The Yin & Yang of Fitness

Balance is necessary in all aspects of our lives - including our fitness plans. Here are just a few of the many things in our fitness routines that require some balance to achieve success:

1. Exercise & Nutrition:
   The balancing act between exercise and our diet is crucial to our long-term success. You can workout for 2 hours a day and still gain weight if you don’t watch what you eat. If you (like me) have a hard time giving up life’s many tasty treats…try to cut back on just a few of your indulgences. Make sure your input and output are balanced to take you to your goal. Without monitoring both your exercise and your diet, your fitness goals will be very hard to achieve.



2. Strength & Flexibility:
   If one of your goals is to increase your strength, be sure to focus on your flexibility as well. Strength training workouts can cause micro-tears in our muscles which will cause them to contract as they heal. Stretching the muscles after workouts will prevent this shortening and reduce the chances of strains and overuse injuries from tight muscles. Stretching without strength training will only weaken muscles and connective tissue over time. Together stretching and strength training will improve muscular function and performance and decrease the chances of injury.



3. Front & Back Muscles:
   Running primarily uses the back muscles of our legs (hamstrings and calves), so why do so many runners get quadriceps injuries? We need to balance the strengthening of our muscle groups. If your activity primarily uses your hamstrings, include some quadriceps exercises. If it’s your biceps that are primarily used, include some triceps exercises. If you want to reduce strain on your back, add some abdominal exercises. This balance will greatly improve your performance and reduce your chances of injury.



4. Stress & Rest:
   We tend to focus so much on the workout, we often forget that the actual improvements we want are achieved while the body is resting and recovering. Without stressing our muscles, we’ll never improve. Without resting our muscles, we’ll never improve. Be sure to have a healthy mix of stress and rest to achieve your fitness goals. If your workout routine has been the same for the past several months, chances are that you’re not stressing your body as much as you were when you started. Mix up your routine and add some increased repetitions or difficulty to challenge yourself when you can.

Balance is necessary for all of our goals in life. Learn to balance the items above in your fitness routines and watch the synergistic results take you to whole new levels of improvement!