Guest Blog from TrueFitness: Do Not Worry About your Weight!

Do not ever worry about your weight. Weight is the worst indicator of fitness and should not be your focus, especially as an athlete. Instead, worry about performance, conditioning and possibly body fat fat percentage as your measuring sticks. Today I will explain why this should be your goal.

Your body is made up of muscle, bone, organs, water, connective tissues, blood and fat. Put all of this together and your get your total weight. All of these things are essential in the body – yes, even fat. The amount of each of these in your body will determine how much you weigh: the greater the abundance, the more you weigh.

Muscle and bone are the heaviest substances in the body, and therefore make up a majority of your body weight. Losing muscle and bone density is never a good thing. Drastic weight loss is usually the result of losing muscle and, as I just stated, losing muscle is not good for the body. We want and need muscle. We also want our bones to be dense, strong and resistant to pressures and forces than can potentially cause fractures. The denser the bone is, the less likely it is to fracture. After all, 8 inch steel is stronger than 1 inch steel. Maximizing muscle and bone density is good for the human body. Besides, muscle is the most active calorie-burning substance in the body, so having more muscle will burn more calories daily.

Organs such as the lungs, heart, liver, stomach and small intestine are vital for the body to function. We do not want to remove any of these, so just consider the weight of your organs to be fixed once you reach adulthood. Maybe next we will discuss the fallacy of intestinal cleansing, but that is a different subject for a different day.

Water is the most vital substance we can put in our body and dehydration can cause death in as little as 72 hours, so cutting out water is never recommended. Water is critical in the body to keep us hydrated, fuel our cells, lubricate our joints, conduct nerve impulses and regulate body temperature.

Connective tissues such as tendons, ligaments, cartilage keep our body together and allow for movement. Although these substances are abundant in the body, their total weight is not substantial, and our bodies will only benefit from stronger, thicker, denser ligaments, tendons and cartilage.

This leaves us with fat. Although some fat is vital for protection of the organs, creation of cells and thermoregulation, excess fat is detrimental to performance and will negatively affect our total weight. The good news is that there is something we can do about our body fat. We strive to keep our body fat low, 6-15% based on gender. This will help to keep down our total weight and while low body fat will not necessarily improve performance, it will allow us to train to perform at our optimum level.

Focus less on total weight and more on body fat percentage and you will be closer to the real goal of improving performance. Weight is a just a number that indicates how much muscle we carry. Performance is an indication of how well we USE that weight. Performance is our goal. Winning is our goal. A low body fat and muscular lean body will help with those goals. A number on a scale will not help us ever win a game. Concentrate on what matters and your performance will improve as a result of the right focus.

For more info and education on sports performance training be sure to check out our group page on Facebook, TrueFitness Performance Conditioning. You will learn valuable lessons to be your best and improve your athleticism.
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Anyone in the San Diego area is welcome to drop in at our studio at 2949 Garnet Ave. 3rd floor, Pacific Beach, CA. We would love to put you through our workout. Please feel free to call or email Spencer Aiken,CSCS (951) 296-7993 email:spencer@truefitness.biz

Article written by Spencer Aiken, CSCS, CEO, TrueFitness

Edited by Clarissa Constantine, www.fittopublish.com