If you’re serious about getting and staying in shape, then you may be inclined to want to train at maximum levels every time you work out. After all, pushing your body to extremes at all cardio and strength training sessions will get you better results, right? Although it seems like this would be a good idea, it is actually a little more complex than that.
For starters, by pushing your body to extremes every time you exercise, you’re increasing your risk of injury since you’re constantly expecting your muscles to give 110 percent. This is especially true if you tend to do the same exercises over and over again, which puts you at a higher risk of having an overuse injury because you’re working them repeatedly without giving them enough time to heal.
Secondarily, if your goal is to increase your stamina and endurance, longer and slower exercise patterns are necessarily. This is the same principle that marathon runners and triathlon participants use when preparing for their big events. They’ve learned that if they don’t pace themselves during the entire run, going slower at the beginning even though they may have more energy, they burn out too quickly and aren’t able to finish the race.
Therefore, instead of making it a goal to max out every time you hit the weights or do your cardio, you’ll often get better results by varying your intensities from one workout to the next. For example, if you are working out for 30 minutes at high intensity today, aim to exercise at low to medium intensity tomorrow for 45 to 60 minutes. Throw in some interval training sessions once or twice a week while you’re at it and you will have a well-rounded exercise plan that can help you reach your goals.
What are your thoughts on the topic? Do you vary your workouts to get the best results and, if so, how? I’d love to hear about it so share your thoughts below!
