Eating right and pushing my body to stay fit has never been a struggle for me. For most of my adult life I’ve made healthy food choices, with the occasional cheat meal, and kept my metabolism high with endurance training at least three times a week.
At the beginning of last year, however, I decided to switch things up and concentrate on a more strength-based programme to build muscle mass.
When I joined a CrossFit programme in early January, I was what fitness coaches call “skinny fat”. This means that I looked healthy on the outside but was suffering from low muscle mass and a nutritional imbalance – which, if not addressed early, can lead to age-related sarcopenia, a loss of lean muscle mass as you grow older.
I thought CrossFit, which combines strength training and high-intensity conditioning elements for a full body workout, would be a perfectly tailored programme for optimal health.
I was wrong. CrossFit alone was not the solution. No physical activity is, unless it is accompanied by a complete overhaul of your diet and posture, and stress management. That lesson came at a high cost. Even after an Dh8,000 annual gym membership and daily, rigorous workouts, progress eluded me. What’s more, the intensity of lifting heavy weights began taking a toll on my back, which had been conditioned to slouch at a desk at work for more than nine or 10 hours at a stretch all these years.
It wasn’t until I started visiting a chiropractor this year that I understood why I had plateaued in my fitness goals. I had often viewed the resistance bands, foam rollers and trigger-point massage balls lying around at the gym as a extravagant and frivolous expense by gym rats – now they are my new best friends.
Years of craning my neck and hunching over at a desk typing away without concentrating on my posture had created muscle tightness that was limiting my movement and flexibility, and this worsened because of the workouts. My muscle fibres were sticking to each other creating knots that caused excruciating pain and soreness each time I attempted to lift heavy weights. If untreated, this can cause postural damage that is hard to reverse.
So, with the assistance of a therapist, I started to rehabilitate my back a few months ago, with additional stretching exercises and using a foam roller.
The self-therapy tool helps to apply pressure for a myofascial release, to inhibit and relax overactive muscles.
At work, meanwhile, I make sure I take a 10-minute break every hour to move around and stretch my neck, back and legs. Warm-up and cool-down sessions before and after workouts, which I had been ignoring, now involve hip, hamstring, upper back, chest and quad stretches, making use of a resistance band.
These small tweaks have had a significant effect on the way I train. In just two months, my technique has improved and I’m seeing gradual gains. It is common to allow ego to get in the way and load up the barbell with as many weights as possible to compete with other fitness enthusiasts at the gym – even as your back or knees give out.
But steady progress requires taking a step back, understanding your body’s limitations and addressing them before moving forward.
aahmed@thenational.ae