Optimum Fitness Network

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Installment 11

Since there seems to be so much confusion as to what fitness really is, and how to train for it, I have found it necessary to coin my own name… OptiFitness.

We know that optimization, not maximization, is the road to universal, general fitness, over-all health and an attractive, symmetrical body.

And the universal definition of fitness shows us what physical abilities we need to improve through proper physical training.

So, what exactly is OptiFitness?

The Definition Of OptiFitness…

Possessing the ability to use all the physical and mental qualities making up human activity in a fluid, seamless and coordinated fashion to successfully survive, flourish and excel in your natural, unpredictable environment and meet the challenges of sport, work and life with excellence under the greatest amount of circumstances.

In essence, OptiFitness is us at our human best… and optimum physical training is the way to cultivate and develop the best within us all.

The challenges of sport, work and life demand an endless combination of the abilities of fitness… very rarely, if ever, will only one physical ability be used to successfully complete any given task at any given time.

The ultimate goal of Optimum Physical Training is to optimize all the physical abilities needed to meet the challenges of work, sport and life with excellence in a seamlessly fluid manner to successfully complete any physical task at any given point in time.

As you can see, your physical training should not only strive to improve all the physical abilities that make up fitness… but also strive to improve the interaction of these physical abilities into a fluidity of movement that ensures the greatest possibility of successful completion of physical activity.

Coach Eddie Lomax

www.workoutduel.com
www.fitnessarticlehub.com
www.workout-without-weights.com
www.superior-dumbbell-workout.com
www.athletic-body-workout.com

Stay tuned for the next installment… OptiFitness Is Designed For You!

Installment # 10 Once you understand this universal definition of fitness, you realize how important it is to your over-all success… and wonder how you ever trained without it.

The Universal Definition Of Fitness… The acceptable and deliberate compromise of competence and ability to perform in all the areas of cardiorespiratory endurance, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy and toughness to produce optimum performance results under the greatest amount of circumstances.Here are the physical abilities in more detail…

-Cardiorespiratory EnduranceThe level of ability your body has to gather, process, deliver and sustain oxygen to produce energy needed for the successful completion of activity… allowing you to do more, longer.

-StrengthThe level of ability your body has to exert muscular/skeletal force for maximum, explosive and endurance movements against resistance… allowing you to be stronger in a greater number of circumstances.

-PowerThe level of ability your body has to exert force against resistance causing the object of resistance to accelerate or change position with speed… allowing you to exert explosive force with your body and other objects.

-SpeedThe level of ability your body has to move a part of the body or the entire body over a short distance as quickly as possible… allowing you to become stronger and faster by targeting the nervous system.

-FlexibilityThe level of ability a joint displays to move freely through a full range of motion… allowing you to be stronger over a greater range of motion and reduce the risk of injury.

-BalanceThe level of ability to control placement of the body’s center of gravity in relation to its support base… allowing you to perform from a solid, stable foundation.

-CoordinationThe level of ability to combine several different muscles, groups of muscles, energy systems and movement patterns into a singular, distinct and purposeful movement… allowing you to move seamlessly and effortlessly from one physical ability to another to successfully complete a task.

-AgilityThe level of ability to minimize transaction time from one movement pattern to another… allowing you keep your balance while changing direction, stopping, starting, slowing down or increasing speeds quickly.

-AccuracyThe level of ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity while remaining correct, exact and without mistakes… allowing you to control your body and other objects with precision.

-ToughnessThe level of physical and/or mental ability to do something which is difficult or will take a long time… allowing you the mental and physical fortitude to successfully complete difficult tasks under difficult circumstances.

The more competent you are in all of the physical abilities and the larger set of circumstances in which you can successfully apply those abilities… the fitter, healthier and more attractive you will be.

As a result of improving these performance abilities, your body makes positive, visible changes that reflect your fitness capabilities… Developing a strong, lean, athletic body.

Basing your physical training program on this definition of fitness enables you to focus on optimizing the physical abilities needed for optimum fitness while creating the visible qualities of the optimum physique… and not focusing on maximizing one physical ability for specialized performance while creating a one-dimensional body.

Coach Eddie Lomax

www.workoutduel.com
www.fitnessarticlehub.com
www.workout-without-weights.com
www.superior-dumbbell-workout.com
www.athletic-body-workout.com
www.sexy-body-workout.com 

Stay tuned for the next installment… What Is OptiFitness?

Installment #9 

Basing your physical training on a solid, concise, universal definition of fitness ensures you won’t get lost on the way to optimum fitness, optimum health and optimum physique. Your training will be more effective, you will attain the results you want and you will ultimately succeed where others have failed. 

It amazes me that as important as fitness is to every man, woman and child, a solid, concise and universal definition of fitness is hard to find.

