19/02/2010 23:01:01
gymnag_Rob
Moderator
Posts: 102
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When it comes to getting in shape and getting results the most common mistakes are a lack of intensity and inappropriate exercises. Too often people spend hours doing very little and/or doing exercise that does very little.
If this is the case and you've been working out but not seeming to get anywhere, then you need to add some intensity. This will force your body to adapt to new demands.
Spending an hour on an exercise bike at 5mph whilst reading a book will be far less effective than banging out 2000m on a concept 2 rower as fast as you can.
Do large compound, multi joint movements that relate to real life and are functional. These give you the most bang for your buck and will give you the stimulas your body needs to grow and burn fat. Do squats instead of leg extensions, bench presses instead of the Pec Dec machine, pullups instead of biceps curls, use as many muscles as possible. With cardio do exercise that you'd do in real life like running, rowing, cycling, martial arts or swimming and avoid gimmicky machines and vary the tempo.
When doing weights you want to be reaching exhaustion on the last rep. When doing cardio you need to be working hard enough that it would be difficult to hold a conversation.
To prevent overtraining you could try one hard day alternated with one easy day or try a more cardio based workout one day alternated with a more strength orientated workout the next.
If you stay with the same, slow, easy training you'll just hit a plateau and improvement stops.
You need to work hard and work in the right way.
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21/02/2010 22:11:41
Guest
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Dude - I love this article!
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21/02/2010 23:22:27
Guest
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Isn't it also important to vary the routines aswell? Otherwise you get used to it and plateau.
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22/02/2010 01:02:37
gymnag_Rob
Moderator
Posts: 102
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Cheers, glad you liked it. Yes, it's useful to vary your routines and mix things up a bit too keep your body guessing as it were. You
can vary the routines through mixing up the intensity of the exercises, for e.g with running you could do interval's of 1 minute hard to one minute easy on a longer run or do 10x 100m sprints or hill sprints. You could also change the weight and reps of exercises. Alternatively you could change the exercise altogether for e.g swap weights for a circuit training session or running for rowing. The possibilities are endless and will also help prevent boredom.
By increasing the intensity as you get fitter you'll continue to grow but by mixing things up as well it'll be harder for your body to get used too the exercise.
edited by gymnag_Rob on 22/02/2010
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