FITNESS ARTICLES


	Shape Shifting Secrets: Why a Personal Trainer Can Help
	Health is Build on Triads

Health is Built on Triads

by Frank Moran, Personal Trainer

I've always admired the words of Herophilus, who was the physician to Alexander the Great,

"When health is absent,
wisdom cannot reveal itself.
Art cannot become manifest.
Strength cannot fight.
Wealth becomes useless
and intelligence cannot be applied."

In modern terms without health, intellect, creativity and strength fail. In fact, it is a downward spiral. Depression and inactivity follow. That in itself is a depressing thought. Thoughts, feelings and actions lead us into health or out of it. My father used to say, "Take care of your body and your body will take care of you." I think he made an impression as I've spent my life doing just that for both myself and my clients. You may notice there are three elements which are affected; i.e., intellect creativity and strength.

Health is built on triads, trinities, or triangles – elements of three. For example, all bodies need:

Sleep
Nutrition
Exercise

This is the first triad. The second contains the elements of exercise:

Strength or resistance training
Endurance or cardiovascular training
Flexibility training

As a result of diligence with the first two triads, we get a third triad:

Mental Strength
Physical Strength
Spiritual Strength

Spiritual strength may seem like a stretch, intellectually if not physically. However, if we consider the men who first opened up the American West, or who first saw the world from atop Mount Everest, or looked down on us from the moon, it is not unrealistic to believe they enjoyed spiritual strength as a result of their physical and mental endeavors.

Sleep

Let us look at the first triad. The element which receives the least attention is sleep. Without sleep interest in the other two diminishes to zero. It is common knowledge that the simplest way to break down resistance in human beings is to deprive them of sleep. Without sleep we cannot think, act or feel. T. E. Lawrence says, "All men dream but not equally. Those who dream at night in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that it was vanity." But without sleep the dusty recesses of one's mind are just that, dusty recesses which become part of a body unable to function.

Shakespeare also gives important information on the necessity of sleep when he writes in Hamlet, "To sleep per chance to dream." There is no per chance. To dream we must, per chance to live and have normal brain function. Idealistically we require eight hours of sleep per night. I have seen a man so physically tired he was unable to eat but rarely one so hungry he was unable to sleep.

The second part of the first triad is dealt with in my article on nutrition.

Frank Moran is a personal trainer in Orange County, California. To learn more about Frank's personalized fitness programs and have Frank conduct your workouts in your own home, contact Frank today.

Frank Moran, Personal Trainer
Personal training and fitness programs for clients in Orange County, California including
Huntington Beach, Irvine, Mission Viejo, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, and as far south as Coto de Caza