The Fitness Tripod

Very early on in my fitness itinerary (I started working out at the age of 24) I became familiar with one of the most fundamental laws of fitness, which can be summarized in the tripod metaphor: in order to make sustained progress in your level of fitness you must constantly optimize three parameters: what you eat, your exercise routine and your sleep. If any of these three factors gets out of control, then it becomes a gating factor that will hinder any progress in your overall fitness.

My experience suggests that most newcomers in the fitness field tend to concentrate almost exclusively on one of those factors: the exercise component. Whereas this initial emphasis is justified especially when picking up a new exercise routine, not heeding sleep and food will inevitably result in bitter disappointment and more often than not giving up exercise altogether for lack of result. To take just a few examples of this, I have witnessed an awful lot of beginners starting a strenuous exercise routine while simultaneously going on an excessively calorie-poor “diet” (I know: I promised never to use this word , but this was only for the sake of the demonstration). It is interesting to note that most of these beginners are females. This is a big mistake: one golden rule I abide by is the following: if I have to skip a meal (and this is a VERY rare occurrence) I do not even bother to go to the gym. Ideally you should ALWAYS have a light meal about 3 hours before exercising. Working out on an empty stomach is worthless and potentially dangerous. 

Likewise I NEVER skip a meal after working out. Actually it is essential to eat within about 60 minutes of exercising. If you don’t, most of the benefits of exercising will be lost. Of course this is in no way a license to eating junk food after working out (more on that later on).

On the other hand expecting rapid progress in fitness while being chronically sleep -deprived is wishful thinking. The notion of sleep deprivation is a relative one, as each individual has different, largely genetically determined, sleep requirements. An empirical criterion for sleep deprivation should be something like: feeling so tired that one can’t help yawning. Personally I don’t even bother to go to the gym when I deem that I am too tired to exercise in a satisfactory manner. Simply going through the motions is a futile attempt at convincing yourself that you are effectively sticking with your fitness routine. Moreover, sleep deprivation is a huge risk factor in exercise-related injuries (as it is for car and work-related accident).

In a nutshell, if your goal is to commit to an exercise routine for the long haul, your focus should not exclusively be on the exercise routine itself but also on food and sleep discipline. Fitness does not occur in a void, it is part of a broader system that I would call healthy lifestyle. Always be aware of the fitness tripod and your progress will be assured.