Ask someone participating in a physical fitness program, or even someone in the fitness industry, to give you a clear definition of fitness and you are frequently greeted with a long, uncomfortable silence. 

If you get an answer, it is something like, “Fitness is being fit” , or some other vague, unhelpful definition.

To make matters worse, usually the definition changes depending on who you ask.

For example…

-A Bodybuilder defines fitness in terms of size, definition, and proportionality of specific muscle groups.

-A Power Lifter defines fitness in terms of maximum strength for specific lifts.

-A Sprinter in terms of speed.

-A Marathoner in terms of endurance, etc.

The attributes of value used to define fitness are usually closely linked to the activity the person asked is involved in.

Don’t be mistaken, your physical fitness success is determined by your definition of fitness. So make sure your fitness program is based on a clear, universal definition of fitness. Think about what fitness really is, and what being fit means to you!

Coach Eddie Lomax

www.workoutduel.com
www.fitnessarticlehub.com
www.workout-without-weights.com
www.superior-dumbbell-workout.com
www.athletic-body-workout.com
www.sexy-body-workout.com

Stay tuned for the next installment… Definition Of Fitness For Optimum Fitness, Lasting Health And Your Best Body

Installment #8

This is a difficult concept for people to understand… so pay close attention.

Fitness is a compromise between a wide variety of physical abilities. Fitness is NOT the “maximization” of one physical ability at the expense of all the others.

If you want a physical training program that ensures you perform your best no matter what the challenge and develop the lean, muscular, athletic body that exemplifies all-purpose fitness… you must base your physical training program on a fitness definition derived from physical ability “optimization” and not physical ability “maximization”.

You can only achieve well rounded fitness excellence, and your best body as a result, through compromise.Optimize your ability to perform all physical abilities at any given time. Don’t maximize your ability to perform one physical ability at a specific point in time.

True physical fitness is your physical ability to perform the widest variety of tasks under the greatest diversity of circumstances. It is not maximizing one physical ability to perform one task under controlled circumstances.

We live in a world of specialization, which may be fine in other aspects of your life, but the more specialized you become in terms of fitness, the further away you get from over-all, universal fitness. Therefore, the definition of fitness from which you base your fitness program must seek to optimize performance in a wide variety of physical abilities and not just maximize specialized physical abilities.

Furthermore, optimization of multiple physical abilities will positively impact general health and develop a symmetrical, naturally athletic and aesthetically pleasing physique. And in my experience, this strong, muscular lean, athletic body is the goal of most men and women.

Coach Eddie Lomax

www.workoutduel.com
www.fitnessarticlehub.com
www.workout-without-weights.com
www.superior-dumbbell-workout.com
www.athletic-body-workout.com
www.sexy-body-workout.com

Stay tuned for the next installment… A Universal Definition Of Fitness Allows You To Succeed Where Others Have Failed!

Installment #7

At some point in history human intelligence intervened and we learned how to control our environment, making it more comfortable and less demanding. As a result, the environment in which we lived and our way of life changed dramatically. But our bodies and the biological mechanisms enabling us to survive for thousands of years remained unchanged. After all, our body does not want to relinquish those hard earned evolutionary gains, and even though our environment is less demanding, it stubbornly remains prepared for the worst. 

Ironically, those same survival traits when placed in a soft, undemanding environment of little physical activity, and paired with poor nutritional habits and overabundance, often lead to undesirable physical traits, poor health and lowered survival ability.

As the stresses forcing us to improve became less and less numerous in our natural environment, our daily lives had to be augmented with physical training if we were to continue to improve and become the best we could be. The truth is, we are at our best, healthiest and happiest when we live in an environment that challenges us regularly, forces us to adapt in a positive manner to overcome those challenges and instigates physical changes enabling us to perform those challenges easier in the future.

Since this “fitness environment” no longer exists naturally in our lives due to the endless meddling of human invention, we must create it with the help of physical training.

When you satisfy the primal desire to be the best you can be by engaging in physical training that works with your body, not against it, you develop the physical abilities you need to live life to the fullest and create the body you want as a result. 

Optimum Physical Training is an effective way to naturally create the “optimum fitness environment” we need to improve fitness, health and physique, and quiet that nagging “little voice” of disappointment.

Coach Eddie Lomax

www.workoutduel.com
www.fitnessarticlehub.com
www.workout-without-weights.com
www.superior-dumbbell-workout.com
www.athletic-body-workout.com
www.sexy-body-workout.com

Stay tuned for the next installment… Why Fitness Is About Optimization… Not Maximization!

Unfit to Optifit #6

Charles Darwin’s Survival of the Fittest states the best suited for survival in their natural environment will flourish and pass their good traits on to future generations.

Well, approximately 100,000 years ago, this process of natural selection finally paid off.

