Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Push Yourself to Achieve Better Results

If you want to see results with your exercise program you need to put in the effort to get the end result you are looking for. Don't just go thru the motions and hope something good will come of it. If you're currently exercising on cardio machines at a snails pace with no interest what so ever in your workout then seeing improvement can be a slow process. Furthermore if you do resistance training half heartedly with far too little intensity trying not to break a sweat or feel the burn a simple change can make all the difference. Yes going through the motions is better than doing nothing, but it may be just enough to maintain or improve very slowly.

Check your intensity. A quick and easy way to gauge your intensity level is to use a one to ten scale, where one represents little to no intensity (think laying on the couch) and ten is an all out effort. Aim to do most of your exercising in at levels 7 or above. When resistance training if you are to do 3 sets of 12 reps make sure 12 reps takes you to fatigue. If you are working with a weight you can do 15 times it's time to start using a heavier weight, the last three reps should be somewhat difficult, especially on your final set.

To start seeing results more rapidly push yourself beyond your comfort zone. This means doing more this week than last week. If last week you ran for 20 minutes at 6.0 miles per hour with no incline, this week try to increase your time to 22 minutes, your speed to 6.2 miles per hour or add an incline of 2-3%. In addition if you currently using 15 pound dumbbells for 3 sets of 10 reps try pushing out a couple of extra reps, progressing to 3 sets of 12 with the same weight or increasing your weight to 20 pounds and do 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps. You will feel the added intensity but it is so small it won't be overwhelming, just enough to push yourself past your comfort zone. Over a period of three months you can expect to see some major improvement with small increases like this.

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