We tend to think that fitness and health is primarily a physical matter.  Guidance on a healthier lifestyle, or on how to lose weight is too often over simplified into advice about what to do in the gym, or what to eat and what not to eat.  This is all important of course (and sometimes a bit boring!), but to have any real chance of success, your head needs to be in the game as much, if not more than your body.

I’m really talking about motivation.  Most people are motivated enough to recognize that they want to change the way they are living.  A lot of people will do something about it.  Of course it’s important to get your trainers on and get out there, or “just do it” in the words of the advert.  But if you want a healthier lifestyle to last, spend some time thinking about what motivates and moves you.  Why do you want to be healthier? Why do you want to lose weight?

Healthy Competition could be just that - Healthy!

Healthy Competition could be just that - Healthy!

Long Term Motivation

It might be because you feel you owe it to yourself.  You might want to look better, feel better.  You might want to be healthier for the sake of your family.  The benefits of a healthier lifestyle are so numerous that everyone should be able to find a number of reasons to motivate themselves into positive action – better sleep patterns, better heart health, leaner physique, the list goes on.  These are fundamental reasons why you would want to improve your fitness and nutrition, and by focusing on them they will help you stay motivated.  It may even be a good idea to write down your underlying reasons so that you can come back to them when you feel like you need a boost.

Short and Medium Term Goals

Competition can also be a powerful ally in the battle to stay motivated.  That doesn’t mean to say that you have to be winning or even entering competitions, but if you have some short and medium term goals, they can help you stay focused, and just give you that extra edge and desire to get out there and train, and to stay on track with good diet.  The important thing is that any competitive edge you seek is based on you.  What I mean by that is your short term and medium term goals should be based on you testing yourself to meet goals that are achievable by you.  Whether that is running a certain distance, or cycling your regular route in a specific time, a goal like this can push you to higher levels.

You may even want to enter into a local event such as a running race.  But remember, do the race for you and push yourself to do your best, don’t worry too much about your placing or how anyone else does.  Everyone likes to win and do well, but ultimately your cause is greater than that, and it depends on you and your continued motivation.  If you base your motivation on competition with others, it can be vulnerable for reasons over which you have no control.  Having been a competitive athlete for many years, I know how much of a knock your confidence can take if you lose a game or a race you expected to win.  Assess your performance on factors you have control over, and you will see a steady improvement.  Compete with yourself, and the results will speak for themselves.

See Your Doctor

Absolutely, without question, the very first thing you should do is to speak with your doctor about how much exercise is right for you specifically before you begin on any fitness plan.

If you’re not used to exercise of any kind, a good starting point is a 10-minute walk each day. That’s enough to begin getting into the habit of setting aside time and it starts to get your body used to a little more regular movement.

Since the Federal Government of the United States recommends you exercise for a minimum of two-and-a-half hours per week in order to reap the health protective effects of exercise (against things such as diabetes, heart disease, some forms of cancer, etc.), you’ll need to work up (gradually) from there. Add one minute every day or every second day after your first week until you are walking 20 to 25 minutes at a time.

Slowly Increase

If You've Not Done Much Exercise, a Good Starting Point Is a 10-Minute Walk Each Day

If You've Not Done Much Exercise, a Good Starting Point Is a 10-Minute Walk Each Day

Since walking is something the body was designed to do, you don’t have to take a day off if you are comfortable with that schedule. If you want to take a day or two off each week, keep adding a minute until you are up to 25 to 30 minutes each day so you can reach that 2.5-hour minimum.

Once you are getting the recommended two-and-a-half hours per week, pick up the pace. Each week, try to walk a little farther than you were walking the week before, in the same amount of time.

If you have joint problems, it’s worth considering either a treadmill (which usually have a bit of ‘give’ so are less wearing on joints) or an exercise bike (which takes some of the direct load-bearing off your joints).

Up The Intensity

After a few weeks of working up to 20-30 minutes and of increasing the pace, you may then feel ready to move on to more intense cardiovascular workouts and perhaps try some other plans that you have read about or heard of. If you would prefer to continue walking, you can start adding intervals of higher intensity bursts into your workout.

Additionally, the U.S. federal guidelines recommend that adults do strength training two days out of each week. Personally, when I was working on getting into the groove of working out for the first (serious) time, I waited until I had been doing 25 minutes of cardio exercise each day for a couple of weeks before I began adding the weight training.

There are a number of reasons I think this is a sound idea (so long as you follow through with adding that strength training component and don’t just forget it – mark it on your calendar for 2-3 weeks from your start date to be sure).

First, if I overwhelmed myself with too many new activities, it would be harder for me to get into the habit. Second, as out-of-shape as I had been, my body needed some improvement on the cardiovascular front, which supports the muscles as well, before I could really begin to have the capacity to begin weight training in an effective way.

Finally, I think taking things in steps helped me summon more motivation. As I continued working upward toward a schedule that included both cardio and weight training, I had lowered expectations for results. I wasn’t constantly checking the effects the workout was having on my body or the scale because I didn’t feel it was in full swing yet and to measure it would have been unfair.

Measuring Progress

My progress was measured by whether I completed all my workouts that week and by how much closer I was getting to my goal of 30 minutes a day, as well as by how much farther I was able to walk than the week before in the same amount of time. Yet, the increased physical activity was indeed resulting in changes to my body so that, by the time it was time to add strength training, I was already starting to see physical changes from the extra calories I had been burning and I was noticing that I had better endurance during other everyday tasks.

It felt like I had results before I even got up to full speed and those results powered my motivation to continue, leading to even more results.

Even if you have never worked out beyond trying to fish the remote out from under the back of the couch, you can get started on an exercise plan that suits your current activity level. Don’t let yourself be intimidated by overzealous plans in magazines or anywhere else that would have you believe that you need to start with an intense regimen.

Start from where you are and soon you’ll find yourself in the middle of a complete fitness program, without shocking your system or your schedule.

Motivation to get started after Christmas can be easy to come by. New gym membership, new sneakers, new outlook. But if you are already in a fitness program when Christmas rolls around, it can be a difficult time. Social and family commitments mount up in the festive period, and rightly take priority over training.

Your diet & nutritional program may also stroll off the straight and narrow on a regular basis during Christmas. This all might mean that your progress stalls, or you may even take a step back, and that can have a heavy impact upon your motivation to continue.

Many will see a little extra body weight, while aerobic performance or performance in the gym may suffer. I have seen many trainers programs grind to a halt during such a period, and never really get going again. Here’s some advice on how to push through to the other side.

Plan For Christmas As Part Of Your Fitness Program

Plan For Christmas As Part Of Your Fitness Program

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Remember that Christmas will be over in a couple of weeks, but that you have longer term goals for better fitness and health. In other words, take the long view. Ok, you may have put on some weight, and your training may have been put on hold, but the rest will do your body no harm, and you can get back into your training with renewed vigor.

Remember the things that motivated you in the first place, and focus on them. Look back at the free Seven Secrets to Getting Fit and Losing Weight Fast! Report you received from GetFitFast.com for a reminder of how to set and follow your fitness goals, and reset your own aims.

The reality is that life has a tendency to throw a spanner into the works of any routine from time to time. For your program to be a lasting relationship, and not a 6 month on, 6 month off cycle, be flexible and pick up your program when you can. Yes, your progress may stall a little, but if you take a short break, you will keep a lot of fitness and conditioning gains, and your body will benefit from the rest.

Just Do It

Getting back into the gym after a break can be hard. You can get a sinking feeling that it is going to hurt more both before and after a workout. You might also feel that you will not be as fit, or that you might not be able to lift as much weight. The important thing is that you get back into the gym for that first post break workout and that you have a positive experience that will leave you wanting to get back in there for more.

That means managing your expectations a little. Don’t expect to go in there and pick up where you left off. Ease yourself back into it and set yourself goals in the first few workouts you know you can achieve. In my Resistance Training series of blogs, I talked about adaption training, and this is a mini form of that – getting the body used to the rigors of training again.

If you are lifting weights, lift lighter and for more repetitions. This allows your muscles to re-adapt to the movements, and will minimize delayed on set muscle soreness (DOMS) after the workout. For aerobic exercise, run, row, or cycle at an easy pace. Steer clear of high intensity until you are back into the swing of your program.

Drink In Those Endorphins

If you can get into the gym and set yourself achievable goals, the endorphins will do the rest. I know the feeling of missing workouts very well, and it can leave you feeling low, and that working out just isn’t worth it. But once you get back in the gym, and work out, these feelings can very quickly turn to positive ones, helped along by the feel-good hormones that are released during exercise.

Everyone takes a break from their training program now and again – even elite athletes. Enjoy your break and try not to worry too much about your program – you have earned a rest. But when the time comes to get back into it, get back on the train!

A couple of weeks off is not reason to derail your plans for better health and fitness, and as soon as you get back to training, you will feel more positive. You can readjust your goals to keep you rolling forward to your health and fitness destination.

Perhaps it’s time to think about taking the athletes’ approach to training. There’s an exercise term called “Periodization” which basically means that you don’t always have to be working hard all of the time – sounds quite good!

Here’s what I mean.

Just What Is Periodization?

Professional athletes train for an event, a set of games or maybe a season. Their workouts are designed to bring them to peak fitness ready for the season or to be ready for the event itself.

And the rest of us? Well, we seem to want to be flat out all the time; to climb mountains every day!

We’d be better thinking of our training as a series of highs & lows and plateaus which run over days, weeks, months and even years.

The secret is to rotate the training intensity and keep your body guessing. Periodization is one tool in our kit which we can use to great effect and will help maximize results in a minimal amount of time!

Periodization Training is the Secret to Success for Most Professional Athletes

Periodization Training is the Secret to Success for Most Professional Athletes

Where did Periodization come from?

Tudor Bompa (author of “Periodization of strength: the new wave in strength training” “Serious Strength Training” and “Periodization Training For Sports” ), is considered the father of periodization.

He took the ideas of Russian sports scientists and, in the 1960s, developed them further. The results were spectacular.

Early training was aimed at maintaining the same constant levels of activity & intensity all year round. In other words, doing the same workouts week in and week out (if you’ve read the free 7-Secrets to Getting Fit and Losing Weight – Fast! report, you’ll know why this doesn’t work).

The new approach Bompa advocated was to utilise some training periods which were easier than others to promote rest and to let the body grow stronger.

Most training programs today are based on Bompa’s methods, and it’s how today’s successful athletes train.

How To Introduce Periodization To Your Fitness Program

By varying the following, you can create a program which brings you to a peak at a point in time – for example the photoshoot of a body transformation contest:

* Frequency – how often you train
* Duration – how long you train for one session
* Intensity – how hard you train in each session

Periodization goes through a number of phases as you attack different parts of your fitness program such as developing lean body mass, gaining strength, increasing endurance, gaining greater aerobic capacity. The types & lengths of these phases varies depending on your goals and on such things as the time period over which you want to achieve peak fitness, and what specific aspects of your fitness you want to maximise and perhaps which sport or event you are training for.

The Phases Of Your Periodization Progam

All the different approaches to phases, however, tend to follow a similar overall plan:

* Preparatory Phase – This usually consists of general preparation and, especially for sports related periodization, specific preparation. Usually the general preparation is the longer of the two prep phases.
* Competitive Phase – This is the phase in which you reach the peak levels of fitness for the goals you have set whether this is a sport, an event or simply looking good on the beach!
* Transition Phase – This is the rest phase and covers psychological rest, relaxation, and your body’s biological rebuilding. But this isn’t a ‘do-nothing’ phase. Alternative exercises are used in this phase to help maintain an acceptable level of general fitness.

As part of your approach to getting fit and losing weight fast, take a look at Periodization – it could be the answer to your dreams!

1. Plan Ahead

The two main aspects of your fitness program which get hit due to travelling are your exercise and nutrition programs. So, the question is, how can you adapt your program to fit in with your travel demands. If you’ve read the 7-secrets report you’ll know the key factors you have to bear in mind and you can ask yourself how you can keep these up when travelling.

What sort of plans can you make? Well, if you’re going to stay in a hotel, pick one with a gym or pool so you can fit in some exercise and choose a workout routine which will fit in with your plans. If nothing is available, try to find one near to a local gym (Google is a great help in locating gyms & health clubs and will give you the contact details, address and even the map to get there!).

A Cooler Bag Such As The ebags Slim Lunch Box Will Will Easily Fit Into A Business-Style Rucksack or Briefcase

A Cooler Bag Such As The ebags Slim Lunch Box Will Will Easily Fit Into A Business-Style Rucksack or Briefcase

When it comes to nutrition, if you’re only away for a day, ‘brown-bag’ it. Prepare some healthy food and pack it in plastic containers. You can buy small ‘cooler bags’  (see picture) which will help keep food fresh and will easily fit into a business-style rucksack. Or, take advantage of meal replacement bars and carry a few with you – they’re a much better option that diving face-first into a burger & fries! And don’t forget healthy snacks such as fruit, nuts, and raisins etc.

Plan to have breaks if possible in a place where you can buy healthy food choices.

2. Make Smart Choices

Ok, so if carrying a case full of protein bars is not your style then lets look at dining out. Most restaurants & hotels will give clear indications as to which are the healthy options on the menu or will even cook a non-menu choice to your liking; all you need do is ask!  Make smart choices. Your success will be a direct result of the decisions you take at each meal.

If you’re a dessert junky, you’ll struggle to always skip them (why is it that desserts look sooo good when you’re travelling?). So, here’s an insider tip. If you simply must have a dessert, make a smart choice at the very start of the meal as to which dessert you’ll have (but don’t go mad!), and then adjust the rest of your meal to keep your overall calories in a sensible range. For example, having chosen your dessert, skip the starter and have a healthy main course (perhaps a salad with a good quality protein such as tuna). The golden rule is that this isn’t a free pass to having desserts at every meal! Again, it’s about smart choices.

When it comes to exercise, remember that any activity constitutes exercise and will have an even greater effect if you believe it! So, instead of sitting in the airport lounge getting bored (and starting to crave food), keep walking! If you’ve checked in your luggage, get your pulse raised a little by finding some stairs to walk up and down. Other ideas include parking your car further way from your destination so you have to walk further to get there; take the stairs in the office rather than the elevator. It all adds up to more calories burned in a day.

3. Get Creative!

In a hotel with no gym & nothing nearby? Get creative! Running or jogging is free and can be done almost anywhere. Weather too cold or wet? You’d be amazed how good a workout you can get by running up & down hotel stairs! Many hotels are even offering ‘workout kits’ for use in your room in exchange for a small refundable deposit. And, of course, you can always rely on ‘body weight’ exercises such as press-ups, one-leg squats, sit-ups etc. and we cover some good ‘body weight’ routines in our Workout Routines Section.

Consider taking exercise bands or exercise tubes with you. They easily fit into a bag and you can get an excellent workout with them – even in the comfort of your hotel room.

4. Bringing it all together

Our lives are hectic but we do have choices, even if we sometimes feel like we haven’t. Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day; the same 7 days in a week. It can take willpower, determination, flexibility and creativity to keep up with our fitness & nutrition programs. But millions of people do it and do it successfully – even those who travel regularly. The truth is, if you really want it, you’ll make it happen!

You’ve made the decision that good nutrition and fitness will become a part of your life, and it should be an important part. Better sleep patterns, better overall health, a longer life and more are all benefits you can expect from a more active, healthy lifestyle. But like all good things in life, you need a balance, and in our free report “7-Secrets to Getting Fit and Losing Weight – Fast!“  and subsequent set of lessons, you get some good and detailed guidance on how to achieve that balance.

Balanced diet.

A training program that is a good balance between cardiovascular training and resistance training. Cardiovascular training that utilizes steady state training for fat burning efficiency and high intensity interval training (HIIT) for the profound effect it can have on your metabolism and in stimulating your system to burn fat post exercise. Then there is, of course, the importance of rest, without which all the above will lose a great deal of its effectiveness. And even in rest there is a balance to be struck between active recovery, and complete down time.

Make Sure Your Fitness Plan Has a Good Balance of Cardio, Resistance Training, Active recovery and Rest.

Make Sure Your Fitness Plan Has a Good Balance of Cardio, Resistance Training, Active recovery and Rest.

You may already have found that this kind of detail becomes second nature once your program gets underway. Nonetheless, maintaining a good balance is important if you are to maximize the effectiveness of your diet and training. This is where planning becomes important. Plan your week for a good balance of cardio, resistance training, active recovery and rest.

Active Recovery

Especially during easy days when you are taking part in active recovery, there is a danger that you enter a “no man’s land” where you are not really achieving any of your objectives. For example, if you are going on the exercise bike for an easy ride, make sure that is what you do. If you push yourself too hard, you are not giving yourself the opportunity to recover for a more intense session of HIIT or resistance training the next day. If you are not pushing yourself during HIIT, you will not achieve the intensity required to stimulate your metabolism, and the training effect will be akin to a rather short session of cardio. No man’s land.

The Key is Sticking to Your Fitness Plan

Putting in place a balanced plan is important, but the key is sticking to it. Of course, there will be days when you feel like doing more, or doing less, and you should be able to adjust your plan to accommodate how you feel, but make sure you maintain the balance. If you carry on regardless, no man’s land looms, and you will not get the best from your time. Your time is valuable, so each time you go into the gym, out for a run, or out on the bike, have a clear idea of what you are trying to achieve, and carry out your plan. Stick to the principles you have learned, and you will see the results you want, and fast.

Okay so you’ve decided, again, that you are absolutely, definitely, without a doubt, going to begin your workout program tomorrow morning. If you are anything like me, you have said this to yourself on several (dozen) occasions, only to let days slip by without being able to tweak your routine enough to make it happen. Or you started with lots of enthusiasm on days 1 and 2, a little less on day 3, and by day 4 your old routine is starting to swallow up your workout time again.

Routines are like well worn paths on a dirt road; your car’s tires are nestled nicely inside and practically steer themselves. On some days it can feel like the effort it takes to wear a new set of tracks is more than you can summon. The good news is that the effort only needs to be applied for about 21 days before it begins to feel as comfortable as your old routine did. The bad news is that when you’ve yet to make it to day 6, day 21 feels like a very distant goal. The problem here: having an option.

When I went back to university, I learned that my college had begun recording and broadcasting a selection of courses over cable television. You could simply record your classes and watch them at your leisure, presenting yourself on campus for exams and to hand in assignments. I promptly signed up for as many of them as I could fit into my degree program. They were perfect; I could do the work whenever it was convenient and it didn’t interrupt my regular routine (which included full-time work). I would just fit them in and around what I already had scheduled and my life would be blissful and balanced.

Of course that was until midterm exams were a week and a half away and I had accumulated a hefty collection of videocassettes, containing over two thirds of the class material covered to this point (say nothing of the readings I had not yet gotten around to fitting in). After that cruel week leading up to midterms, I had learned a valuable lesson. The following semester I took only live courses, at seemingly inconvenient times, and achieved the balanced schedule I was looking for.

My original idealistic plan had one simple flaw: it didn’t account for the strength of my already existing routine. At any given moment, I needed to know that now, and only now, was the time in which I could attend my lecture or seminar. Having the opportunity to “do it when it was convenient” ensured that I would never get around to doing it. My old routine would creep back in like a collection of weeds, eventually suffocating my new routine. The same can be said for working out.

