3 Things Super-Fit People Exclusively Never Do
By: Jaivir Hans
Tags: Fitness, Growth, Self Improvement, Happiness, Self Development

1. Bang Their Heads Counting Calories

I once had a client who was formerly unhealthy and obese (by her own standards). Her movements were slow. She had trouble purchasing the right clothing, and her cravings for saturated fat teased her often. She began training on her own, using a combined approach of yoga and light weightlifting. Within a year, she lost all her unnecessary weight, and was self-admittedly ready to up the ante with her training regimen.

When she contacted me, she informed me that her initial approach of noting down the exact number of calories she was consuming worked effectively. But it was no longer showing results. It was evident that she was exceedingly distressed about the stagnation.

Immediately, and without much more information, I asked her to execute an eating regimen that required no calorie counting at all. I asked her to eat using the same pattern of nutrition that she had been adhering to for the past year or so. But I requested her to rely just on her “intuition” about how much food she had consumed in a day. Tallying every calorie and driving herself into a wall because of a slight deviation was shelved indefinitely.

Within 2–3 weeks of this, she broke her plateau, and leveled up her intense workouts. She broke barriers she previously thought were insurmountable.

The reason for the plateau? She had, over time, holed herself up into a habitual state of mind where every ounce of food, good or bad, needed to be counted, discounted, added, or culled. This induced greater levels of cortisol injection in her body (the primary stress hormone). It caused her body to hold on to fat in survival mode.

Understand, if we’ve been training intensely enough, for long enough (at least a few months), our bodies start to encode a memory system that enables a rate of metabolic activity consistent with the rapid and efficient processing of food, at the expense (and blessing) of storing little to no fat.

In other words, training and eating with sustained grit causes our bodies to near-permanently maintain an elevated metabolic rate. And as a reward, the super-fit Homo sapiens don’t need to count calories, because they know it’s going to burn right through their system on their next, hard session. Or that they’re going to reap the benefits from the heightened metabolic activity they’re enjoying from their previous, hard workout.

The super-fit train hard. Very hard. This physiologically wires their bodies to use nutrients positively. So, when we see someone super-fit eating a bucket full of buttery popcorn, it’s only because they know they’re going to train intensely enough to make it look like they’re endowed with a fit physique. This makes counting calories a categorically futile activity.

2. Neglect Signals From Their Bodies

The super-fit bunch of freaks know their bodies through and through. They’ve arrived at the crucial realization that every human’s body is distinct. This includes a parent’s body and her/his child’s body and capabilities. This means that a seemingly simple exercise another human can be seen doing on-screen or in person may not immediately be achievable.

Alternatively, something that looks challenging on-screen may be a cakewalk. The super-fit lot accept this and are still willing to do whatever it takes to move toward their target.

The saturated fitness concept of “no one-size-fits-all” needs to be addressed here. Through a ton of grueling training and nutrition experience, the super-fit individual learns to listen to telltale signs of exhaustion, fatigue, exertion, and restfulness from their body.

For example, if super-fit X can sleep for 6 hours, wake up and run for an hour and a half on an empty stomach, it doesn’t mean super-fit Y can mirror that pattern to the T. Super-fit Y may need 7.5 hours of sleep and a light meal before she/he can breeze through a 1.5-hour run. They’re both super-fit, but their varying lifestyle and genetic factors mean that their prerequisites for optimal performance differ.

This is perfectly normal. It is embraced openly by the super-fit individual. Sure, attempting to match someone else’s brilliant performance is a valued path to progress. But ultimately realizing that our body is one-of-a-kind opens up doors of acceptance to the fact that we may need different fuel to perform at or a higher level than someone else.

If the super-fit are injured, they seek out professional help. They forcefully take a day off if they’ve honestly had a long day’s tiring work. If their body needs 8 hours of rest, they ensure that they get it. They won’t wing it on 6 hours and pretend to be immortal. They’ll take a couple of days off if they’re down with a flu, or a mild fever.

They’re optimistic realists. They pay close attention to what their body calls out for. They’ve learned that to achieve the highest levels of fitness and health, they need to make their body their ally, and not stubbornly fight against all odds. This is when growth happens.

3. Dismiss Resistance Training

I am not going to expound the heavily repeated advantages of resistance training. Its praises have been sung abundantly. No matter what stage of fitness we’re personally at, we’ve all heard or read about the pros of resistance work.

When I say resistance work, this embodies bodyweight work in your bedroom, lifting dumbbells and throwing barbells in a gym, or competing at CrossFit events with Bosu balls and resistance bands. This does not involve yoga, Pilates, running, swimming, or any form of mobility or flexibility work.

Without brushing over the benefits of such activity, all I will say is that the super-fit regularly (at least 2–3 times per week) engage in resistance work. This boosts just about every aspect of the broader “healthy living” paradigm. It is potently and empirically linked to longevity, aesthetics, strength, and hormonal balance, in both males and females.

Take my friend, Varun (name changed for privacy), for example. Varun is a 27-year-old male who had a beer belly that was gradually growing over the years. When he began going for outdoor runs and self-administered good nutrition, the belly vanished.

But he said that he still felt a vacuum inside him. When I probed him on what he meant, he launched into a monologue about how he loved the endorphins after a run. But nearly always, he felt weak and low on immunity, despite eating a good amount of protein. He said that he didn’t care much for building big, bulging biceps, but insatiably desired a stronger body.

I recommended that he purchase a sturdy boxing bag and hang it in the driveway of his home. Thrice a week, after a 30-minute run, Varun would come home and let his hands and legs loose on the bag. He butchered it, following a few technique-related videos he watched on Youtube. Boxing is a magical merger of resistance and cardiovascular work.

Two weeks in, he felt elevated moods, a clearer mind, boosted confidence in his fitness ability, and an increase in muscular size. He felt strength beyond what he imagined was possible just two weeks earlier. It’s placed him in a new league of fitness. It has widened his scope of understanding for what he thought he was capable of.

The super-fit push, pull, hit, punch, swing, raise, drop, and grind medium-to-heavy weight in some form. Get with it.