Aesthetics, Health & Functionality: The Three Advantages Of Weight Training. Can You Achieve Them All? 

“Get the body you are longing for”, “Build muscle in 30 days”, “4-week beauty plan”. These are just some of the claims that have been bombarding us from media for many years with one basic intention: getting clients to buy the advertised products. But are these offers true? Do they guarantee results? The answer is both YES and NO. At any rate, what you are going to achieve by paying attention to these claims will only be PART TRUE and LIMITED, generally speaking much less than what you’re looking for and, most definitely, less that what they’ve promised you. The only thing that achieves a true and persistent change is exercise and proper nutrition. Whatever they’re trying to sell you is mainly to cover their own greedy needs.

Keep in mind one important thing: advertised products deal only with the cosmetic aspect, never with HEALTH. Health is without a doubt THE MOST IMPORTANT SIDE OF THE FITNESS TRIANGLE, and should be the true foundation of our exercise and fitness programme. True, it becomes visible to others, but: why not? Our ego is, after all, the pillar of action and progress. Let’s not forget that a good functioning body will provide us with greater VITALITY, more RESISTANCE to fatigue, increased capacity of RECOVERY, superior LONGEVITY and a lower incidence of diseases than sedentary people. Health is what most worries the human being, and thus becomes our basic well-being objective. Without health, the rest of our purposes will no longer be fulfilled. And, more often than not, we take it for granted (big mistake!). We only remember it when it’s not longer there, when discomfort and pain appear and they become chronic.

If you’re unable to WALK FOR 5 KILOMETERS in no more than an hour, if you can’t CLIMB 5 FLOORS OF STAIRS, if you lack the strength to carry A BAG IN EACH HAND weighing 5 KILOS for 100 meters, if you’re GRASPING FOR YOUR BREATH after dancing to two songs at your local disco, you’re in really poor shape – no matter your looks. The functional capacity of an individual meant his survival or death in the world before the industrial revolution, when life depended on the ability of reaching farther than others, carrying greater weight than others or climbing rocky slopes and crossing rivers and swamps. We don’t get those challenges anymore, do we? Wrong. The challenges are still there, but they look different: now it’s all about long walks on the countryside, or dancing for a whole night, or training at high intensity with little rest. Currently, it’s in everyone’s interest to tire less and, more specifically, to recover for the following day to repeat and turn this into your daily routine.

Functionality has, in fact, a double role, as it also helps prolonging the most important and visible BODY FEATURES (agility, mobility, posture, sexual features) and in ADDING LIFE TO THE YEARS. Why would we want to keep getting older, if our body doesn’t respond? If we should just sit or lie down while others walk, climb stairs without using elevator, dance and go to the gym? Why indeed. It’s in your hands to make yourself more functional, to be able to continue solving the more physical aspects of your existence for yourself.

This is the least transcendental side of fitness, but also the most sought after because it’s visible: it’s what meets the eye, what attracts everyone’s attention at first glance, and, if spectacular or attractive enough, what causes most envy. Many people really want to own this physical attractiveness, as it’s a rare asset that money can’t buy and intelligence can’t replace (not at first, anyways). That is why advertising makes such hard efforts to offer us allure in-a-box. They want us to believe that this growth in appeal and natural charm is possible, that it’s fast and guaranteed, and that it can be retained. And they nearly always get it the way they want, because it’s a matter that affects the ego. Today EVERYONE WANTS TO BE PRETTY, ATHLETIC, GOOD-LOOKING. We all want to walk down the street or hit the beach and be looked at and admired, rather than walking by unnoticed.

Nonetheless, YOU CAN’T BUILD AESTHETICS. What a shame, eh? Truth is, it comes ready-made. You either have it or you don’t. Tough luck. You might have too short or too long limbs, a small or a big head, muscle inserts placed in the wrong places – which immediately become tendons, and provide a fragile and unsightly appearance, or they remain stump, lacking slenderness. You might have flaws in proportion (with some areas of your body notably more or less developed than others), or in symmetry (a slight disagreement between both halves of your body), a natural high percentage of fat (making it naturally difficult to keep it low), too square or rectangular lines, lacking that so-called “v-line” which is so much appreciated… Feeling identified? We thought as much. Then, this probably wasn’t the pep talk you were hoping to hear. Well, hear this, then: Your body will always lack some aesthetic factor or other, but: it will always be able to build a lot of muscle, as much or more than you can imagine, maybe even putting yourself at the head of the muscle development you see in other fellow gym users. The power of change will grant you great satisfaction – being able to build muscle is no small thing. At one point, you’ll very likely stop worrying about your lack of slenderness or your small hands if you have some big, muscular legs to gaze down upon. You’ll feel good about yourself and with good reason!

So, we might fail to meet the canon of beauty imposed by the western world (which has rapidly spread throughout the planet), but this has little or nothing to do with FUNCTIONALITY and HEALTH. Both of these are more important. As you might already have figured, longevity is the enemy of beauty because, as we get older, our bodies start to decay: our muscles shrink, our face drains, our skin becomes flabby or coarse, unpleasant to touch and look at. This process is inevitable in the end, but the practice of exercise, an adequate diet and stress control can make it much lighter on you, make it advance much more slowly. A healthy lifestyle can help us fool age for quite a long time. It’s worth the effort! You end up winning in health and joy!

So, don’t forget to TRAIN HARD and be persistent, EAT FOODS THAT ARE CONVENIENT FOR YOU (and don’t you interpret that sentence in however way suits you, because it means what it means and you know it), learn to RELAX and try to control those variables in life that lead to STRESS. It’s essential to achieve outstanding health and improve what you have already received. Keep in mind that it won’t disappear suddenly, it will most likely accompany you to the end. At the same time, try to increase the functional capacity of your organism, for instance, try to delay fatigue (proper training achieves this), recover faster (nutrition and supplementation are essential for that) and strive to increase mobility and agility. That’s what being young and youthful is about. Others will also notice it. Soon they’ll want to know how you’ve done it. Who knows? You may become their instructor; you may turn this into your new career.

Finally, we’ll be talking about that cosmetic part that we seem to desire so much. It’s the one that is most easily appreciated at first sight, the one that improves your looks the fastest, without forgetting that it’s limited by genetics. With beauty one is born, and it can’t be acquired (although this is not really politically correct to say these days, and some people will find it derogatory and offensive), but you can hide the lack of beauty, though. Muscles work the miracle of adding power and strength, a healthy image, greater benefits. When we’re fit, we’re young at heart and body. We want to cross boundaries by running, jumping and boasting energy, dancing, joining marches and excursions, eating the things we like, forgetting about pain and physical discomfort. And we can. This recipe works for everyone. Exercise is your medicine. The results last much longer than what the sedentary population will tell you. Just look at the people who practice Bodybuilding and Fitness, those competitions for master athletes, ever more popular, in which the number of participating athletes and the marks achieved are constantly increasing.