Make Your New Workout Routine a Success By Booking a Course of Sessions With a Personal Trainer or Take a Fitness Class

Make Your New Workout Routine a Success By Booking a Course of Sessions With a Personal Trainer or Take a Fitness Class

If your routine has developed into one in which you have no fitness program and you suddenly decide that today is the day for change, you may find yourself struggling against the current of your existing habits. If in any given moment you are able to choose to “do it when it’s convenient” it’s likely that you just won’t get to it at all. So do what I did in university: take the choice away; sign up for a class or two that you have to attend at specific times or book a series of sessions with a personal trainer.

There are also a number of options other than the typical gym classes, which can be costly if you aren’t already a gym member. You can sign up to learn to swing dance, take martial arts lessons, learn bellydancing, join a community volleyball team, learn figure-skating, get certified as a lifeguard… The list goes on and on.

Most options out there are very affordable and many are available at local community centers near your home (call them for a catalogue). Best of all, when it’s class time, you can’t put it off; it’s now or not at all.

After a few weeks of meeting with a personal trainer or taking a class, you will have learned something new and you will have developed the habit of working out at regular intervals. When your session or classes  are over, you can sign up for another set, or, having now built up the momentum of this new routine, you can simply insert your favorite workouts into the now-empty time slots and glide easily into the next phase of your workout program.

This can also be useful when you need to revive your commitment to an existing workout routine that is getting crowded out by new demands and protect it from vanishing amidst a flood of intrusions. After all, your desired routine can only provide you with those fast results if it takes hold, and the easiest way to make sure procrastination and inertia don’t creep into your new routine is to simply pluck them right out of the equation.

So when can you keep going? For most people serous about fitness and training, most sessions hurt a leads a little. Muscles strain and ache and lungs burn. These are symptoms of pushing yourself, and of effort. That said, it is perfectly possible to get fit – although slowly – without major discomfort.

Gentle and measured progression in weight or cardio training doesn’t have to hurt; you still need to sweat and get your heart rate up, but you don’t have to push yourself to the point of collapse. But if you want to get fit fast, or are training for a particularly demanding event, then you need to learn to deal with discomfort and push through it.

Stretching

Some aspects of fitness training should never hurt – if you feel pain during stretching, then you’ve pushed your stretch too far and you are tearing muscles. The resulting repairs and scarring will actually make your muscles stiffer and less flexible, so pain in stretching is counterproductive. A good stretch should start out feeling tight, and gradually loosen over several seconds. If it doesn’t loosen, ease off a little.

Weight Training

In weight training, muscles hurt because of lactic acid build up over repetitions, and because of tiny muscle tears as the blood supply increases to the working muscle. Neither is anything to worry about. Lactic acid build up, felt as muscle fatigue, will eventually force you to stop; you won’t be able to complete the rep.

You can push yourself well into fatigue to develop fitness and increase your ‘lactic acid threshold’ or your point of fatigue, as long as you are safe. If your muscle fatigue is adversely affecting your form, you are at risk of injury, so ease off.

You also need to have sufficient recovery time between sets to allow the lactic acid to clear, to be able to attempt your next set effectively. Skimping on recovery time won’t help your session – you’ll reach muscle fatigue faster, complete fewer reps, and progress more slowly. As long as you allow plenty of recovery between sets, and can complete each rep with correct form and technique, you can push yourself well into your lactic acid threshold.

The same goes with the little muscle tears. It’s the repair of these tears that helps to build muscle and increase strength, so they are nothing to worry about. However, you allow the muscle to repair itself, and grow, you need to have sufficient recovery time between your resistance sessions – at least a full 24 hours, and preferably 48 hours. Any less, and you will inhibit the healing process, your progress will be slower, and you will risk more serious injuries.

Cardio Training

Knowing Just How Far To Push Yourself Exercising Will Stop You Overdoing it!