Humans reached an evolutionary level where they became equipped with all of the biological tools necessary for survival in the natural environment.

These tools can be seen in the following principles…

The Principle of Adaptation states your body will adapt to the stresses placed upon it during physical activity by making physical changes allowing the body to perform that activity better and more efficiently in the future.

The Principle of Overload states a greater than normal stress must be placed on the body for the body to respond by adapting… and once the body has adapted, a different stress is required for further change. 

The Principle of Progression states there is an optimum level of overload in physical training to produce optimum results… and there is an optimum timeframe for the overload to be applied to produce optimum results. 

The Principle of General Adaptation Syndrome, as applicable to physical training, states there must be a period of low intensity training or complete rest after periods of high intensity training.

The Principle of Specificity states your body will adapt to specific stresses by making specific physical changes that will aid in the improvement of specific skills needed to perform that specific activity better and more efficiently.

The Principle of Use Disuse states you must maintain or improve physical skills through physical training and use… or those skills will diminish and disappear.

The Principle of Individual Differences states that each individual person is unique… so each person’s needs and responses to physical training will be different.

These principles provide not only the biological tools enabling us to survive in a cruel, harsh and demanding world… but the ability to flourish in it. 

These same principles that evolved over thousands of years with the ultimate goals of human survival, are the same principles that govern the human body in the modern world… and are the keys to fitness, health and beauty.

Coach Eddie Lomax

www.workoutduel.com
www.workout-without-weights.com
www.superior-dumbbell-workout.com
www.athletic-body-workout.com
www.sexy-body-workout.com

Stay tuned for the next installment… The Intervention Of Human Intelligence… More Comfort - Less Fitness!

Unfit to OptiFit: Installment 5

Almost everywhere you look in modern society, we see behavior patterns and entire lifestyles leading to unfit, unhealthy men and women with unappealing physical traits. It seems everything in our immediate physical environment pulls us further away from a natural state of fitness, health and beauty. Our environment in the modern world no longer creates the body we want “naturally”.

There are many obstacles keeping us from achieving our fitness and physique goals:

• Finding the time
• Acquiring the knowledge
• Harvesting the energy

Sometimes it seems like pursuing the best within us often seems like an impossible task.

What is worse, these obstacles are often met with indifference, cynicism and apathy. There seems to be a common belief that the ability to naturally develop and maintain a high level of fitness, health and attractiveness in the modern world is impossible for the average person, and only obtainable for a select few.

I could argue that for the most advanced species on earth we are the furthest from our natural state of fitness, health and beauty. But I also believe that a high level of fitness, improved health and aesthetic beauty is just as possible in modern society, if not more so, as earlier in human history. We have just forgotten how.

We as a species are in existence today because our bodies naturally developed the ability to survive, flourish and excel in an environment much more demanding than the one we find ourselves living in today. While in many cases we no longer need the physical abilities and lean, athletic bodies of our ancestors in order to survive in the modern world, we are none the less instinctually drawn to physical fitness, health and aesthetic beauty.

Furthermore, the possession of fitness, health and beauty is undeniably necessary for those of us with the goal of reaching our physical potential and living life to the fullest.

Modern advancements make it possible to live a rather comfortable life. We no longer have to exert ourselves. Machinery and technological advancements take care of most of the work.

Our diet is more processed than natural. And since a convenient, high calorie food supply is readily available for most of us, the struggle to acquire food no longer exists. And let’s face it, most of the processed food tastes good.

So, the environment of the modern world is against you. It will not “naturally” create the strong, lean, attractive body you want. A poor diet, low activity lifestyle and modern temptations are against you.

But there is good news…

You can choose a proper diet, an effective exercise program and a healthy lifestyle. Free will and CHOICE are your secret weapons. Make a choice now, and CHOOSE to be fit, healthy and attractive!

Coach Eddie Lomax

www.workoutduel.com
www.workout-without-weights.com
www.superior-dumbbell-workout.com
www.athletic-body-workout.com
www.sexy-body-workout.com

Stay tuned for the next installment… Fitness, Health And Physique For Survival And The Principles That Govern The Human Body

Unfit to OptiFit Installment #4

Being fit, healthy and beautiful is held in high regard in human society for both men and women. We seek these traits for ourselves, admire and even envy it in others and are secretly tormented when we don’t have them. But where did all these fitness, health and beauty desires come from?

Have you ever wondered why that “little voice of disappointment” speaks to you when you look in the mirror and don’t like what you see? Or when you fail to perform one of life’s activities as well as you would like? You know, the “little voice” reminding you that you are not the best you can be, and you better do something about it.

That “little voice” comes from someplace deep down inside. It haunts you with the knowledge that your body and physical abilities are lacking. When you are less than you can be, it never lets you forget it.

