t make excuses: when the clock strikes the time you have written to work out, do it. Drop everything and start working out. Tell your friends and family not to make any plans during those times, and have them respect the fact that you’re changing your life for the better. If they don’t like it, tough luck. Maybe you could even invite them to join you—running and working out with someone could be the motivation you need to train.

Time may be running out, but it’s going to run out faster if you’re unhealthy. By following the necessary steps to becoming fit to run a marathon, it’s inevitable that you’ll change mentally and physically for the better. Step out of your house, and get crackin’.

This was first published in the February 2015 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

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The term ‘aerobics’ has a very interesting history associated with it, which most people are unaware of. In the mid-1960s, a physician and now well-known author, Dr Kenneth Cooper gave the concept of aerobics to the world in his book The New Aerobics. The word wasn’t given a specific definition but just signified the presence of oxygen. Cooper linked the word aerobics to cardiovascular health, stating, “doing cardio would produce health benefits for the heart.” He also added, “aerobic and anaerobic are two separate systems,”—this separation is what most of us have come to believe and still do.

However, in the decades that followed, numerous research studies were done on this subject and almost all of them found the opposite to be the case. For example, in Body By Science, the authors Doug McGuff and John Little explained, “Aerobic machinery can only function through anaerobic pathways,” and that the two systems are not as separate as Dr Cooper believed them to be.

They also said that strength training, in fact, is the best way to train the heart, because it stimulates all the components of metabolism.

A very interesting point was put forward by Dr Al Sears from the Center of Health and Wellness in Florida, USA. He said that most people die from sudden heart attacks due to shock and not from a tired heart. So the best thing for most people would be to strengthen the heart in a way that it can withstand shocks, which is best done through resistance training. This is evident from the fact that all weightlifters, bodybuilders, throwers and sprinters have larger and stronger hearts compared to those of long-distance runners that are smaller and weaker. Now let’s have a look at the various reasons why aerobics doesn’t do what you always thought—and wanted—it to do.

That’s not fat you’re losing

Say, you burn 295 calories by doing an hour of cardio for seven days in a row. This would burn a total of 2065 calories in a week. Bravo, you feel good about yourself now, don’t you? Though how many calories does a pound [0.45 kilos] of fat have? Answer: over 3500 calories. So at the rate you were going, it would take you approximately 12 days to burn a pound of fat. The sad thing about this is that all those calories lost don’t just come from your stored fat, but from your muscles.

When you do cardio regularly, your body has two mechanisms which kick in…

One is a survival mechanism in which your body tries to deal with exercise stress by getting rid of all unwanted weight, which would allow it to go on for a longer time. And what does the body deem as ‘unwanted weight’? It’s your muscles. For proof, look at the body of a marathon runner and how it has adapted to the demands of his sport. While his body perceives muscle as dead weight and gets rid of it, it also stores all the body fat for future survival. This is the reason why marathon runners have a higher body fat percentage than a sprinter.

The second mechanism is the adaptation mechanism. This is the reason you stop getting results after a couple of weeks with the same amount of exercise as your body gets used to it and doesn’t burn as many calories as it once did.

Now, some might say that there are people who have lost weight from cardio but the question to ask is where was that weight lost from, body fat or muscles? This is why when an overweight person starts with excessive cardio, his fat starts hanging around his belly and arms as he loses the supporting muscle structure underneath. Competitive long distance runners are genetically gifted for such a sport and they practise that way because their sport requires it. If you want to compete in a marathon, please go ahead but just don’t take such an activity as the base for fitness.

Why muscle matters

So why shouldn’t you lose muscle mass and why is more of it better? The simple thing is that the more you have, the more effective your metabolism will be and the larger the number of calories burnt by the body at rest. And since, muscles are metabolically active, you might be glad to know that the body uses calories from your stored fat to maintain muscle mass. What this means is that you are burning fat even while you’re asleep!

The other good thing about training with weights is that you burn more calories after that kind of a workout than you would after doing cardio. So it’s not just about the calories you burn during the workout but about the calories you burn after it as well [the scientific term for this being Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption or EPOC]. After your weightlifting session, your muscles break down and they get repaired by the body as you take in proper nutrition and rest. And it is while you rest that your body takes calories from fat to help rebuild your muscles.

The dangers of cardio

It isn’t just that cardio is ineffective; it is potentially harmful, what with the systematic stress it inflicts on the body. The human body is under more stress today than at any other time in history—be it from a polluted environment, erratic lifestyles or poor eating habits. This stress causes the formation of free radicals leading to inflammation, which has been proven as the major cause of all lifestyle diseases like type-2 diabetes, hypertension, heart ailments, arthritis, brain disorders, weakening of immune system, cancer etc. Excessive cardio is one of the leading causes of the rise in cortisol, a stress hormone, which promotes fat storage, protein catabolism and ageing. Cardio workouts are also one of the main reasons for overuse injuries. Strength training, on the other hand, improves muscle mass and bone density giving you strength and balance in the joints and, at the same time, increases your metabolism, which would otherwise slow down with age.

