The biggest barrier to being in shape

What most people mean when they say they want to get “in shape” is that they want to get bit leaner. This is a combination of two things:

  1. More muscle mass
  2. Lower body fat percentage

You could argue good cardio belongs in the list too but I would challenge you to find a fat person that cares about their 5K time. Most people just want to have a bit more muscle mass and a bit less body fat.

It goes without saying that you need to eat “right” and exercise. These often mean different things to many people.

But the one thing you should unequivocally avoid is getting injured. Nothing will destroy your progress more than getting sidelined by injury.

For people over the age of 60, injury is what sparks the rapid decline of their physical capacity.

It is a depressing time for people of all ages. You do not want to be in this position.

I’ve managed to strength train hard for 6-7 years alongside at least one other sport. Ironically it was an injury that got me started in the first place.

I’ve gained muscle and gotten lean, lost it again and then gained it back many times over that period. In that time, I was sidelined with injury only once, 6 years ago when I had a small fracture in my foot which prevented me from training for 3 weeks.

It’s difficult to get injured just from strength training, unless you do it wrong or you have a pre-existing issue. But, dynamic sports like surfing and jiujitsu will increase the risk of injury. I’ve pursued all 3 simultaneously over the past 2 years and have been fortunate enough to have avoided any serious injury. That’s been critical to maintaining fitness and more importantly, enjoyment.

I go into more detail into what you can do to minimise your risk of injury in this post.

These are things that I believe have helped me prevent it.

Most of it comes down to this: don’t do stupid shit, train your body to be robust in deep ranges, and take a measured approach to pushing your limits. And a little bit of luck.

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