No, this is not brought on by some vain, selfish desire. It is not a side effect of mass-media brainwashing. This “little voice” originates from one of the most basic, primal instincts we all share. 

This is the survival of the fittest instinct talking. 

Your survival of the fittest instinct wants you to develop the physical abilities needed to survive, flourish and excel in your natural environment. It wants you to develop the lean, muscular, athletic body that exemplifies those physical abilities. It wants you to be the best you can be.

And it will not be silent until you do something about it! 

So, stop ignoring that little voice. Give it what it wants. 

Eat healthier! Train effectively and consistently! Live a life that supports your fitness goals!

Because ultimately, what that “little voice” wants is what you want. It wants a lean, muscular body and the physical ability to live life to the fullest. 

Have you been ignoring your “little voice”? Then do something about it!

Coach Eddie Lomax

www.workoutduel.com
www.workout-without-weights.com
www.superior-dumbbell-workout.com
www.athletic-body-workout.com
www.sexy-body-workout.com

Stay tuned for the next installment… Our Past Determines Our Future: Physical Fitness, Health and Beauty In the Modern World

Unfit to OptiFit Installment 3

Are you frustrated looking for the perfect fitness program. You know, the one that naturally develops your best body, that improves the physical abilities you need to enjoy a healthy, happy and active life and that fits your personality and lifestyle?

You are not alone.

In the search for the fitness program right for you, you have probably come across bodybuilding programs, strength programs, sport programs, “cardio” programs, fat loss programs and a whole host of fitness fads. But none that specifically meet your goals, needs, wants and likes.

Fitness is a word commonly used in today’s society. Yet the very word brings to mind very different images for different people. The more you search for common ground to understand fitness, the more frustrating the search becomes. With all the contrary views, conflicting evidence and widely varying opinions, it is easy to quickly suffer from information overload.

So what is a person to believe, and more importantly, what is a person to do to improve physical fitness, health and physique?

You may be thinking a fitness program that develops physical and performance improvements on your terms just does not exist.

When I set out to put my physical training philosophy into writing I quickly realized that although the specific training methods, exercises and programs are important… it is the training philosophy itself that holds the key to a high level of physical fitness, long lasting health and an attractive, sustainable physique.

So don’t give up the dream of optimum fitness, improved health and your best body just yet.

The primary goal of Unfit To OptiFit, and the Optimum Fitness Network in general, is to provide common ground for men and women who seek fitness, health and physique improvements… on their terms.

With the knowledge and experienced gained by following the philosophy and guidelines of the Optimum Fitness Network, you can take an active role in developing YOUR best pathfor the successful achievement of an active, healthy lifestyle and your best body, and live life to the fullest.

Coach Eddie Lomax

www.workoutduel.com
www.workout-without-weights.com
www.superior-dumbbell-workout.com
www.athletic-body-workout.com
www.sexy-body-workout.com

Stay tuned for the next installment… Why We Seek Fitness, Health and Beauty For Ourselves And Admire It In Others

Unfit To OptiFit Installment 2

Most people are looking for the best workout routine. They want a workout they can do over and over again and get predictable results. Unfortunately, this universal workout routine does not exist. 

Everyone seems to think there is a magic formula for fitness, health and physique success. But the truth is, you have to find out what works for you. What works well for one person may not work at all for another. What works well for you now will not continue to work well forever.

Instead of looking for one workout routine you can use over and over again for an extended period of time, strive to create a way of life embracing the infinite possibilities of human activity. Naturally produce fitness and health improvements while simultaneously instigating the positive bodily changes that go along with them. You must learn how your body works, how to optimize your physical training and how to incorporate healthy diet and life habits into your lifestyle.

You must learn to instinctually embrace an environment made up of physical training, diet and lifestyle naturally developing the best hidden within you. 

When we were children we would run, jump and play. Our physical fitness, health and physique reflected this participation in random physical activity. We lived in an environment of ever changing exploration and movement, and our bodies and physical abilities reflected that environment. 

Explore your possibilities, learn what works best for you and take an active role in creating a lifestyle that produces fitness, health and beauty.

Learn what it is to be human again by participating and excelling in the human activities of sport, work and life.

You must become an Everyday Athlete… a person who possesses the natural and acquired physical abilities of human activity necessary to meet the everyday challenges of sport, work and life with excellence. 

This search for your optimum fitness, health and physique environment is a never ending journey. Your quest to be an Everyday Athlete is personal one. While this sounds lonely, don’t despair… you are not alone!

Coach Eddie Lomax

www.workoutduel.com
www.workout-without-weights.com
www.superior-dumbbell-workout.com
www.athletic-body-workout.com
www.sexy-body-workout.com

Stay tuned for the next installment… Unfit To OptiFit Shows You How To Improve Fitness, Health And Physique, On Your Terms!