"Working out longer or harder at a higher intensity doesn't promise quicker and better results either. Even professional athletes do not workout at full intensity every day. A marathon runner does not run a marathon every day or even every week."
Do you think you may be overdoing it with your new workout schedule? Varying your workout intensity and routine will help you maintain a positive attitude.
Nobody would disagree that even a small amount of physical activity is better than none at all, but perhaps less exercising and exercising at a lower intensity may be better than you think.
"Don't burn out like a meteorite but shine like a star," advised an online exercise buddy to others who expressed the "all or nothing" attitude. This all or nothing attitude and the 'more is better' attitude can work against real progress in health and fitness besides working against weight loss and weight management. In fact, it can prevent progress. Emotionally, it can cause burnout or even cause completely giving up. Physically, it can cause fatigue or injury. Folks who are overweight and/or out of shape often feel like they have lost control of their bodies and try to gain back some control with dieting and exercise, but maybe, this hopeless feeling of being out of control is inevitable because of having unrealistic expectations when pursuing fitness.
People who exercise should control the workout and not let the workout (or the scale) control them. Permanent fat loss or weight management is a very slow process and a lifelong one and must include regular physical activity to retain and build muscle and to burn calories. To make regular exercise a permanent part of this process, it must have a positive influence on our lives. It should be enjoyable, energizing and a mood elevator. Working out should not be uncomfortable, draining or depressing. If it is having any of these negative effects, the available options for a workout plan or the chosen activity must be re-evaluated and modified before the attempt to exercise regularly will cease completely.
Working out longer or harder at a higher intensity doesn't promise quicker and better results either. Even professional athletes do not workout at full intensity every day. A marathon runner does not run a marathon every day or even every week.
Being an overachiever has made me sometimes attempt to workout more than I should or harder than I should, especially following my decades of inactivity. Soon after starting Tae-Bo and seeing immediate results, I started counting calories for the first time in my life as well as doubling my workout effort; becoming very motivated by the sudden weight loss and loss of inches. The combination of increasing my workout time and intensity as well as decreasing food intake caused my weight loss to stop abruptly. This could have also stopped my motivation if I didn't focus on how exercise made me feel instead of how I looked. Tae-Bo is a demanding exercise, and cutting down on calories slowed down my metabolism. Also Tae-Bo is very effective in muscle toning and muscles need recovery time to build.
Realizing that I have probably been over-training and actually preventing physical progress, I have been working on a new workout schedule for myself, consciously trying to vary my workout's frequency, intensity and duration. Working out relieves my chronic pain, so I have found for myself working out daily is better than every other day so I try to have active recovery workout days at a low intensity instead of "off" days. Muscles still need that recovery time so I have been aiming at increasing the frequency of active recovery workout days. A good option for an active recovery day is to do a light aerobic activity that includes a lot of stretching. I enjoy doing Tae-Bo in slow motion like Tai Chi, going for the full range of motion and stretch. Walking, stationary biking and other videos like Tai Chi and walk aerobics are alternatives on my lighter intensity active recovery days.
Now my weekly workout plan includes the following sort of rotation:
Saturday is a day of 60 minutes of intermediate intensity Tae-Bo using an advanced workout while pacing myself and keeping my heart rate closer to 70 percent of its maximum heart rate.
Sunday is a day of mostly upper-body weight training in intervals with moderate aerobic activity using various video workouts and the ab wheel.
Monday is just very light aerobic activity and stretching or an active recovery day.
Tuesday is an intense 30 minutes of Tae-Bo using a basic workout and a standing bag trying to keep my heart rate at 80-85 percent of my maximum heart rate for most of the workout.
Wednesday combines light intensity aerobic Tae-Bo and lower body floor work.
Thursday is high intensity upper body weight training using our weight machine as well as the ab wheel, free weights and toning bands.
Friday is another active recovery day with light aerobic activity and stretching.
