A weekly fitness plan for the 4Fs – Fitness, Force, Fast and Flexible
Dr. Greg Wells
If you want to live a world-class life, you’ll need an exercise plan, because physical activity can dramatically improve your health and performance. In particular, you will want an approach that capitalizes what I call the 4Fs: Fitness, Force, Fast and Flexible.
Fitness: Do some sort of cardiovascular aerobic endurance three times a week – an activity that raises your heart rate and makes you sweat. People usually think of running, but there are lots of options. Go for a walk. Go for a bike ride on the road or on the trails. Get out on a paddle board. It doesn’t matter. Just raise your heart rate and sweat. Research has proven that this is an essential way to extend your life.
Force: Do some sort of resistance training twice a week. This one is important as we age, especially for women. If there was one thing I could do when I walk into a gym and see all the guys lifting weights and all the women on the cardio machines, I'd say, "Stop! Switch!" Resistance training is how you amplify your performance and stimulate growth of neurons in your brain.
Fast: Once in a while, I’d also like you to skip your strength training and do something fast instead. An activity that gets you going all out so that lactic acid builds in your muscles – the burning sensation we have all felt. You can do it any way you want. Just slide in a spin class or sprint session when you would normally lift weights and then knock yourself out.
Flexible: Do some flexibility work every afternoon or evening. Stretching calms you down by activating your parasympathetic nervous system, the recovery and regeneration system. Even if you have had a brutal day, as I sometimes do working in the cancer ward at SickKids, coming home and doing 20 minutes of stretching or yoga makes a huge difference. And if you want to sleep like you haven’t slept in years, do three or four restful yoga poses, take a hot bath followed by a cold shower, meditate for 10 minutes, read some fiction and turn out the light.
That’s it. Other than that, I suggest doing something active and fun on Sundays and also making sure you take one day a week completely off so your body can to recover and regenerate. Even my world-class athletes take one day a week totally off.
That’s how you can use the 4Fs to optimize your health and performance. It’s also how you can make sure you feel great all the time.
