The SunnyFitness Workout Tips series continues!
If you haven’t read the first 80 tips, you can start HERE!
Table of Contents
(click on the titles below to quickly jump to the specific tip)
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #81 Practice unilateral exercises as well
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #82 Better to be a little undertrained, than overtrained
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #83 Throw and catch
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #84 It all depends
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #85 There is no age limit to be fit
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #86 Have a strong and flexible spine
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #87 Develop and maintain a long-lasting ticker
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #88 The end justifies the means
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #89 Don’t be a foam roller addict
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #90 Knees over toes
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #81
Practice unilateral exercises as well
Push-ups, pull-ups, bench press, deadlift, back/front squat etc. are nice bilateral exercises for max. strength and building muscle.
The single limb, unilateral exercises give less raw strength gains but they have unique benefits:
- Almost everyone has some asymmetries, unilateral exercises help to bring the muscle strength and size more to a balanced state. So it’s more „healthy” in case of bigger asymmetries and they can also improve the bilateral lift performance.
- Much more antirotational trunk activation, because you are unstable with 1 leg/arm.
- More balance, stability, mobility gains
- There are more sport activities including unilateral movements than bilaterals. Like running, sprinting, swimming, boxing, etc.
Few unilateral examples: crawling, archer push-ups/pull-ups, 1 arm rows/presses, single leg deadlift, split squat, Bulgarian single leg squat, cossack squat, lunges, 1 arm carry etc.
Practice them as supplementary, prehab, rehab or even main exercises for sport performance and everyday life!
Bonus tip
There are great unilateral strength exercises as well even with bodyweight! Until you reach the first 1-5 rep pistol squat, 1 arm push-up, (1 arm pull-up) there will be plenty of challenges in the long term.
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #82
Better to be a little undertrained, than overtrained
There are benefits of being lazy! 
Ok, laziness is also a scale from extreme lazy and doing nothing to almost not lazy and performing close to the limits but carefully.
Anyone who has been overtrained, injured from too much training and/or insufficient recovery may have figured out this wisdom.
’I wish I had skipped that workout, done a little less, slept more… and then I would have done better in the competition… I wouldn’t have to skip weeks because of a stupid injury or because my body doesn’t respond positively to the workload…’
Sounds familiar?
The optimal workload is very individual and can vary from day to day for the same person. For this you should be well connected with your body’s feedback’s and have good communication with your coach, if you have.
So train hard when you need to and you are receptive to it, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing to leave a little in the tank. And when it comes to a training test or a race, you can still show your 100%, instead of not being able to show it!
Bonus tip
Think in years and decades about your training journey, then there is no need to rush and you may develop continuously with 99% effort instead of having injuries and setbacks with the constant 110% effort.
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #83
Throw and catch
Throwing and catching lighter or heavier objects are also natural movements.
Keep practicing them if you like to be fast, precise, agile, skilled in movement!
It can be fun and keep your nervous system sharp, you can develop focus, rhythm, coordination, explosive power.
A few examples:
- juggling
- throwing to a target with pebbles, tennis ball, spear
- heavier med ball/stone throwing
- throwing and catching exercises with a partner
- ball games (basketball, handball, waterpolo etc.)
- athletics: discus, hammer, javelin throw, shot put
- (not recommended but happens: throwing objects at home fighting with your spouse
)
Do you throw? And how well can you catch the object flying towards you?
Bonus tip
Usually everyone has a favorite side to use for throwing and catching, eg. left or right handed. To have a balanced musculature practice with your weaker side as well!
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #84
It all depends
- The best training method?
- The fastest way to build muscle, gain strength, lose fat?
- Full range of movement or partial range?
- Pull-up or chin-up?
- Front or back squat?
- Carbs or fats for performance?
- Weight, distance: is it too much or too less?
- Training 1 or 5 times a week is better?
- Training in the morning or in the afternoon?
And there are millions of other question about the details also in the fitness world.
The right answer is always: IT DEPENDS!
Depends on hundreds of factors.
The person’s age, body type, psychic factors, training background, fitness level, goals, other life stressors, time frame, budget, etc. Available equipments, weather, season, group or personal training, etc.
What might be the best workout now for one person might be not optimal or even dangerous for the another.
More training/week is not necessarily better if you can’t regenerate and adapt properly.
Bonus tip
There are hundreds of ways to exercise and usually there is more than one solution for a fitness goal. How to filter out and choose the best for you?
Train and learn continuously, gain experience, think critically and realistically or ask help from a good coach. This way you may still not find the best but you get closer to the right answer which may be sufficient to your goals.
And many times we tend to overthink unnecessary details.
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #85
There is no age limit to be fit
Being fit doesn’t mean everyone should start training for the Olympics over 50-60. Only to be well functioning physically and mentally, having painfree body, without serious limits in movement and being able to enjoy sports and life on a high level.
Having still some muscle, strength, endurance, flexibility and even speed, explosiveness.
Aging is normal, but the tempo can be fast or slow.
Now we can see many examples all around the world that people over 80-90 are still moving youthfully, effortlessly. In the extreme case some of them are even running a marathon, lifting heavy weights and doing similar superhero stuff.
If they could do it, almost everyone can do it. Of course there may be a lot of other responsibilities and priorities than doing sports, previous injuries, illnesses.
So it’s very individual how far and in which path and rhythm can someone go. And there are also a lot of excuses why not…:
- ‘I’m too old for this…’
- ‘It’s too late to start…’
- ‘If you would have my XYZ problem, if you would be in my age, you would also not do it…’
Hey, now we are in this lucky era, when we have all the knowledge how to reach a good level of fitness, improving metabolic issues in a safe and efficient way!
So now it’s a choice. Use it or lose it!
Do you sign up for the fit grandma/grandpa club?
Bonus tip
I also have the goal with the SunnyFitness trainings to be fit over 80-100 years old (hopefully I reach that age). And I know it’s not coming by accident and for free, and I will not be able to buy it later. So plant the seeds now with regular, varied way of training and your future self will be grateful!
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #86
Have a strong and flexible spine
The famous saying: ’You are as old as your spine’
It sounds simple and makes sense, however I would add the metabolic and mental health as well to the story. And you?
But let’s focus now on the spine!
The spine is an engineering masterpiece. Normally it can flex, extend, bend sideways, rotate, move segmentally at the vertebra’s and able to hold big weights, vertical forces as well.
It’s very common that the flexibility is lost, mostly because of the sedentary lifestyle and lack of variety in movement.
Solutions for a young spine as adults? There are plenty!
Proper exercising is a great solution! ’Re-teach and using regularly the basic spine movement patterns and their combinations! Daily light maintenance (and walking, hanging) and at least once a week strengthening the full body, extra attention for the muscles around the spine if necessary. (in neutral and rounded position as well)
There are many cool exercises from the yoga, pilates, MovNat, bodyweight and weighted strength training, swimming. Learn and use them!
Bonus tip
Restore healthy breathing habits, if it was lost. In many cases this can already improve the spine function. And don’t forget proper sleep, getting sun and hydration for the full picture.
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #87
Develop and maintain a long-lasting ticker
Cardiovascular health is key for a healthy, long life and to enjoy any sport acitivity, everyday life on a high level. Without being always tired or riding the daily ’energy rollercoaster’.
There are many ways to develop and maintain a well functioning heart and circulatory system.
Without doing any sports you can already do a lot with a lifestyle which supports mitochondrial function. This should be the basic. (See SunnyFitness Tips #20)
On top of that with regular endurance training you can boost the ticker even further! Both the aerobic and anaerobic activities can help in different pathways.
Include walking, hiking, jogging, running, biking, swimming, rowing etc. in your trainigs at least once a week! It doesn’t hurt even for strength and muscle focused athletes either in small amount.
If you already have a good base of aerobic fitness (not fully beginner), then include some kind of HIIT, interval training as well for further benefits.
