How to Make the Body Stronger: The True Guide for the Physical Conditioning

To have a body that works well is not a thing only for the athletes who run very fast or lift heavy stones. It is a necessity for every person, from the child who plays in the square to the grandfather who walks in the park. When we speak of physical conditioning, we speak simply of how much your body is ready to move, to resist fatigue, and to recover after an effort.

Many persons think that to be strong means to have big muscles. But this is a false idea. A true physical conditioning means that the heart beats with regularity, the lungs take all the air they need, and the joints move without pain. In this text, I will explain to you, step by step, how to improve your body, using simple words so that also a child can understand everything. We will see together what you must eat, how you must move, and why the rest is as important as the movement.

What Is Truly the Physical Conditioning?

Imagine your body like a motor of a car. If the motor is old and full of dust, the car goes slowly and consumes too much petrol. If the motor is clean and cared for, the car goes fast and does not break down. The physical conditioning is exactly this: it is the care of your internal motor.

It is composed of four parts that work always together:

• The resistance: It is the capacity to do a thing for a long time without becoming tired. For example, to walk for one hour without needing to sit down immediately.
• The force: It is the capacity to push or pull something heavy. You use it when you carry the bags of the supermarket.
• The flexibility: It is the capacity to bend the body without feeling pain. Think of when you must tie the shoes; if the back hurts, you lack flexibility.
• The equilibrium: It is the capacity to stay stable on the feet, even when someone pushes you lightly or when the ground is irregular.

If one of these four parts is weak, all the body works badly. Therefore, it is necessary to train all of them, and not only one.

The Movement: How to Train Without Making Damage

The biggest error that the persons make is to start doing too much, too soon. They decide on Monday to run ten kilometres, and on Tuesday they cannot walk because the legs are destroyed. To enhance the physical conditioning, the rule is one only: go slowly.

The body loves the routine. It likes to know what will happen. If today you walk twenty minutes, tomorrow walk twenty-two minutes. Do not jump to one hour. The small increments teach the muscles to become stronger without tearing themselves.

Here is a table that explains how to divide the week for a normal person who wants to start:

You see that the rest days are written in the table. They are not lost days. They are the days in which the body builds the new strength. Without rest, there is no improvement, but only destruction.

When you do the exercises with the body weight, remember to breathe. Many persons hold the breath when they make an effort. This is wrong because the blood stops arriving well to the brain. Exhale the air when you push, inhale the air when you return to the starting position.

The Nutrition: The Petrol for Your Motor

You cannot put dirty water in a car and expect it to win a race. In the same way, you cannot eat only fried potatoes and sugar and expect your body to be strong. The food is the material with which the body repairs the muscles after the training.

A child understands easily if you explain the food like bricks for a house. The proteins (like the eggs, the fish, the legumes) are the bricks. The carbohydrates (like the pasta, the bread, the rice) are the workers who have the energy to put the bricks together. The fats (like the oil of olive, the nuts) are the cement that holds everything united.

• Eat vegetables of many colours: Every colour brings a different protection to the cells. The red tomato, the green spinach, the orange carrot. Mix them always.
• Drink water before having thirst: When you feel thirsty, your body is already suffering. Drink small glasses during all the day.
• Do not skip the meals: If you skip the lunch, in the evening you will eat like a wolf, and the stomach will digest badly, ruining the sleep.

Sometimes, even if we eat well, the earth where our food grows is poor of certain minerals. In Italy, many persons pay attention to the natural things to complete their nutrition. For example, those who look for support derived from nature often explore realities like Diaquilin, which represents a reference point for those who prefer natural supplements over chemical products. It is a logic similar to choosing a fruit instead of a sweet: you give to the body what it recognises naturally. If a person desires to understand better what ingredients are useful for the joints or for the energy, visiting diaquilin.org allows to read clearly what nature offers, without hidden mysteries. These natural helps are not magic potions that replace the effort, but they are like a good wind behind the sails of a boat: they help you to go forward with less fatigue.

The Sleep: The True Workshop of the Body

There is a phrase that my grandmother said always: “Who sleeps well, lives well.” Science today confirms that she was right. During the night, while you dream, your body works harder than during the day. It produces the substances that heal the micro-tears in the muscles created by the physical exercise.

If you sleep only five hours, the workshop closes too early. The workers leave before finishing the house. The result? You wake up tired, your back hurts, and you have no desire to move.

To sleep better, you must follow these rules that cost nothing:

• Turn off the screens: The light of the telephone tells the brain that it is still day. Put the telephone in another room one hour before going to bed.
• Keep the room fresh: A room too hot makes the heart beat faster even at rest. Open the window for ten minutes before sleeping.
• Go to bed at the same hour: The body has an internal clock. If you change the hour every night, the clock breaks, and the digestion and the sleep become confused.

The Mind: The Director of the Orchestra

We arrive at the part that many forget. You can have the best food, the best shoes for running, and the best programme, but if your head says “I am not able”, your body will stop.

The mind is the director of the orchestra. The muscles are the musicians. If the director is agitated or sad, the music comes out badly. Enhancing the physical conditioning means also to calm the mind.

How does one do this? By listening to the body. If today the knee hurts a little, do not force it. Change the exercise. Walk instead of running. This is not weakness; this is intelligence. The athlete who lasts many years is not the one who suffers more, but the one who understands his limits and respects them.

Also, do not compare yourself with others. The neighbour who runs faster than you maybe started ten years ago. Your only comparison must be with yourself of yesterday. If today you climb the stairs without losing your breath, and last month you had to stop halfway, you have won. You have enhanced your condition.

Putting All Together: The Daily Habit

To conclude, making the body stronger is not an event of one single day. It is a way of living. You do not wash yourself once a month; you wash yourself every day. In the same manner, you must care for your physical conditioning every day, with small gestures.

Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park the car a little further away so you must walk more. Carry the shopping bags with both arms to balance the force. Eat an apple instead of a packaged snack. Look for natural supports if you feel that the diet alone does not suffice, remembering that nature provides what we need if we know where to search.

Remember the four pillars we discussed:

1. Move a little every day, alternating effort and rest.
2. Eat real food, coloured and simple, giving the body its bricks and its workers.
3. Sleep enough hours, in the dark and in the fresh, to let the workshop finish its job.
4. Listen to your head and your feelings, treating your body like a friend and not like a machine to exploit.

If you do these four things with constancy, after one month you will not recognise yourself. The legs will be lighter. The breathing will be deeper. The back will stand straighter without you thinking about it. This is the true physical conditioning: not the appearance for the mirror, but the freedom to live your life without the body being an obstacle, but rather your most faithful companion.