Workouts such as Crossfit are growing in popularity, and people tend to exercise more quickly so they can do as many reps as possible. However, if you’re a beginner, you’ll need proper guidance so you can benefit from your hard work. Otherwise you’ll do too much high-intensity exercise before you’re ready, and you’ll hinder your results or risk injury.
Most elite athletes do the majority of their training at a maximum of 80%, which is considered to be easy compared to the remaining 20%. This is regarded as more intense. If you want to enhance your athletic ability for events such as weight-lifting, you’ll need to train in the same way. Then your body will start to adapt to high-intensity workouts.
If you want to work up to the highest fitness level, you need to test yourself to discover how fit you are, without putting your body under too much pressure. For example, if you’re a runner, you could run at a certain speed for up to an hour. If you’re a weightlifter, you could find out the volume you can lift in a specific period of time.
You must choose a training method, such as burpees, that you can do comfortably and keep trying to improve it. Try to increase the number of reps until you tire out, have a rest and then try to do more reps than last time. Some people might be able to manage around 14 reps in one minute but no more than that.
You can increase the intensity of an exercise by 5% over a period of 4-8 weeks. This will enable your body to get used to high-intensity exercise, without exhausting it completely so it can’t recover properly. It’s more effective to improve your fitness levels gradually than working extremely hard during training.
During your next training session, remember that you should always feel that you have more to give or that a session is too simple to do. Focus on your next sporting competition to counter any feelings of frustration. Training is merely supposed to prepare you for your next event. Only do your absolute best on the big day.
If you’re interested in Crossfit, try starting out with exercises such as kettlebell swings or push-ups. For one minute, do one rep and then two reps in another minute etc. Keep doing this until you start to tire out.
Multiply the minute on which you stopped by 0.75, to find out the pace you trained at. Then attempt this number of reps each minute during a period of 20 minutes. Increase your pace by 5% every week over a four-week period and then repeat the entire test. You will find your scores will start to rise.
If you’re training well enough with a good number of suitable exercises for you, and you’re not overloading yourself in terms of frequency or volume, you will gradually make great progress. Always make sure you rest for an adequate length of time in between exercises and take rest days too, so you will perform at your best in your next competition.