Bonus tip
Be happy if you need to walk a bit more after parking further from your destination or if you need to climb the stairs, carrying home the shopping, etc. Instead of being lazy or angry. This way you can sneak in a bit of heart maintenance training for ’free’.
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #88
The end justifies the means
There are thousands of ways to train, put together a workout or training plan and many of them can work well.
However, if you have one or two specific goals, it will be easier to choose! You will have a clearer idea of the path, the methods and the tools.
Obviously, take into account your individual abilities, as well as your current workload capacity and life situations.
Also, it is a good idea to structure the workouts wisely if you want to improve in more than one area at the same time, so that one form of movement does not cancel out the other.
So the focus within the workouts will also be different depending on whether you want to become more muscular, stronger, more enduring, more flexible, faster or more agile.
I believe that each of these elements should be exercised on a regular basis for general fitness, but the percentages will shift in one direction or another over a training period, depending on your individual abilities and goals.
Bonus tip
It is worth setting up several types of objectives, prioritized in categories. It would be best to have only one main goal set, but a maximum of three I believe is still acceptable. There can be 3 to 5 secondary goals, and even more tertiary goals, such as 10.
More than the above numbers, may require a lifestyle of a full-time athlete. The good news is that by good exercise selection and focusing on achieving the main objectives, you can also receive ‘for free’ a relatively large number of lower-priority goals.
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #89
Don’t be a foam roller addict
A popular fitness tool is nowdays the foam roller or SMR (self-myofascial release) roller.
You can make with it a nice ‘self-massage’ on almost the whole body and have immediate tension release in your muscles and fascia network!
Which is usually a desirable feeling we want. I like it too!
The question is, why are that muscle knots and tension there?
Is it lifelike to use foam roller before or after every training session, every day from now on, forever?
My observation and experience is that normal life and high performance in sport (Olympic gold level) existed before the foam roller and can also function without it in the future.
So it’s worth to look around in your lifestyle, training structure what causes that constant tension and muscle knots.
It’s a high chance you can find answers, change something and you don’t need to be addicted to the foam roller.
Usually the answers are: more variety in the exercises&movement, better technique, strengthening some muscles, sitting less&moving more, practicing more natural movements/yoga/pilates/special mobility exercises, having more and better sleep, breathing and stress management.
Bonus tip
Of course we rarely have time or professional help to find out always where that tension is coming from. So it’s not bad to have a foam roller and use it here and there (like 1-2 times a week) but have the intention to upgrade your lifestyle and training methods to move freely, without tension again.
SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #90
Knees over toes
There are certain beliefs also in the fitness world which are absolutely nonsense.
One of them is that the knees should not go over the toes because it would be too much force on the joints and ligaments… And they even teach this in some fitness coaching schools!
Knees over toes is an innocent everyday movement and position.
- How do we stand up from a chair?
- How do we walk on the stairs/hills?
- How do we rest or play in deep squat position?
- How do we crawl?
- How do we start a sprint?
- How is that possible Olympic weightlifters are regularly in this position loaded with 100-200 kg-s and still alive?
If our anatomy makes it possible and certain natural movements, positions require it, it should be safe and worth to use it!
And it’s worth to make it stronger to be more resilient in this position.
Of course there are some rare exceptions, when knees over toes is not a smart and potentially harmful movement. Like with certain knee injuries, using extreme loads without building enough strength before.
So enjoy that you are a perfect human being who can safely go with the knees over the toes in everyday movements and also in gym environment!
Bonus tip
Use your common sense, everyday observations and question everything which smells dogmatic truth even in the fitness world!
The next FITNESS TIP is coming soon, stay tuned!
Read the SunnyFitness books and become a Natural Superhero!
SunnyFitness 1.0
Training principles to become a Natural Superhero.
Body Maintenance
Daily, weekly body maintenance exercises and concepts.
Stone Gym
Full guide to train outdoors and lifting rocks.
Movement Generalist
How to mix and enjoy together all the popular and proven training methods.
