The BIG Mistake You’re Making in Your Fitness Program
You’ve created your space at home. Gathered some equipment. Set aside time in your schedule and are working out 3-5 times per week. BUT, you are not yet hitting your goals. Why?
Well, there certainly can be a variety of reasons such as the goal being unrealistic or the type of exercise not matching your goal. BUT, the #1 reason I see for people falling short, is related to the intensity with which they are working out.
And, to be honest, this makes me feel a bit sad. Why? Well, for all the points that opened the article. People have gone to the effort of sorting their equipment, their space, their schedule, and are working out diligently 3 - 5 times per week. They’re trying so hard, and they are only missing one little (but critical) thing. AND the good news? You are only one tweak away from success!
So, what does “intensity” mean in the fitness space? Simple-ish.
If you’re doing cardio (walking, hiking, running etc.) intensity is measured by using your heart rate. Where should your heart rate be? Well that isn’t so simple. You’ve seen the heart rate charts at the gym or online, and they can certainly give you a guideline. They aren’t extremely personalized (for good reason-the charts are designed to be a quick, safe reference for many folxs working out, and that they are). If you’d like something a little more personalized though, I suggest using the Karvonen formula. Here is a great resource article about intensity, that includes Karvonen calculations, or join me April 27th (info below) and this is one of the things we will be discussing. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise-intensity/art-20046887
Now, what about weight training? Intensity is measured here by looking at your 1 rep max (RM), which means the most amount of weight you could lift with proper form, once. Now you can see the risk of trying out that idea which is why a percent of the 1 RM is used to estimate your 1 RM. You may have seen this written as 80% of 1RM, for example.
And all that is to say, if you have a general fitness goal of increasing some muscle endurance and strength, use a weight or a load with which you can complete 10-15 reps of an exercise with good form, and then you NEED to take a break. HERE is where the intensity issue lies for what I have seen. Often, we do the set number of repetitions written on our program sheet and then we stop and rest, whether the number of repetitions tired us out or not. That is the gold-if you do 10 reps and you can do more, DO MORE! If you can do 15 reps and you can still do more, UP YOUR WEIGHT (and decrease your reps back to 10).
You’re so close friends! With each workout, ask yourself, “is that the hardest I can work (safely of course)?” And if you know you can push just a little bit harder, go for it!
Message me if you have program design questions, deanna@deannalangfordcoaching.com . Or join me for our Build Your Own Workout workshop on Tuesday April 27th at 7pm where we’re going to do just this-build your own at home workout! This is an interactive experience….not just another passive webinar :)
Learn more: https://www.deannalangfordcoaching.com/get-started
Stay well friends and keep moving in whatever way your body allows!
Deanna