Teen Dreams: You’re not a kid anymore

By Mandy Wojtkowski (with Wayne Caparas as ghost writer)

What do I know?
I have recently interviewed three of America’s top fitness experts to help me answer all of these questions and to gain a better understanding of proper fitness and nutrition for our age group. The first of which was Wayne Caparas, founder of the award winning LifeQuest Fitness Clubs and creator of the LifeQuest Triple Crown, an elite women’s fitness sport that airs on ESPN. Even though the Wayne was overflowing with the latest in research information and theory, he insisted I talk to his personal trainer, author and renowned strength coach Stacey Dove (maybe the buffest man I have ever met), and Wayne’s lifelong motivational consultant Joe McKeown, also a nationally recognized fitness professional. I couldn’t help but ask why a fitness expert would need personal trainers, and Wayne’s answer cut to the core of my investigation. “Even Michael Jordan--the best ever in his field--has technique coaches, strength training specialists and motivational gurus working to keep him at his personal best...and I’m no Michael Jordan. Having God given genetics was merely the starting point for Jordan.” Wayne continued to say that “without ongoing enlightenment and causes greater than material gain to serve as motivation, Michael would be the first to admit he never could have achieved his goals.” Wayne also stated that it was not only lack of information that has lead the under 21 crowd to such dire condition, but also the utter lack of motivation to have a positive impact on others. We are the least active, worst eating, most unhealthy generation in the history of America. We may be vain, but as a group we are ignorant and lazy.

Are you turning into your parents?
First let’s attack the questions my friends and I presented earlier. I was pleased to learn that we are all born to be built differently. As you probably know genetics are our seeds of design handed down from generation to generation directly to us from our biological parents, so you don’t have to look far to see what your future may hold. May being the operative word. For although there are several of these genetic codes that determine your physical predisposition, none of these lock you into a particular build. Now let’s get something straight. Your body is unique. These are characteristics you are born with and should either embrace as what make you an individual or take on as challenges that will strengthen your character and desire to persevere. Either way we should be at peace with what we’ve been given Of these genetic codes the only one you cannot effect is your bone structure; namely your height, limb proportions, and bone circumferences. My friend Katie has a petite, very athletic mom, but her father is a 6’8” former Citadel basketball player who is so big they call him “Moose”. Katie could have received the genetic code to grow petite like her mom, but instead she has been blessed with considerable height for a girl. As a matter of fact she has been told she could grow as tall as 6’3”. She is proud to have inherited her height and diverse athletic ability, but obviously has no interest in taking on her father’s nick-name. Does she have a choice? What about my friends who feel that they are destined to be overweight? Do they have any control? What about the teenage friends who are already voluptuous? According to the experts, the answer is a definite, unwavering, all encouraging, YES!

Enlightenment
Aside from our bone structure, there are three basic genetic effects that have tremendous influence over our body shape. The first and most elusive of these is our metabolic rate. Second is our body’s predisposition to storing fat. Third is our body’s innate ability to develop muscle. Our metabolic rate effects the other two, but each have their own cause and effect stimuli. I feel blessed to have a very fast metabolism and a low disposition to storing fat, but unfortunately my ability to develop muscle is also low. So I’m a twig. Some envy me, some think I look unhealthy. One of my has a slow metabolism, and relatively high genetic disposition to storing fat, but she also has a high ability to develop muscle. The result is high body weight, but there is a blessing in disguise. Another of my friends is voluptuous. She has a moderate metabolism, moderate disposition to store fat, and a moderate ability to develop muscle. She is curvy in all the right places; yet Wayne has encouragingly told her that she is a “time bomb in a bikini.” She wanted the truth and Wayne gave it to her. However, he went on to explain that the “bomb” would never be easier to diffuse than while she was still a teen.