Women should lift too

If you go back in history, our grandmothers never went for a jog, nor did they do hundreds of crunches every day. However, they were still fit and active as a fiddle and ate their hearts out. The simple reason was that they were physically active the right way. By lifting buckets of water, washing clothes, carrying heavy bags for long distances, grinding wheat in a chakki [stonemill], fetching out water from wells, they were unwittingly performing heavy weight-bearing workouts.

However, women don’t have to go back in time or turn their backs on centuries of progress, they just have to visit their gym and lift weights! Remember that women have 15 – 20 times less testosterone than men, so they cannot build bulk or muscle shape even if they lift much heavier than any guy in the gym. What they are going to get with such a workout is pure fat burn, a toned body and glowing skin. Strengthened joints and a disease-free body are the other significant perks.

After reading this, it would seem like I completely hate cardio, but I don’t. All I am asking you to do is not engage in medium–intensity, long-distance cardio. High-intensity sprints or even moderate-intensity brisk walks are the best ways to target fat. If you want to jog or cycle for long distances, please do it if it makes you happy and if it opens you up to a healthy lifestyle. But just be informed that there are better—and safer—options.

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The top 10 workout misconceptions

1. Running and taking the stairs are bad for the knees

This is among the most prevalent workout misconceptions. Running and climbing are natural movements which are great for your muscles and heart. If you are fit and you’re running and climbing stairs correctly, these movements are not harmful. However, if you are thumping your feet hard on the ground then it is bad for the joints. Make sure you’re light on your feet. If you can hear your footsteps noticeably, you’re running incorrectly.

Too much of running and stair climbing can be bad for the knees if you are extremely overweight, have weak knees, or are moving with a wrong technique. You can continue running into your seventies and eighties, which many marathon runners the world over do.

2. Walking or jogging on concrete is bad for the knees

If someone’s running technique is wrong they will perhaps damage their joints sooner on a hard surface than they will on a soft mud track. But they will damage their knees on the soft track too. So an injury has less to do with the track surface than the running technique.

When we hear the thud of our feet while running, our joints are being jarred with each movement. When we run with the right technique, it is the muscles that do the work and act as shock absorbers causing minimal impact on the joints. Marathon runners, including the ones who run into their seventies and eighties, run on concrete roads their whole lives, but nothing happens to their joints.

Another essential factor in being a good runner is to give sufficient rest to the muscles between runs. Running well also has a lot to do with stretching the key muscles so that they retain their elasticity. Running excessively makes the calves and hamstring muscles tight and they need to be stretched adequately to prevent knee pain and injury.

A few years ago Fauja Singh became arguably the oldest man to run a 42-km marathon at 100 years of age. Running on concrete roads for many decades has surely not damaged his knees!

3. Running on the treadmill is the same as running outdoors

It is not a good idea to predominantly run on the machine in preparation for running outdoors, particularly a marathon. I have seen so many people who regularly run long distances on the treadmill struggling to run a fraction of that on real ground outside. Many of them are shocked and frustrated, as they are under the misconception that running on the treadmill is an absolute substitute to running outdoors.

On a treadmill, the belt or the surface underneath your feet keeps moving towards you, unlike real ground outside. Just like a suitcase comes towards you on an airport baggage conveyor belt without any effort of its own, with every step you take on the treadmill, the forward leg comes back without any effort. You just have to lift the back foot forward again, which will again be brought back by the machine. The electrical power puts in the effort that you would otherwise have to, if you were running outdoors.

When you walk or run on the road outside, the leg that’s forward has to work harder. The muscles are being used in a specific way to propel the back leg forward each time. On a treadmill, the muscles of the legs are used in a totally different way as the surface below your feet is pulling-your forward leg back each time. So although it’ll feel like you’re running as much as you might on solid ground, using electrical power makes walking or running on the treadmill comparatively very easy and in fact, wholly different in the way your muscles are being used.

Running on the treadmill is not a natural movement and overdoing it is not great for you in the long run. Unless it is raining or snowing outside, just head out to the park nearby or even the road outside your house for your brisk walk or run.

4. Comfortably cushioned shoes are a must for running

Before the modern highly cushioned running shoe was invented, human beings were largely running barefoot or with very minimal footwear. When you run barefoot, you will discover your natural running movement in which you will be landing on the mid foot and front part of your foot rather than your heel. This is the right technique of running.

The running shoes with highly padded soles and heels that we get today enable us to run in a way that causes our heels to hit the ground first. This is wrong and a cause of many running-related injuries. You should buy shoes which enable you to easily run with the right technique of landing on the mid and front of your feet, rather than the ones which have such thick heels that force you to land on the heel.

Barefoot running is gaining popularity as it reduces the chances of injuries caused by the over-cushioned running shoes which cause us to run with a wrong technique, unless we are very conscious of applying the right technique when running. When running barefoot, we are instinctively forced to run with the right technique as it would be painful to land on the heel.

Since we are so used to running with shoes, it is tough and perhaps not practical to suddenly start running barefoot.

