My grandfather smoked and drunk heavily, exposed his body to the sun often, getting his skin extremely burned in the process. But he also managed to live long and healthy life.
No, my grandfather Julius wasn’t a bodybuilder and he wasn’t a fitness buff.
And I am sure he didn’t even care to have big muscles or athletic body.
He worked on a farm and all he cared about was to finish that digging, to finish moving those heavy rocks, to finish carrying those heavy pots, so he could run to the nearest pub and have a drink or ten.
But that heavy, hard, long physical work kept him healthy, strong and young in spite of all that smoking and drinking, without him even realizing it.
He probably even hated his job, but there was nothing he could do about it. He had to work.
Unemployment in communism wasn’t an option. Either you were working or you were in jail.
And Julius didn’t have a car. He had to walk about 5 miles each way to get to his work. He loved that, because there were many pubs on his way home and he could enjoy lots of cigarettes while he walked.
There is a message from my grandfathers long hard working days outside:
Hard, long physical work especially outdoors is great for our healthy body and clear relaxed mind.
It is healing, making our bodies stronger and tougher. Forcing us to push the limits to the exhaustion, to hunt that wild animal so we could survive, making us healthy and fit in the process.
We were ment by nature to move constantly, to hunt, fight for our life’s, walk long distances, run from the dangerous tigers and protect our tribe.
Nobody has to do any of that these days. Life got much easier, comfortable, the challenge disappeared, and our bodies deteriorated in the process.
We have to realize, that it is necessary for our health and well being to bring this physical challenge back to our life’s.
Are you giving your body enough physical work?
I am not going to tell you to quit your job so you can work hard on the farm and reap the health benefits from hard work.
Times are different now, but the principles are the same.
If you work manually, great! You are probably getting lots of hard physical labor there. But you still can and should add more of it.
If you are working in the office, sitting on your butt all day, you have to find a way to do hard physical labor somewhere else.
You have a lot of options to do that.
Buy a few free heavy weights and build a simple workout station in you garden, or basement, or a spare bedroom, or join the gym.
Outdoors places are the best. Additionally exposing your body to cold and heat that makes it even tougher and healthier.
You should do your whole body strength training workout regularly 2 times per week. It should be done on 2 nonconsecutive days per week.
Add cardiovascular exercise other 4 times per week for at least 45 minutes, preferably outside.
Add some intervals to your cardiovascular exercise.
Activities like running, swimming, rowing, cross country skiing, walking, bicycling outside are the best.
You can apply some of my workout routines:
Gym workout plans:
Workout plan #1 – simple, effective and safe all-body-machine-resistance workout
Outdoor workout plans:
Workout plan #3 – Outdoor – beach circuit workout with Marta
Workout plan #4 – Outdoor – beach circuit workout with Milan
Interval workout on tennis court- tennis workout
Highly functional workout – somewhere just behind your house
Home workout plans:
Home workout plan for elderly people and beginners
Resistance band strength workout for Zlatka
Stretching and warm up:
Stretch before workout, after warm up!
Office workout:
Office workout – intermediate # 1
Office workout – intermediate # 2
Strength training guidelines: