All effort, no results? You just
haven’t met your true exercise match. Amanda Khouv reveals how to find your
perfect workout and start reaping some amazing rewards
Some people are naturally hard-wired to
love exercise. For the rest of us, it can take some serious commitment and bags
of self-motivation. If you’re still struggling to find your perfect fitness
match (and see the amazing results you’ve been waiting for) you might just have
the wrong approach.
Find
your Fitness sweet spot
We all have different obstacles when it
comes to exercise, whether we’re too busy, too broke or just easily bored.
‘It’s important to find the right kind of exercise for your own circumstances
and preferences,’ says Fitness First’s David Petersen. ‘You can have the best
programme in the world, but if you can’t stick to it, you won’t get good
results.’ Not everyone can follow exercise routines in the same way, but
fitness should be a part of your life no matter what. But here’s the good news:
there is a type of exercise that works for you; you just haven’t met it yet.
Here’s how to beat your fitness trouble spots for good.
Trouble Spot: You’re Easily Distracted
If you often start out on a new exercise
regime with all the right intentions but tend to falter along the way, boredom
is your number one enemy. But that doesn’t mean you have to quit altogether.
There’s a world of fitness out there discover it!
‘If you’re bored easily, then experiment
with different classes,’ David says. ‘This is the best way to find out what
type of exercise you enjoy and whether you prefer training independently or in
a group.’ The more you try the better chance you have of finding out how you
prefer to exercise. Are you a lone ranger or do you prefer a group atmosphere? Do
you like cardio-based workouts or resistance workouts? Indoors or outdoors?
High or low intensity? There is so much to eliminate but, equally, plenty of
potential for fun. ‘Half the battle with exercise is motivation and enjoyment,’
says David. ‘If you don’t like a class, it’s easy to talk yourself out of
going. Try using a personal trainer every now and then it’s a great way to
discover new exercises and add variety to your workouts. You can always ask a
fitness consultant to show you how to use equipment you’ve never used before,
such as a ViPR or Power Plate.’
Trouble Spot: You’re A Cardio Hater
Is the thought of plodding away on the
treadmill enough to put you off going to the gym for life? How about racking up
some distance on the rower or the cross-trainer? Don’t worry, you’re not alone,
but you can get fit without feeling like a hamster on a wheel.
‘Try cardio strength training or metabolic
resistance training,’ advises David. ‘It offers the benefits of increased
cardiovascular demand and resistance training in one. Think kettlebells and TRX
suspension training.’ High-intensity resistance exercises also double up as
cardio just make sure you keep the power up and your rest periods really short.
You could even try opting for a circuit style session with high-demand
exercises like burpees, jump squats and jumping lunges. They’re guaranteed to
give you a serious cardio workout!
Trouble Spot: You’re Strapped For Time
If you think you need to spend hours in the
gym to see results, we’ve got news for you. Keeping fit when you don’t have a
huge amount of spare time on your hands is as easy as giving your day-to-day
activities a fitness twist. We’re talking about taking the stairs instead of
the lift, ditching your car for a bike, and upgrading your stroll to a power
walk.
We’re
talking about taking the stairs instead of the lift, ditching your car for a
bike, and upgrading your stroll to a power walk.
But if you want to get some serious
workouts under your belt, there are loads of ways to get a full-on session done
in a short space of time. You just have to work at a high intensity to make it
count. Take the ‘little and often’ approach if you don’t have the luxury of big
chunks of time. ‘The key is to use a technique called HI (high intensity)
frequency training,’ says David. ‘This allows you to cut the length of your
workouts in return for more frequent sessions of interval training. Warm up for
a few minutes and perform one minute of hard work, such as sprinting, followed
by one minute of easy work or rest. Do this four times and finish with a
four-minute cool-down.’ Et voila!
Trouble Spot: You’re In A Rut
If you’ve seen results in the past but just
can’t seem to keep the progress flowing, then you’ve probably hit a plateau.
These fitness doldrums can happen no matter how great your training programme
is. ‘The body is very good at adapting to the stress you put it under, whether
it’s good or bad, so you need to make frequent changes, ’ explains David. Try
something different that still achieves the same goals. If you want to tone
your thighs and you’ve been at it with squats and lunges, mix it up with
jumping squats and reverse lunges, or a completely different exercise like
deadlifts. Your body will be forced to work harder at a move it hasn’t tried
before. There’s an endless variety of exercises out there, so you’ll never need
to wait at a fitness red light again!
