Fitness is about fun, discipline, and recovery.  While fitness is a life long journey if it is not fun, is it even worth it.  Quality fitness habits are more manageable when they are fun. Being able to do what you want when you weather it is athletic sport and winning medal or just keeping up the grandchildren the goal of fitness is to have the adaptability to perform the skills you want to do.

The idea behind fitness is more than doing reps at the gym; it is inclusive of a holistic lifestyle. In a holistic life and ideal world, we get enough sleep, about eight hours a night. We eat whole foods with a variety of colors and textures. We also spend ample time outdoors and in nature and with God. And we train for everything in between.

Unfortunately, we do not live in idea world. Stress is there every day, nagging at us to get this or that done. We “must” do this this or that before we can do that. Rarely do we stop to breathe and take time to listen to our surroundings. Worse we ignore our body cues, thinking our brain know better. There must be a better way.

The body performs best when it is relaxed; our parasympathetic system, also known as rest and digestion, is doing its job. This parasympathetic activity is crucial for performance. We need to be able to activate our sympathetic or fight or flight, then we need to be able to turn it down and turn off the parasympathetic. Being able to balance both is the goal.

If we train our mind and body to activate and reactivate, we can improve performance. We do this by working hard when it is time to work hard and playing in a relaxed state. For example, go hard and lift heavy, go run for a couple hours, go work a long hard day. Then go and do the opposite and play the edge of working hard, but stay relaxed. How do you perform? How do you measure your performance when you are fatigued and worn out but still gotta do the thing – sport, work, favorite hobby? It does matter the same principle applies. Train for recovery and you will win.