How to make it harder...

Yesterday when I posted the workout, I mentioned that as we get more fit, we need to make our workouts harder.  However, we might need some guidance about when and how to do that.

 

When we notice that our cardio workouts aren’t making us as breathless or sweaty as they used to, it’s time to make them harder.  We have a couple of choices about how.  We can go longer (this is probably how people end up doing marathons and definitely how I ended up doing century rides).  We can make the work more intense (increase the tension on the stationary bike, add hills to a walk or run, up the pace on the swim).  We can add intervals if we aren’t already using them or decrease the rest period between intense intervals if we are.  Here’s the thing:  don’t do all those things at once.  I know it is tempting, but that’s asking for a crash.  For most people, time is a limiting factor, so I suggest adding a few minutes every week or so until the workout time is about an hour.  After that, the shifts should come in intensity, unless of course the goal is a marathon or other endurance event.

 

With weights, we want to increase the number of repetitions or the weight we are lifting.  Obviously, we are not going to lift the same weight a hundred times.  Most people who want to be building general strength are going to be doing something between 8 and 15 reps (fewer if the goal is to increase 1 rep max, more if the goal is general toning).  When the larger number of reps at a weight becomes easy, we increase the weight and drop down to the lower end of the rep range, gradually building up to the top end.  Then we increase the weight again and reduce the reps.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Another way to increase the intensity of our weight workouts is to add cardio intervals—a minute of running or spinning or jumping rope between sets makes everything harder.

 

In everything, it is important to pay attention to what the body says.  We want our workouts to be hard but not torturous.  Gradual increases in intensity are best.

 

Go play.  Hard.  But not too hard.