Intensity
October 2007
With kids back in school and work is full throttle, my life is very busy again. How can I get a good workout in with less time?
This is a great question because so many of us have time constraints this time of year. Unfortunately, we often feel that since we can't train for as long as we would like, we end up giving up on our training all together. But research shows that you can make the same gains, or better, by using creative training principles. And while each principle is quite different, they all share one invaluable component - intensity.
Intensity. The word either excites you or sends you running for the gym door. Most people shy away from intensity. They claim the 'no pain, no gain' motto is dangerous to life and limb. They say they just want to 'tone', and that they don't aspire to be a future Olympians. Women say they don't want to build large muscles, they want to remain 'feminine'. But intensity is key to any effective exercise program, regardless of your individual goals. And there's several fun (and safe) ways of increasing intensity safely and effectively.
Let's look first at the split routine. Here, we break down the beginner's one-day whole body workout into two distinct workouts done on alternating days. Now, because we are cutting the number of muscle groups being worked in half, you can increase intensity through adding exercises, sets or reps to each muscle group. More intense, less time, more gains.
Another way to increase intensity is through functional training, which blends stabilization (core) exercises with weight training exercises. An example is doing a chest dumbbell press while lying face-up on a Swiss ball. These functional, multi-muscle movements again result in more bang for our workout buck with less time.
We can up the ante even more by incorporating power training techniques like negative sets, pyramid sets, strip sets, compound exercises, and plyometrics into our routine. And while challenging, these exercises offer 'systemic' changes to the body, which simply means that the whole body benefits. For example, if you're squatting (a compound power movement), not only are your legs benefiting, but every muscle in the body has to come into play to help with the lift. This builds overall stamina, strength, balance and coordination throughout the body. Again, intensity is the key.
You can also try circuit training, where you circulate once through a group of exercises non-stop, rest briefly, then circulate a second and third time through. Intense, fast, non-stop, and a great way to tone and build, while burning fat and improving your cardio/respiratory fitness at the same time.
Whichever training technique you choose, you will be guaranteed faster gains in less time, allowing you to be in and out of the gym in 30 minutes or less. Make sure you work with a qualified Personal Trainer who can assess your readiness and guide you safely through these powerful techniques which will help you build strong, shapely muscle and burn fat in less time. What could be better than this?!