If you haven’t read the 1st part of How To Workout Effectively <– Go Here
STEP 3 – Learn the 5 Main Areas on How To Workout Effectively and Take Each Test To See Where Your At
1. Functional Flexibility
Start with this first and then move on to Core Exercises, don’t start with power and strength exercises unless your already experienced.
Functional Flexibility is your ability to move completely through the range of motion required for a sport or activity.
Any number of factors like, age, jobs where you sit a lot, or watching too much TV make muscles chronically tight, limiting your full power potential and increasing your risk of injury.
Flexibility shouldn’t be an afterthought. It should be one of the most important things you focus on. You can take a Functional Flexibility Test at home to see where your at.
Then add beneficial exercises to help with your functional flexibility. Most functional flexibility tests gauge flexibility in your core, which are where the most problems are.
2. CORE Strength and Stability
Doing core exercises aren’t just about making your six pack better. What everyone should be after is core stability, which is achieved when your entire core, from lower back to upper legs is equally strong.
Having a stable core will give you maximum control of your body, make you less likely to get injured and provide you with greater performance and power in all types of sports and activities.
Everyone of your workouts should have at least one of the major Core Stability exercises.Take the Core Stability Exercise Test
3. Strength & Power
Doing exercises to increase your strength and power will increase your muscle mass, and keep you burning calories all day long with your increased metabolism. To increase your strength and power you’ll be doing the these types of workouts below.
- Bodyweight Workouts
- Strong Man Training
- Kettlebell Training
- Free Weight Power Lifting exercises
- Ring Training
- Sandbag Training
You can take the Strength Fitness Test Here.
4. Interval Training – Anaerobic vs. Aerobic
Long boring aerobic exercise doesn’t make much sense unless you just want to run marathons and have a skinny little body with no muscle…
Efforts at moderate to high power and lasting less than several minutes are anaerobic. Efforts at low power and lasting in excess of several minutes are aerobic. The 100, 200, 400 and 800 Meter Sprints are mostly anaerobic.
Events like 1,500, the mile, 2,000, and 3,000 meters are mostly aerobic. Aerobic exercise shows decreases in muscle mass, strength, speed and power. Aerobic activity also has a pronounced tendency to decrease anaerobic capacity. If you are an athlete or a wanna be you should focus on 1 or the other.
Anaerobic exercise is more superior to aerobic exercise for fat loss and also has benefits of cardiovascular function. It also allows you to improve power, speed, strength, and muscle mass. So why would anyone even consider doing anything aerobically…?
You will use anaerobic efforsts to develop aerobic condition through “interval training”. With interval training we get all the cardiovascular benefit of endurance work without the loss of strength, speed and power. Take the Interval Conditioning Test
5. Recovery & Nutrition
We’ll talk more about Recovery and Nutrition later but for now you can take the Recovery and Nutrition Test
What is Crossfit Training…?
Crossfit incorporates all the things above. Its a combination of interval training, gymnastics, and weightlifting or powerlifting moves. And yes, women do these workouts!
If you develop the capacity of a novice 800 meter track athlete, a gymnast, and a power lifter, you’ll be fitter than any world class runner, gymnast or weightlifter than just focusing on only each athletes specific exercises.
Thus Crossfit training will make you a better all around athletic person who can tackle anything.
STEP 4 – Setting Up Your Own Workout Program
To set up your own program just determine first, what 3 days out of the week can you go workout for an hour or less. Keep in mind you don’t technically need to go to a gym.
You need to create a ritual of working out for 3 days a week. For help on setting and keeping a daily ritual go here.
Now determine, what you will do each of the 3 days you workout. You have 3 choices.
- Interval Training
- Crossfit Training
- Combination of the 6 major strength and power workouts
If you need help with Crossfit or are new and don’t know how to perform the exercises you can go to www.Crossfit.com and watch the videos. You can also go to your local Crossfit Gym and get a trainer for a month until you think you got it.
To find your local crossfit gym just google – Crossfit then your city name.
Interval Training is pretty cut and dry. If your running, run at a sprint for say 10-20 seconds and rest 60 seconds. And keep doing this for your desired rep range.
Refer to the Crossfit article on Primary Energy Systems, Figure 3 from What Is Fitness from the first part of this article. Keep in mind you can do this for swimming, mountain biking, cycling, running, etc..