I do a warm up before each workout as well as a stretch and cool down after each workout every day and may vary my intensity goals depending on how I am feeling during any given workout, using my workout schedule as a guide that can be adjusted depending on my daily energy level or mood. I chose Saturday and Sunday to have the longer duration workouts because I do not have to juggle them around getting our son off to school and can do them early in the morning and on an empty stomach except for water.
The ab wheel is a nice little gadget (just a wheel with handles), much cheaper than the similar fancier advertised devices but just as effective for the abs and upper body. It has really toned my middle and upper back.
The standing bag is a fun way of adding intensity to a kickboxing workout, giving a target for punches and kicks. It really helps to relieve stress too because the bag can become a target for whatever is causing frustration and stress. It has also helped me to improve the form of my roundhouse kick having a target to kick.
My workout area in our basement over time has become quite an impressive home gym with a lot of video tapes and gadgets, including a pulley weight machine with a butterfly, bench press, hamstring curl and lat bar, which we carried home from a neighbor's garage sale. Variety is a definite key to keeping me motivated. My enthusiasm has infected our 15-year-old son who is developing a really nice physique by weight training every other day. Exercising regularly started out as an attempt to lose weight and feel better, but now it is also a way of spending quality time with myself and sometimes with our son.
Previously, I was doing Tae-Bo at high intensity most days and three days of upper body weight training a week and randomly but rarely taking one day off. Though I was still enjoying the workouts, not seeing any physical results on the scale or tape measurer compared to those I saw during my earlier Tae-Bo months when I had much more recovery time made me rethink my workout schedule. So I tried to find more balance in my aerobic and anaerobic intensity, frequency and duration, but without sacrificing the lubrication of my joints or elevation of my moods with daily motion.
I have also been eating more and feeling a lot more hunger as my metabolism is hopefully speeding up, although I still try to choose nutritious food at least 80 percent of the time. The good news is that after months and months of no recordable changes, I have lost another inch off my waist, so my new workout plan seems to be more effective besides a lot easier to maintain.
I believe many folks jump into a workout plan too quickly, expecting quick changes and give up without trying to modify their exercise schedule or their chosen exercise activity to make it more doable and enjoyable and possibly more effective. If I tried to do Tae-Bo exactly how the instructors and Billy Blanks do it on the videos, I doubt I would have continued doing Tae-Bo for as long as I have been and therefore, would have stopped exercising altogether since Tae-Bo has been the only exercise that has kept me motivated because it is fun and easily modified. Tae-Bo as it is done on the videos and in the live classes at Tae-Bo centers may be too challenging for most of its target audience, folks who are out of shape or overweight such as myself. Luckily, I have been able to modify the workouts to make them enjoyable and safer for me by doing them slower with full range of motion. In fact, the more intense level on the videos and the reputed terrifying pace at the classes has made me rethink my plans of attending classes which will be discussed in another article.
Recently, I have become aware that I will have to live with muscular aches and pains the rest of my life though before Tae-Bo, it was more like intense muscular spasms. Between this physical reality and still being overweight and the stresses of life, I have to battle almost daily to keep a positive attitude. The three constants that have supported me in this daily battle have been my real life family, my online family and exercise, especially Tae-Bo. Exercise should be used to improve the quality of life, not to make life even harder. It should be a positive influence and if it is making someone feel worse physically or emotionally, the workout plan or the type of exercise, itself, must be modified to turn it into a more positive experience.
I have found if I were to err, it is better to err on cutting back rather than pushing too hard when working out, not just because of my age or physical condition, but because I risk a lot more than I can gain by pushing too hard.
On the other hand, there is the risk of zoning out psychologically and/or making too little effort physically, which would sacrifice the reasons for doing the exercise in the first place, so I try to keep my mind and body involved even at the lower intensities. The key for me is to work at an intensity level that energizes and makes me feel good, which may even vary day to day. Bottom-line, become your own personal trainer and do what feels right for you, listening to your body and pacing yourself to make your workout an enjoyable and therefore, permanent part of your lifestyle.
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