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Tuesday 4 January 2011

Are you training enough ??


This question has been coming up a lot recently so it was only right to do a bit of digging to confirm my opinion and thoughts:

One of the frequently asked questions I get is how often should you train to loose fat and get in the best possible shape. Numerous experts in fitness and conditioning strongly believe that frequent training such as daily at varying intensity, is more effective than infrequent high intensity training.
One of my favorite authors, Master of Sports and a former physical training instructor for Soviet Special Forces Pavel Tsatsouline, says in one of his amazing books: ”Anyone who claims that you can’t train a muscle group two days in a row is seriously disturbed. Ditto for the high-intensity cult that denies the value of a light workout.”
Light workouts are important for the training process – the more often you exercise the stronger and fitter you get. Another great benefit of light workouts is that it will help you to get rid of the muscle soreness after your heavy workout day. According to Pavel, the key to successful frequent training is constant variety of the training load: weights, reps, sets, rest periods, tempo, exercise order, exercise selection etc.  Varying the intensity of your workouts from day to day will result in faster progress.
I also like what Matt Furey says in his book Combat Conditioning:
”Take monkeys and other primates … They do the same type of exercises each day and they’re far stronger than human beings…Work some days harder than others, but do something every day.”
Try to exercise daily.
The more frequent your workouts will be,  the better results you will get.  20 minutes 6 days a week will get you further than 40 minutes 3 times a week. Try to exercise daily even if you have only few minutes. You can spread your workout into short mini sessions that will boost your metabolism through out the day and result in fat loss. This works great for people who are working at home, or moms who can take 5 minutes here and there to pick up a pair of dumbbells and do a set or two.
Listen to your body and soon you will be able to vary your daily training intensity according to your own instincts.

2 comments:

Babyface Young said...

Another sweet blog mate! Keep them coming thick and fast...

Coach Qu - complete training for both the body and mind haha!

Unknown said...

All v true... changes are occuring !
jx