Vary your workouts. Continuously doing the same workout can result in eventual burnout no matter how much you love it. Changing the exercise mode not only stimulates you and challenges you mentally, but physically your body is challenged in different ways. Your body can get acclimated to the same workout so that benefits and physical gains can slow down. Also, stressing the same muscles and joints in the same way can set you up for injury.
Don’t overdo. Your body needs recovery time. Often it is during the recovery phase when your body can make positive changes. Exercising too much can cause your metabolism to slow down. Injuries can result from fatigue. Emotional and physical balance is jeopardized. An hour of very focused, thorough, and precise exercise is much more beneficial then excessive, sloppy, or unfocused workouts.
Listen to your body. It is very WISE. If you feel challenged then you are being challenged physically. If you feel that what you are doing is easy, then it is easy and you might need to push more. It you are in pain then your body is saying stop or change something or else an injury will occur or get worse.
Don’t forget flexibility work: You need a balance of cardiovascular, flexibility, and strength. If you are weak you need to concentrate on strengthening exercises. If you are inflexible and tight, you need to work on flexibility. If you are tight in your muscles and joints, then muscles will get more exercise and you will work harder by stretching. If you are weak but flexible, then your muscles will benefit and get more exercise through strengthening activities. Many people short-change the stretching section of their workout, because they think it’s passive exercise. At SH, I see that the majority of our participants need to spend more time on stretching and flexibility work. I see participants sweat more when they stretch than when they perform resistance training. What does that tell you? The harder muscles work, the more heat they produce, thus more sweating. If you are tight in certain areas, don’t make them tighter. Work them by stretching.
