More is Not Better

It has become common and almost heroic for us to brag about how extreme our lives are.  How many times have you heard people boast about how many marathons they have run, how many hours they worked, how little sleep they got, and how ridiculously long their workout was yesterday?  Why are we impressed by these things?  We should not be! Most of these people are not truly healthy, will never be as lean as they want to be, have undiagnosed cortisol issues, and they will burn out at some point in their life.  Their long list of symptoms and dependency on caffeine are pretty good indicators that their health is already moving in the wrong direction.

As I work with people on proper nutrition, I am often asked my thoughts on proper workout design as it pertains to weight loss and optimal body composition.  I want to share my thoughts with you on this very important and completely misunderstood topic.

You do not have to workout six times per week for ninety minutes a session to achieve the results you are dreaming of.  In fact, very often you need to scale back, change the exercises that you are doing, and change your intensity.  If you are looking to burn fat, gain muscle, and promote long term wellness, then
three to four higher intensity and shorter workouts per week are much better than five or six moderately intense long workouts.  Long cardio sessions are not your answer to fat loss!

Your body needs adequate rest and you need to constantly vary your activity to keep your body guessing and get the results that you deserve.  Instead of spending your time on the treadmill, do strength circuits at an intense pace with little to no rest between exercises.  This will launch your heart rate even higher than traditional cardio, and you will be building muscle at the same time. Additionally, multi-joint functional movements are far more effective than isolation lifts or machines.  Do not be afraid to go heavy from time to time. When was the last time that you did functional strength based movements to absolute failure?

It is time to start training smarter and not harder!  Abusing your body under unhealthy and extreme circumstances is nothing to be proud of or congratulate your friends about.  Proper training likely takes far less time than your current workout routine, will put you in a better hormonal state, and will yield you far better results.  Your goal should not be to train more, but to train better and to train smarter.

Here are five tips to incorporate today:

1.) Do three to four higher intensity but shorter (30-45 minute) workouts per week.
2.) Avoid treadmills and other cardio machines. Instead, incorporate sprints, runs of 800 meters or less, jumping rope, rowing, and plyometric movements.
3.) Put together 3 to 5 movement circuits that are strength focused movements and repeat these circuits with little to no rest.
4.) Use functional movements such as body weight movements, squats, dead lifts, kettle bells, pull-ups, medicine balls, etc.
5.) Variety is crucial!  Change the variety of movements, intensity, time, and weight constantly.  Do not be afraid to go heavy at least once a week.