The health implications of fitness practice.

By Dr. Marco Martone

In this editorial I will talk about the benefits that can be had in terms of health and greater well-being from the constant practice of weight training. I believe, in fact, it is important that you all know that the investment of time, money and physical effort, that spending weeks after weeks, it is not only necessary for the aesthetic result such as having bigger muscles or a low percentage of fat, the main reason why you dedicate yourself to this discipline, but on the contrary you must know that you will also derive better health and that you are already doing a lot in the primary prevention of many pathologies linked to sedentary lifestyle.

The lifestyle of the classic and strictly natural bodybuilder (without the aid of any doping substance) is certainly a model from which to draw inspiration if you care about your health. Starting from the basics of bodybuilding we see why the observation of the basic rules leads to benefits that go beyond the aesthetic result alone. A self-respecting bodybuilder trains regularly on an annual basis and leaving aside the various training philosophies that go beyond the "The goal of this editorial, the mere fact of lifting weights presupposes that you subject your body to beneficial stimuli. More and more people, in fact, are getting sick of the negative" well-being "that modern society offers us every day: SEDENTARITY". I am a deep lover of anthropology and I can tell you with confidence that in the modern era the homo genre has never become sedentary and this unnatural state is certainly not congenial to our body. The main cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in the last 30 years have suffered a rapid surge and, except for precise congenital and genetic correlations, most of them are attributable to hypokinesia (little movement). Simply our body is the result of millions of years of evolution, certainly marked by different eras, but a common denominator to all past generations is that there was much more movement. For example, the search for food of our ancestors like the first hominids was closely correlated with the skill in hunting, just as in the "age of agriculture" people worked hard in the fields for several hours a day. Today we order our groceries sitting at a computer, big difference don't you think?

I like to say in this regard that our time spent in the gym is more than a luxury, and must become, an obligatory choice to make up for more and more the lack of movement.

Now let's move on to nutrition. Here, too, our good bodybuilder model knows that if he wants results he must give great importance to how he feeds. The first thing he does is eliminate the increasingly present and unfortunately increasingly advertised junk foods. hours of the day, such as to do a real brainwashing of the most important resource of the future of our society: children. I don't know about you, but I have not yet seen a single advertisement, during the programs most followed by our children , which states the antioxidant properties of fruits and vegetables, on the contrary I only see advertising products of low nutritional value, rich in hydrogenated fats (read poison) and refined sugars (read poison) which can only result in overweight children and / or more and more obese. Where is our Ministry of Health that should protect us? Well, maybe there are too many economic interests at stake and as always we are the ones who get involved. Fortunately, people who do any physical activity begin to understand that nutrition is a fundamental point for having results.Bodybuilders are also very meticulous in the choice and intake of food: they eat relatively lean foods such as white meat and fish; make a regular use of vegetables and fruit and know the importance of healthy fats such as extra virgin olive oil. Even the fact of having more meals a day, instead of the usual 3 or very often even just two, is a smart choice that avoid introducing in a few meals all the calorie load that in the long run creates harmful effects on the metabolism such as resistance to insulin. I think it is clear that movement and correct nutrition today are necessary in order not to run into relatively young diseases such as diabetes, heart attack, ischemia, stroke, osteoporosis, etc. Doing healthy bodybuilding today must not only mean flexing muscles, but also and perhaps above all investing in one's health. The natural bodybuilding with the addition of a targeted cardiorespiratory work, perhaps, in spite of other famous sports, read swimming, is truly complete. ) and the icing on the cake aims to obtain a very low percentage of body fat, which by itself ensures the removal of many metabolic pathologies. The next time you lift a dumbbell or a barbell, therefore, do not look at it only with a "weight", but know that you are removing the sedentary lifestyle from you: the modern malaise that causes more victims and / or wounded than any war.