"Work" Out

Working inevitably explains all things that we do for fitness. We use the term everyday, but do we really understand what it means? I use 2 words to describe the feats of physical enhancement.

1.Workout
2.Training

Although we could beat the bush to a bloody pulp on what these mean to each of us, since this is my website, I'm gonna tell you what I think.

Workout:

A general term used by 95% of the 98%er's. A term used for those that do more than workout, what we call the 2%ers is training. Workout is using tools to create "work" or movements of load for time, speed, or power. There are more technical terms we use for these, but there are other websites out there that "mystify" these issues for what i think is no other than to make people rely more on them. I want everyone to understand these terms in order to help themselves and help other in their fitness goals.

Wikipedia defines work, in what i might say an excellent article as:

Workload can also refer to the total energy output of a system, particularly of a person or animal performing a strenuous task over time. One particular application of this is weight lifting/weights training, where both anecdotal evidence and scientific research has shown that it is the total "workload" that is important to muscle growth, as opposed to just the load, just the volume, or "time under tension". In these and related uses of the word, "workload" can be broken up into "work+load", referring to the work done with a given load. In terms of weights training, the "load" refers to the heaviness of the weight being lifted (20 kg is a greater load than 10 kg), and "work" refers to the volume, or total number of reps and sets done with that weight (20 reps is more work than 10 reps, but 2 sets of 10 reps is the same work as 1 set of 20 reps, its just that the human body cannot do 20reps of a heavy weight without a rest, so its best to think of 2x10 as being 20 reps, with a rest in the middle).

This theory was also used to determine horse power (hp), which was defined as the amount of work a horse could do with a given load over time. The wheel that the horse turned in Watt's original experiment put a certain load on the horse's muscles, and the horse could do a certain amount of work with this load in a minute. Provided the horse was a perfect machine, it would be capable of a constant maximum workload, so increasing the load by a given percentage would result in the possible work done decreasing by the same percentage, so that it would still equal "1 hp". However, horses are not perfect machines and over short time periods are capable of as much as 14 hp, and over long periods of exertion output an average of less than 1 hp.

Training:
Training is a term than many people use synonymously with workout, but i feel they have different meanings. Training, is a series of workouts in a certain order that is used to increase proficiency in a certain area of athleticism. Olympic sprinters train for the Olympics by working out using certain criteria designed to make them get in shape for the event. In shape we mean neurologically proficient, with muscle endurance and strength that is designed to improve fitness for their sport.

What I want people is getting out of the workout mentality and into the training mentality. In the training mentality, we keep track of progress and work toward a pre planned goal. Following this blueprint for physical success is the training program. By getting into this mindset, everything you do has a goal, you act with a purpose and not just meander through a gym looking more bored than if you were watching paint dry. We want people to be a part of the routine, feeling the pain and the elation that comes after endorphins are produced to counteract the pain. If it was a street drug, I would buy it by the truck load.

We all to often want to remove ourselves from the act of fitness by putting on headsets and getting lost so we are not physically or mentally "checked in". I feel that this is detrimental to overall progress, because you are more apt to get bored and stop altogether.

Find ways to train anywhere and with anything. The tools are all around you, all you have to do is use them.