Do You Need To Exercise More?
Need to exercise more? Stuck in a rut? Have your results plateaued? While you may feel like you can’t find the time to exercise more, check out why it’s vitally important and how it can help you reach new results!
Need to take your workouts up a notch?
If you are spending only a few hours in the gym without getting any results, you might want to do a double-take on your fitness routine and find out what is delaying the progress.
Here are five possible reasons why your workout is not enough.
Doing it twice a week rather than once
If you can make it to the gym twice a week, make the most of it by doing muscle-strengthening activities without making the muscles overly tired.
On the two days you’re at the gym, do a complete circuit of activities to maximize your time there. Some of these activities are pushups, lunges, squats, lifting weights, and the use of resistance bands.
Do at least 10-12 repetitions in each set. So while technically you do not exercise more, doing it as often as twice a week will give you noticeable results than doing it only once.
Do more with less time
You can do a total body workout even with just 15 minutes of your time. A combination of different exercises, such as pushups, pull-ups, basic plank-type core work, squats, plyometric jump squats, and arm work-outs.
Doing this combination for 15 minutes, twice every week, can actually help build strength. It also improves the body’s daily metabolic furnace. This shows that a 15-minute workout, albeit short, can yield results when you know what to do with it.
You do not feel sore the day after exercising
Muscle soreness experienced in the first 12-48 hours after exercise is quite normal. It even has a name called the Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). But, if you experience immediate pain, it may be due to an injury and needs to be checked by a medical professional.
When exercise is new, the muscles become sore because it becomes a shock to the body.
Over time, the body adjusts to the pain and soreness.
This means that the soreness should not be a basis if your workout is effective because the muscles will still grow even it doesn’t hurt anymore.
Working out at similar intensities all the time
There are strategies to increase your workout intensity:
- Grab a stopwatch to tell you when to take a rest and when to start again. For best results, allow a 60-second interval between reps. Also, bring your bottle near you so as not to waste time going to the water fountain.
- Combine strength and cardio. Do some jumping ropes with a 20-second sprint can help improve metabolism and add strength.
- Allowing the muscles to contract by holding them in a flexed position can provide strength and endurance benefits that are unattainable with isotonic exercises alone. Try stability ball wall squat that engages the glutes and thighs. Try it for 30-seconds and gradually increase for a longer period of time while in a static pose. This improves strength and muscle endurance.
- Skip the machines and lift free weights instead. This stabilizes the muscles more and burns more calories. This is also effective in core strengthening.
- Do exercises that require some balancing. It requires more muscle involvement, specifically the core muscles, compared to exercises that require a stable position.
- Use exercises that force each arm and leg to work on its own. This helps balance, muscular developments and makes strength equal on both sides. A pistol squat and a single-arm push-up are the best exercises that strengthen the core muscles. Perform 10 reps per side for each of these exercises.
- Keep adding weights to your exercise until after 3 reps, it becomes challenging. Practice with that exercise up to 10 reps and increase it again when it becomes bearable.
Daily updates
- Set exercise goals based on the number of days you want to be active. These goals help you stay motivated every day and even on a weekly basis. Your progress makes you accountable for your health and fitness journey.
- Track your workouts by logging them. This helps you tailor your routine and that includes the exercises you select, workout split, the schedule set-up, the weight training or cardio volume, frequency and intensity you use, and every aspect that concerns your workout is up to you to fit you perfectly.
Wrap-Up
So do you actually need to exercise more?
Progress is still progress, no matter how small!
Just remember to stay focused and keep the goal in mind to motivate you. Workouts are never easy.
They make you sore all over, but it is the kind of pain that is worth having when you know that every time you do it, you become healthier and stronger.
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