What you sew is what you reap
The experts all stressed that although we each have our own genetics to deal with, we also have relative control over our ability to be fit, or in fitness lingo, to look “buff”. Buff is not Pamela Anderson. Buff is not Kate Moss. Buff was not Marilyn Monroe. These women, although they are envied among many of us, are examples of cosmetic beauties. Pamela is another time bomb in a bikini. Genetically advantaged, but mostly resting on the fact that at her current age her fat seems to fall in all the right places, at least from certain camera angles. Kate is the classic waif, almost anorexic looking (probably has an awful diet) yet still storing fat. Marilyn was an exaggerated Pamela Anderson of her day, and is the icon most voluptuous women compare themselves to. Yet it has been well documented that Marilyn carried on one of the un-healthiest lifestyles ever recorded. She had a poor diet. She rested on her blessed genetics. She had a low activity level. She abused drugs and alcohol. She suffered from depression. What could Marilyn have done to save herself? Most of it is psychological. She broke the experts most powerful rule, she was not content with her realities, and she didn’t take any of the steps to shut down her ticking time bomb. What about Pamela and Kate Moss? Joe McKeown put it this way “God dealt each of us a different hand in life. It is up to us to whether we read them and weep, or read them and reap”.

What are our controls?
By now I’m sure you have picked up on the obvious steps to controlling your fitness destiny or how to “play the hand you’re dealt and play to win.” Our experts have offered up three basic laws of fitness for all of us to live by.

1. You’ve probably heard it a hundred times. You are what you eat. So stop eating junk food! You’re not a kid any more, and you should be pleased to know that diet does not mean starvation, it is the word for proper nutrition! We will expose this subject in greater detail in the future, but for now refer to our bullet list of nutritional laws to live by. Follow these tips and you will make an immediate impact on the “big three” controllable genetic manifestations.

2. Your activity level is another obvious variable in the big three. So get off that butt and find some activities you love. Experiment, and don’t quit until you find several you can really stick with. If you aren’t exercising or playing vigorously at some game for at least an hour a day, you are wasting away.

3. This one is probably the most misunderstood element of all fitness basics. It not only impacts all three of the genetic variables we have discussed, but is the key ingredient to every buff person’s body shaping regimine. It’s easy, fun, exhilarating, has countless health benefits beyond aesthetics, and is the only thing you can do that really will burn fat while you are fast asleep. No, it is not one of those bogus wonder pills. No, it is not bop till you drop aerobic activity. This mighty law of fitness is none other than strength training. Because of our generation’s sincere confusion over this topic, the experts suggested I cover this one with a little more detail.

The Power of Strength Training
This is a topic that definitely deserves a dedicated article for our age group, and you can expect an in depth follow up in the future. But you must know now that strength training is not only for men. As a matter of fact, women receive greater health benefits from strength training than men. And forget about your fear of getting manly muscles. Unless you are on steroids or are in the less than 1% of women who have the rare male genetic make-up, you would still have to devote your life to eating as many as 6 meals a day and lift weights for 3 hours a day, six days a week, for many years. Forget about it. Strength training builds lean muscle mass. Developing lean muscle is the only way to increase your body’s ability to burn fat 24 hours a day, even when you are sitting on your butt. Lean muscle mass is what develops a truly shapely, “buff” body, and even though our individual version of buff will be different for each of us, we should focus on making ourselves healthier and happier one day at a time. And please, never compare yourself or guage your results by others. Not only would this exhibit ignorance to our brief lesson on genetics, but it is also one of the greatest pitfalls to a successful strength training program. The benefits of such a program are too numerous to list but here are just a few to get your attention. A regular regimen of strength training will greatly reduce the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, vericose veins, cellulite, and is the most effective tool against osteoporosis. Can’t afford to join a health club? OXYGEN can teach you strength training programs that cost nothing more than time. You say you don’t have time to work out? One hour of strength training is worth two hours of sleep. This is a deep one, so you’ll either have to do your own research or just trust the experts on this one. And when you get started, you must have a partner. Someone to push you and someone to push, but don’t over-do it. Remember, take it one day at a time and find pleasure in the simple fact that as long as you don’t quit, you will get healthier and shapelier every month.

Perseverance anyone?
Now you should have a good idea of where to start on the road to a healthier body. What will stop you are the personal choices you make that will either stop or complete your fitness destiny. Your ability to stay motivated, your dietary intake, the presence or absence of a proper strength training program, your general activity level, and probably most important, your contentment with the hand you were dealt. I am looking forward to becoming further enlightened along with you as we find the applicable answers to questions pertinent to our age group.

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