Student Fitness

By: Veljko Petranovic

Compromises, compromises…
What is college good for? Some young guys and gals think it’s a terrific way to get a solid education and to get prepared for holding a responsible, well-paid job.
Suckers, right?

You came here to party. To get drunk off your butt every weekend and sometimes in between weekends. You came here to smoke the herb and chase after the willing members of the opposite sex like a frisky hound dog. You came here for the fraternity toga parties which, as you were maybe told, often evolve into full-on Roman style orgies (they rarely do, though). You came here to live out the rest of your youth, because we all know that you’ll be chained to a desk in no time, burried under a heap of papers and harassed by an unforgiving boss. This is your last chance to get buck wild and intoxicated like there’s no tomorrow.

Trouble is, you also want to look good while doin’ it.
Somehow, the fitness lifestyle and the party lifestyle just clash. Absurd, yes? But it’s true.
So what do we do? We compromise.

Let’s say you are a proud member of the local gym. Whether you go there to hit the weights or to partake in an aerobics class, or both, you are supposed to maintain a semblance of a healthy living. If you expect results, that is. Training with a hangover is no fun. You probably won’t exercise with 50 percent of your usual intensity. Your output will suck. And so will your appearance.

Let’s take beer for example. Beer is cool, right?. Beer is fun. Even Arnold, the Governator, liked to have a roasted chicken plus beer after a hard workout session in his day. The thing is, it was one beer and not five, once a week and not all the time. Alcohol is just empty calories. And a soon-to-be fit body needs a solid nutrient uptake if it is expected to put on the muscle and shed the fat. Did I mention the beer-belly thing? No? Shucks.

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It doesn’t matter so much that alcohol isn’t very healthy and promotes liver cirrhosis. Right? Oh, yeah, it does matter. What’s also bad about it is the fact that, when you’re drinking, you’re not eating. Which means that you’ve somewhat successfully stimulated your muscles earlier in the week, but now, those same muscles aren’t given even a slim chance to recuperate and grow. You’re putting on fat and burning your hard work. Put down the shot glass, man. Stop tapping the keg. Go home and get some sleep. It’s during sleep when the growth occurs. This has to do with the fact that the majority of your natural Growth Hormone is released during sleep.

That’s cool, you say, but I can still toke mad weed and get away with it, right? Well, yes and no. While it’s true that tetrahydrocanabiol won’t interfere with the muscle building and fat burning process in your body, it is also true that it lowers your testosterone levels with habitual use. This is bad news for both males and females, since both sexes need that hormone to function normally. Also, smoking marijuana is notorious for diminishing your motivation to train, making you a lazy, out of shape… Well, stoner. Let’s call things their respective names. And the munchies you get afterwards will make sure you eat enough junk food to feed an Ethiopian family for a week. Not exactly the FDA’s recommendation. Not exactly healthy and fitness-y.

The other drugs… Well, I am putting hope in the assumption that you wouldn’t be reading this if you even remotely did not care about your life. Leave the hard drugs to hard druggies. You know better. Take pride in that fact.

Here’s where we make that compromise. You can live clean and expect results for six days a week. No less, remember. Looking good takes sacrifice.

Pick a non-training day, like Saturday, to indulge in your “extracurricular” activities. Go all the way. Par-tay. Reserve a keg just for yourself. Puke all over your shoes. Wake up in Mexico. Just remember to be back, by Monday, 9 AM sharp. That’s when you train legs.

Posted in College Alcohol, Student Wellness | By Veljko |