The ZGYM is all about building a functional, lean, athletic body. While getting fit can be done in a variety of ways, maintaining it is another thing. To do that, you should be focusing on what I like to call the cornerstones of fitness, which are strength, balance, flexibility, endurance, and mobility. After combining all five, your body will move as well as it looks. 

Strength 

The amount of force that your muscles can produce is known as (muscular) strength. [1] The American Council on Exercise (ACE) also adds that muscular endurance and power are also related to strength. For endurance, it’s how long your muscles can maintain an amount of force over a period of time (i.e., doing pull-ups for one minute nonstop). And with power, it’s how quickly your muscles can create force (using the last example, it’s how many pull-ups you can do in a minute- is it 10, 20, or 30?). [2]

In a post about the importance of building muscle, I wrote about the benefits that come from strong, healthy muscles. These include healthy bones, tendons, and joints, metabolism, brain health, and preventing sarcopenia, which is the natural decline in muscle mass that happens with age. The more we continue to build strength, the slower the rate in which we lose muscle. Less muscle means less strength and more dependence on other people as we grow older. We become weaker and prone to fractures and falls. Maintaining our strength ensures a better quality of life, along with being able to do physical work like home renovations or picking up heavy objects (and kids, too!).

Balance

Being able to balance is far more essential than you may realize. You need it in all areas of your life. Whether that’s playing a competitive sport, hiking a bumpy trail, or working out, we need balance. Working on balance improves coordination, activates your core (which is necessary for stability), keeps you focused (distractions lead to falling!), and makes you a better athlete. From an anti-aging standpoint, it also prevents falls, which can further lead to fractured or broken bones and hospital stays. In some cases, falls are lethal, so if there’s anything that can be done to prevent it, then maintaining balance is crucial!

 My Bosu Balance and Agility series focuses exactly on this skillset. Every time I focus on improving balance, I’m not as clumsy outdoors as I usually am!

Flexibility

Flexibility is defined as our muscle’s ability to passively move, bend, and stretch through a range of motion. [3] [4] While some people assume only dancers or acrobats are flexible, the truth is that all bodies require some level of flexibility. You don’t have to do the splits or put your foot over your head to benefit. Improving your flexibility little by little cuts down your injury risk, improves posture (which reduces pain and makes you look confident), prevents muscle cramps and soreness, and allows you to activate your muscles more effectively due to a greater range of motion. More activation means more strength and higher quality of training in the long-run. Not only that, but flexibility is also anti-aging. It also keeps you from age-related accidents, hunched shoulders, and deterioration.

Endurance 

Performing an activity or exercise for a sustained period of time can be referred to as endurance. There’s a lot of bold claims out there about endurance training (and cardio) making people fat, killing their metabolisms, and destroy muscle. Unless all you’re doing is cardio, there are many reasons why it’s essential for your health. At its best, it’s good for endurance, which means you can exercise for a long time or do sudden, intense bursts of activity without having to pass out. This is good for your lungs, fitness, immune system, heart health, mood, bones, and recovery. If you don’t have enough endurance, then your energy will always be weak. How can you expect to go through an entire day of work if your body can’t keep up with the demand? It’s not about running a marathon or doing a HIIT workout– it’s being able to stay active and energetic in your life. 

Mobility

This is a tricky one since it’s often confused with flexibility. While the two are similar, mobility is about our joints’ ability to move actively through a range of motion. [4] In my post about the importance of mobility, I went into more detail about the benefits, which include being able to perform both simple and complex tasks (tidying up the house or hiking) and preventing injuries. Many people these days lack the mobility to be able to do exercises that require a full range of motion properly. For example, they can do only half a squat instead of a full one because they lack the mobility (and flexibility) in their hips and (lower) back to go all the way down. Which is why many people wind up hurting themselves after pushing their body into positions they have yet to “unlock.”

Finally, mobility training makes your body functional; it’s no longer painful or hazardous to simply move, whether that’s bending over or picking something up. Your joints receive plenty of blood flow. You can stand and sit down without groaning. Overall, you feel as good as you move! 

In the ZGYM, you can work on your mobility with both my Mobility Drills and MOB Therapy series.

Why Combine All Five?

Think of these cornerstones as essential nutrients. You need all five to function optimally. But beware, you can easily overdo or not do enough of one and cause a ripple effect on the others. Too much strength without flexibility makes you prone to injury. Too much flexibility without enough mobility leads to joint pain. And without endurance, the window of time when you can exercise without giving up grows shorter and shorter.

Which is why I combined all of these cornerstones into my training and workouts at the ZGYM. I won’t deny the fact that it makes me look amazing. But I’ve also gone to appreciate the way it makes me feel and perform as an athlete. Together, they make me thrive. I move better, I perform better, and as a result, I look great all-year-round. If you want the same results that I’ve been able to achieve, then consider joining me in the ZGYM today. The workouts are dynamic in that they incorporate all of these cornerstones. 

Sources: 

[1] https://www.verywellfit.com/how-to-increase-muscular-strength-3496121
[2] https://www.acefitness.org/education-and-resources/professional/expert-articles/4922/how-to-select-the-right-intensity-and-repetitions-for-your-clients?utm_source=Rakuten&utm_medium=10&ranMID=42334&ranEAID=TnL5HPStwNw&ranSiteID=TnL5HPStwNw-gnnjZNcZ4DVvIXIb76wBRw
[3] https://www.sharecare.com/health/bone-joint-muscle-health/what-is-flexibility
[4] http://ssphysio.com.au/view/post/mobility-vs-flexibility