However, it is a great idea to run barefoot whenever you get a chance. When you are on the beach, grass, or nice mud surface—take off your shoes and run! An important argument in favour of barefoot running is that while running barefoot, you are able to feel the surface you are running on and the body adjusts the running technique accordingly. When running barefoot on a hard surface, you will be forced to be light on your feet, thereby reducing the chances of injury to your ankle, knee, and hip joints. You won’t find extensive studies comparing the results of shoes versus barefoot running but a little experiment running with and without shoes will confirm what I am saying here is simple common sense. I strongly recommend walking and running barefoot on grass and sand whenever you get a chance as it is very healing for the body. The soles of our feet have extensive nerve endings which get soothed and stimulated, resulting in rejuvenation of the whole body, when in contact with natural surfaces like grass and sand.

5. Doing many crunches or working out on abs machines will flatten my stomach

This is perhaps the most widely followed workout misconceptions. Doing excessive crunches will only make your stomach muscles very strong which is not of much use performance-wise, unless your back and other muscles are not exercised accordingly. If you have a pot belly, it will remain well in its place no matter how many crunches you do. All it will do is create strong abdomen muscles beneath the flab.

Instead, you should be doing cardio exercises like running, cycling, brisk walking, skipping, and stair climbing to burn extra calories in order to flatten the stomach and lose weight in proportion to the rest of your body.

The other drawback in just doing excessive abdominal contractions is that it makes the stomach muscles much stronger as compared to the back muscles. This imbalance gives rise to lower back problems.

6. Exercise makes us fit. If I overtrain and workout every day or twice a day, it will make me super fit

“Overtraining will give faster and better results” is one of the top workout misconceptions that plague fitness enthusiasts around the world. Overtraining is as bad as undertraining, perhaps worse. Apart from triggering a burnout, over-exercising makes you perilously prone to injuries. To achieve the best fitness results, there is an optimum amount of exercise you must do. Anything beyond that gives diminishing returns and will make you weak, drain your energy levels, and cause injuries.

I see a lot of people addicted to working out, pushing their body day after day.

Apart from exercise and nutrition, the body needs sufficient rest to recuperate from vigorous exercise. Not giving your body enough rest between intensive workouts will cause unnecessary wear and tear of your joints. You may not feel the strain at present, but I’ve come across many people who’ve over exercised in their 30s and are now sitting it out with serious knee injuries in their forties and fifties.

7. Just look at his six-pack! Isn’t he incredibly fit?

Another of those exercise misconceptions that mislead people. Having a chiselled six-pack and being very muscular are not the only criteria of being fit, or for that matter, even very strong. This is the case particularly if those popping muscles have been developed the way a professional bodybuilder trains—by isolating muscle groups and not necessarily paying much attention to stretching and cardiovascular endurance exercises. A professional bodybuilder’s body is meant, mostly, for show. That is the main purpose of their training. On the other hand, an athlete’s training is for performance. So apart from strength, the athlete’s fitness routine involves a good amount of exercises for flexibility, speed, and stamina. A person may be muscular but if they do not have good flexibility or stamina, they can’t really be considered completely fit.

Many actors and models have proven that visible six-pack abs and overly well-defined muscles are achievable by putting in hard work. Our leading sportspeople put in much more hard work and time into their fitness workouts and training.

Just think about it—why don’t all our leading sportspeople or even elite soldiers, for that matter, sport visible six-pack abs if it would in any way enhance their physical performance?

8. She’s so thin. She must be really fit!

This is one of more popular workout misconceptions among women. Being thin and being fit are two different things. I’ve come across many people who are thin but terribly unfit compared to someone who might not be so thin. Fitness is not about being thin or muscular, but about strength, flexibility, stamina, speed, fast reflexes, and balance. Only a person who has a good balance of all these factors, and can apply it functionally, can be called fit. Athletes, gymnasts, and most sportspeople epitomise fitness.

9. Fruits, coconut water, dry fruits, potatoes, bananas, and other such natural foods are fattening as they have sugar, carbohydrates and are high in calories

Let’s say a natural food in its raw form contains the same amount of calories as say a biscuit, a slice of bread, or some other processed food to start with. Our body needs to do some work burning some calories to break down natural foods, including bananas and potatoes, in order for these foods to release energy in the body.

Fruits and other natural raw foods release energy slowly in the body as our body breaks them down. Highly refined foods such as white sugar do not need to be broken down by the body, which results in direct and sudden increase in blood sugar which is very harmful to the body. Moreover, natural foods have more nutrients and fibre which aids a healthier functioning of the body.

10. I am trying to lose weight, so I should avoid carbohydrates and fat completely and just have a protein-rich diet

For a very brief period perhaps you could possibly try something like that. But if you sustain a diet which is totally deficient in one or more of the essential components of a balanced healthy diet, will be harmful to your body in the long run. Your weight loss with such diets will be accompanied by harm to your internal system and organs. Moreover, the weight loss with such drastic and unhealthy measures will be temporary, and will come back with a vengeance within a few months or years.

A healthy and long-term weight loss is achieved by cutting down excess calories, especially in: the form of white sugar and other processed as well as fried foods.

Now that you are informed, eliminate the above workout misconceptions from your mind and start working out smartly.

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