Many people do fitness programs which are ineffective and a waste of time. Clearly, if you put in the hard time and effort into exercise you want results. This article provides tips on making the most of your fitness time.
How would you feel if only 20% of your training time was effective? Do you even know if your fitness time is effective at all? By using a heart rate monitor you can monitor the effectiveness of your training, and make changes to your routine accordingly.
Don’t waste time doing the wrong exercises, or doing the right exercises incorrectly. Three questions to consider :
(i) Are you doing exercises that are appropriate for your body-type and condition? For example, jogging may not be the best exercise if you are heavily overweight.
(ii) Are the exercises appropriate for your fitness goals? For example, if you want to run a marathon, lifting heavy weights may not be appropriate.
(iii) Are you doing the exercises correctly? Doing an exercise incorrectly can be counter-productive and even damaging.
People who do “moderately intense workouts” for 40 minutes just 4 days week, receive more fitness benefit than those who walk 50 minutes every day. (Source – a study by the University of Alberta). Another study has indicated that high intensity workouts for just 3 or 4 days a week will be more beneficial than low intensity workouts for 5 to 7 days. (Source – university of Florida). Implications – Make better use of your exercise time by putting more effort into shorter workouts (rather than putting less effort into longer workouts).
Like most things in life, if you are motivated you will do a better job. Likewise, you must be motivated to make good use of your exercise time. Some tips include:
(i) Know your fitness goals – why are you doing this?
(ii) Learn more about fitness and the benefits of exercise.
(iii) Do the hard work to become 'addicted' to exercise. It may take a few weeks, but once you reach this stage your body will want to exercise (and will feel bad if you don't).
(iv) Train at your optimal exercise time. If you’re not a morning person, then you may never have the motivation for a 6:00am swim.
(v) Choose an exercise or sport you enjoy.
If you still can’t motivate yourself, then perhaps you need a coach or trainer ...
Personal trainers can help you make better use of your fitness time by personally helping you with all the points listed here. If the cost is prohibitive consider sharing a personal trainer. One of my friends has being doing this with a group of friends and they have a great time.
Please leave a comment if you have thoughts on making fitness sessions more time effective.
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Comments
I agree with point 3
I agree with point 3 regarding intensive fitness sessions. These are certainly important.
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