Knowing Just How Far To Push Yourself Exercising Will Stop You Overdoing it!

In cardio training, pain comes from many different sources. Again, lactic acid is the main culprit. Running or cycling up hills, and sprint or high intensity sessions, are where it occurs most visibly. You’ll recognize it again as muscle fatigue and even muscle ache.

Like with weight training, as long as you are careful of certain conditions, you can safely push your lactic threshold – in fact, you should if you are serious about your training and want to really develop speed, power, or endurance. As long as you can hold good form, and you do not feel dizzy or experience headache or chest pain, and you can breathe (even if you’re breathing heavily), you can push your limits.

In fact, much of what we call fitness is actually developing a higher lactic threshold – the point at which lactic build up causes you to have to stop. Only by pushing your lactic threshold can you improve your endurance and speed. If you are simply trying to get fitter, you don’t need to work as hard; if you are training for a major competition or event, you may need to push a lot harder.

Other cardio pain is more fundamental. The ‘burning lung’ pain of major cardio effort comes from the lungs expanding rapidly to try to meet massive demand for oxygen form the muscles. Again, your oxygen intake has its limits, and this will limit the performance of your muscles. By pushing on through this discomfort, your lungs will actually begin to build new tissue and capillaries for more effective function – in other words, your lung capacity will increase.

Know When Not To Continue

There is no reason not to push through that burning feeling during a major effort, such as a hill sprint on a bike or a an all-out blast while running, but you should not carry that level of effort for anything but a very short period – a few minutes at most. If your lungs are burning and you aren’t stepping up the effort, chances are something else is wrong, and if your discomfort is linked to an effort that will go beyond four to five minutes, you are working too hard.

Allow Recovery Time

Like with resistance training, after a major ‘lung busting’ effort, you need to allow your body ample recovery time to clear out the lactic build up, and re-establish oxygen levels in your muscles. This is why high intensity intervals are always short, with comparatively long recovery times. And the same goes with recovery between sessions – if your cardio session was intense enough to push you to fatigue, or your did high intensity intervals or several all out efforts, you need to give your body at least 48 hours before your next hard session to repair and recover. Hitting another tough session too soon will impede your progress – try an easy steady state or ‘active recovery’ session instead.

Now you know when pain hits, when to stop, and when to keep going. If you are going to push through, how do you do it, and why are some people better at it than others? See the next post in this series ‘Does Pain while Training Mean it’s Time to Stop? – Part 3′ for advice.

With regular training, you will get to know what feels ‘normal’ for you, and what kind of discomfort you don’t need to worry, and more importantly, you’ll learn when something new or different comes along that may be a sign to stop.

Learn To Train Differently

Many people – it seems like a lot of runners – get used to regular twinges and aches. I had a form of compartment syndrome that caused me shin pain when running – I could tolerate it for a while, I soon learned for how long, and I knew it would go away when I stopped. I simply adapted my training to cope, until I could get a surgical correction. I didn’t stop training; I just learned to train differently.

Many people are the same. They have old injuries that ache, pains that ‘go away’ when they get warmed up, and they are accustomed to pushing on through stomach cramps, stiffness, sore shins, or even blisters. Over time, all active people build up a few of these little niggling troubles, and most adapt to keep on training.

That said, you still need to know how these old aches behave so you know if they are getting worse. Any old pain that gets suddenly worse or different needs to be checked out.

When Exercising, Any Sudden, New or Different Pain Could Be a Sign of Injury

When Exercising, Any Sudden, New or Different Pain Could Be a Sign of Injury

Know When To Stop!

Any severe or debilitating pain always means stop, especially if it connected with chest pain, sudden headache, numbness, or difficulty breathing. If you simply can’t keep going, every step hurts, or you feel dizzy, STOP! See your doctor, and get yourself checked out. It may be nothing to worry about – you may be fine, but it’s better to get an expert opinion.

If you started a training session when you knew you weren’t feeling well, such as if you have a cold or recently been sick, don’t overdo it. You may have felt okay at the start, but your body will tell you if you’ve gone too far.