For Help on any of the strength and power workouts try these sites. They cover the gamut of all 6 ways of working out. Strong man exercises, kettlebell training, bodyweight exercises, sand bag training, free weight training, and ring training.
STEP 5 – Getting Your Questions Answered
1. How many times do you need to workout each week…?
To get the full benefit you should workout 3 times a week. This doesn’t include Yoga or any other activities that you may do on your days off. The reason for 3 days is that you get enough time for rest and recovery. Working out 3 days also doesn’t become a burden and start to feel like a job.
2. Why is it important to workout this way…?
Its working out smart. By incorporating all three ways of working out you will be burning fat and building muscle in the most absolute ways without wasting time. If your currently doing any of this, ask yourself why… are you getting any results…
- Doing long and boring cardio workouts where you stay at the same pace
- Working out on machines
- Doing isolation exercises focusing on only specific muscle groups each day
- Not doing a variety of different things in your workout every time you lift
3. Where should you be working out…?
You don’t have to go to a gym. You can use any of the power and strength workouts at your house or in a park. Interval training you can do almost anywhere. Crossfit training is better done in a gym utilizing free weights, kettlebells, etc.. But that’s not to say you can’t create your own gym if you want.
4. Should I stretch before or after my workout…?
There are two basic kinds of stretching, static and dynamic. Don’t do static stretching before exercise. Focus on doing dynamic stretching before a workout.
Static Stretching - is used to stretch muscles while the body is at rest. It decreases strength, doesn’t help with injury prevention, and causes a decrease in coordination of explosive movements. Its best to do static stretching after an activity or a workout.
Dynamic Stretching – are functional based exercises which use specific movements to prepare the body for movement. Dynamic stretching isn’t ballistic stretching. Dynamic stretching lowers your chance of injury, can increase performance, and reduce muscle tightness.
Beginning of Workout – do a Dynamic Stretching Warm Up, then proceed to do your workout. At the end cool down with static stretching.
For a dynamic stretching routine <– go here
5. What Can I do to increase Intensity of my workouts..?
- Increase the # of Reps You Do ( 1-6 for power and 7-12+ reps for endurance)
- Increase the # of Sets
- Increase your pace taking less rest between each lift as long as your being safe
- Lower the weight more slowly and up fast or vice versa
- Change your exercise order
- Pyramid your weights, start lighter and go heavier
Additional TIPS, Things to Consider and Clarify:
1. Most people need to work on Flexible Flexibility first and then on to Core Stability rather than first starting with strength exercises. This will increase your ability to move efficiently and reduce your chance of injury.
2. If you want to increase your strength and get better gains lift at 80% – 90% of your 1 rep maximum. The heaviest weight you could lift once. If you stick with lower weights you will see less gains. Be smart about this.
3. If your an endurance athlete or someone who runs marathons don’t exercise for power. If your an endurance runner train for endurance. If you don’t want to have the body of a marathoner, exercise like these articles.
4. If your a new lifter or have been exercising for years, re-examine your technique to make sure your currently performing the lift correctly with proper form. This can save you an injury later on.
5. Build up your Progression. If your a Beginner only do 1 set of each exercise so you don’t overwork your muscles at first. Intermediate only do 2 sets. Experienced 3 sets, etc… I once did a really hard leg workout when I hadn’t lifted for 4 months and couldn’t walk for a day. Be smart.
6. If you decide to work with a personal trainer, make sure they know what their talking about. How will you know this. Ask them questions, feel them out. Make sure they’ve been in the business at least 5 years.
You see, typically new trainers start out in health clubs that pay them really cheap, and once the personal trainers realize this they either quit or seek to get their own clientele and develop it and pay a different gym a monthly fee to train their clients there.
If a personal trainer is experienced they most likely don’t work for a national chain. They have their own business set up with clients. But that’s not to say that all trainers that work at national chains don’t know what their doing…
7. If your overweight (use your best judgement) you may want to consult with your doctor before exercising. Just doing small things to improve your health can help. Going on walks. Then progressing to the point to where maybe you can do interval training with walking. Speed walk 10 sec. then walk 30 sec, speed walk 10 sec, etc…
If you have any other questions on How To Workout please submit your questions below.
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