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Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Balancing Work and Rest


Fitness enthusiasts can be every bit as addicted to exercise as a smoker is to cigarettes. Of course there's a big difference between the health effects of the two activities. But it's important to remember why you're working out, so you know when enough is enough.

An elite athlete has a different set of training demands than someone who is just trying to stay healthy and keep a trim waistline. But unless they understand the dangers and symptoms, either can run the risk of over training. Besides an increased risk of injury and a compromised immune system, performance plateaus and even decreased endurance and strength are common with over training. So it's important to understand the diminishing returns principle of exercise.

The two basic variables for exercise are:

1. Volume
2. Intensity

Volume is how much work you do. This is a combination of workout frequency and individual workout duration. So if you train six days a week for 30 minutes, four days a week for 45 minutes or three days a week for an hour, you basically accumulate the same total workout time. Intensity is how hard you push yourself at a given workout. And the two variables have an inverse relationship - the harder you train, the less training time you can log.

Some people forget that and think if some is good, lots more is better.

When I was in my 20's, I trained six days a week for up to 90 minutes or more. Now I train on alternating days and rarely for more than an hour. My cardio days are usually only about 30 minutes at extremely high intensity.

At 45, I'm stronger, have a higher aerobic capacity and am about 6 points lower in body fat than I was in my 20's.

And if I have a particularly hard week working with clients, I'll skip 2 or 3 days unless I feel absolutely fresh.

So, if you think you may be over training, cut back on one or both variables and see if you feel and perform better. You may be surprised. And the way you feel, and what you can do are the ultimate tests of your program effectiveness.

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