If you’ve recently been unwell, it’s wise to be more sensitive to discomfort, and be prepared to quit sooner than you otherwise would.

Not only would pushing on risk serious immediate consequences, you are likely to aggravate, reinstate, or prolong your illness. With minor head colds, you can probably keep training, but tone it down or stay close to home just in case you aren’t as healthy as you think you are!

Any sudden, new or different pain could be a sign of injury. Even minor injuries, with mild pain that you probably could endure long enough to finish a session could turn into much longer term or serious injuries if you keep going. A sharp twinge in a tendon or ligament, even if it goes away, is still a warning sign, and you should stop training until you get it checked out.

Sudden sharp pains from muscle, tendons, ligaments, or bones should be seen to as soon as possible. The commonest form of treatment is R.I.C.E. which stands for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. If swelling or pain persists, or bruising or other visible signs of serious injury persist, get it seen by a doctor. Take it from me – I had what seemed like a cramp in my calf that turned out to be a muscle tear – I finished my run, made it worse, and ended up taking two months off. If I’d only stopped early and iced it, I might have been back to training after only a few days.

Now you know when pain is a sign to stop – but what about pain that is just a normal part of fitness training? How do you recognize that, and how do you deal with it? See my next post in this series “Does Pain while Training Mean it’s Time to Stop? – Part 2″ for advice!

Vary Cardio Workout Intensity

Change up your intensity throughout your workout week, and throughout each of your individual workouts, and you can tap into the different benefits of each of the different levels of exertion.

When you first start working through a cardio routine, working out at a moderate pace for thirty to sixty minutes, three to five times a week, helps you construct the foundation of good cardio fitness. To achieve the right level of intensity, workout just hard enough so that you can still hold a conversation with a little effort.

If you have just begun your cardio workout, you may want to stick to this for a few weeks while constructing this base on which to build further levels of intensity.

Add Interval Training to Crank Up the Fat Burning!

Spinning Classes Will Have Your Muscles Screaming For Mercy as the Fat is Blasted From Your Body

Spinning Classes Will Have Your Muscles Screaming For Mercy as the Fat is Blasted From Your Body

After a few weeks, it can be good to add some intervals to your training plan as they can challenge your body and revitalize your workout. Start your workout at your moderate pace for five to ten minutes. Then, alternate between that intensity (for about four minutes at a time) and an intensity that would make conversation require quite a bit of effort (for about two minutes at a time).

For the last five minutes of your workout, slow to a pace where you can carry on a conversation with almost no effort at all to allow your body to cool down. This type of workout allows you to burn extra calories and helps to get your cardiovascular system used to a higher level of intensity.

After a few weeks you will notice that it takes much more movement to get your body to a point where you are having trouble holding a conversation. Do this interval workout about twice a week and your continuous moderate pace workout two to three times a week.

An alternative to doing it on your own is to join a class such as a ‘Spinning’ class. Spinning is an exercise bike based workout, based around intervals, which will have your muscles screaming for mercy as the fat is blasted from your body!

Crank It Up With HIIT

If, after four to six weeks of intervals, you start to feel like you may be hitting a plateau again or you are beginning to feel that boredom and want to challenge yourself a little more, you can turn it up another notch. Swap one of your interval sessions for a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) session.

As with the previous interval workout, begin at a moderate pace for five to ten minutes. Then, alternate between 30 seconds of high intensity training at a pace at which you could just barely still hold a conversation, and 90 seconds of your moderate pace.

Once again, cool down with a final five minutes of a moderate to low intensity. This level of intensity in shorter bursts will actually help your body begin to sustain higher intensity intervals over longer periods because you will be reducing the size of the rests you get between your bursts and, overall, you will be spending more time at a higher intensity throughout your workout.

Have you hit a plateau? Are you bored with your cardio workout? Don’t throw in the towel just yet. Vary your intensity and you can rev your cardio routine back up and break through that funk.