What kind of workouts are best ?
There are many types of workouts, but there is only one that will best fit your goals concerning health and fitness. You may ask, is aerobic training or interval training better ? If you are looking at aerobic training and fitness, then things like biking, running, or swimming may be good activities for you, while if your talking more anaerobic training, this would be working out in the weight room with resistance training. Personally, I believe that it is better to combine the two forms of training into one to get the best results.
Interval training increases your aerobic and anaerobic endurance which is increasing the efficiency of oxygen used to do work. For example when your on the elliptical first go for thirty seconds at a normal pace, followed by thirty seconds at an all out pace. Start for five minutes, increasing the total time each workout up to fifteen minutes. Training like this is effects both aerobic and anaerobic muscular endurance when compared to aerobic training. It has also be shown that interval training in a shorter period of time is just as effective as aerobic training with changes of the rate of metabolism. You’ll be able to get a similar workout with the amount of calories burned, in a less amount of time.
Different types of training schemes for resistance training
One way to do this is through what is called undulated training. Instead of just doing five strait sets with the same weight, one set is a pattern of 8-10-12 repetitions. Decrease the weight as the number of repetitions increase. A opposite pattern can also be used by doing 12-10-8 repetitions, increasing the weight as the repetitions decrease. Start out just by doing one set, then gradually work up to as many as five sets.
Pyramid training is different because it is done in sets either increasing the number of repetitions per set, or decreasing them. Repetitions used can be anywhere between six and twelve for one set. When you increase the number repetitions, you decrease the amount of weight used or vise versa.
To confuse your muscles, you need to change things in some small way each workout. You can do this both in aerobic and weight training with the exercises used. Stay with the same complex, multi joint exercises, but change the assistant exercises used. These would include any single joint isolated exercise. For these assistant exercises you can also change the repetition schemes used as well. Here are some examples of the different repetition schemes:
Reps Weight
Pyramid Training (5 sets) 6-8-10-12-12 40-40-35-30-25
12-10-8-6-6 25-30-35-40-40
Undulated training (1 set) 12-10-8 25-35-45
(1 set) 8-10-12 45-35-25
Strait sets (5 sets) 8-8-8-8-8 25-25-25-25-25
Tracking your progress
In order to keep track on your progress, you want to keep a log of your workouts. One good way to do this is through calculating the total amount of weight lifted, and divide it by the time that it took you to lift the weight. Here your using the concept of pounds lifted per minute.
100 pounds x 8 repetitions x 5 sets = 4,000 pounds.
Say it takes you 10 minutes to do this. 4,000 lbs/10 minutes = 400 lbs/minute
A few different ways that you can increase your strength when keeping track of it this way is to
1. Increase the total amount of weight lifted within the same or a shorter time period
2. Lift the same amount of total weight in a shorter time period
3. Lift the same amount of weight over an extended period.
Scheduling
It is also a good idea to make a training routine where you workout either three or four days a week. When using a three day a week plan, you could do Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, going upper body, lower body, upper body for the first week, then go lower body, upper body, lower body the following week. When you do this, you will get an equal amount of work for both the upper and lower body.
If you’re doing four days a week, Monday and Thursday could be upper body days, and Tuesday and Friday could be for lower body. Give yourself at least a few days to rest because if you don’t you will not see any progress. Also, it isn’t just being active that is important, but nutrition is at least seventy-five percent if not more of the equation for good health.
Nutrition
Most of us eat an average of three meals a day. It is much better if you eat in between regular meals and use something like a protein shake or nutrition bar, for a total of six meals a day. Consuming smaller more frequent meals will assist in keeping a stable level of blood sugar, while increasing metabolism. It is best if you do a meal every three to four hours.
There are many types of supplements that you can use. There are protein powders and weight gainers. A lot of the calories in some products are empty calories, which means that they aren’t directly used. I suggest using a protein powder with few to no carbohydrates. Although you need carbohydrates since they are the body’s first choice of fuel, they should be consumed just prior to the most active part of the day. As the day goes on gradually decrease the carbohydrates you take in, focusing more on protein and fat for fuel.
The majority of carbohydrates should be complex carbohydrates since they take longer to digest. The simple carbohydrates come only from things like soft drinks and cookies. If you focus more on complex carbohydrates which come in the form of grains and vegetables, you really can’t consume enough carbohydrates since many of these foods are fibrous and don’t have many carbs per serving.
You are making sure that you make better choices concerning the type of carbohydrates you consume. Also, many people think that you have to count calories in order to lose weight, but calorie counting isn’t totally necessary. If you decrease calorie intake by 500 a day, and burn that many excess calories, this would help you lose a average of two pounds lost per week. Although some people may lose weight faster than others, you shouldn’t let it be discouraging. Continue your journey to better health through staying active and eating healthy.