Have you ever injured yourself trying to reach your fitness goals?  If the answer is yes then there is a good chance you may have been pushing the body a little too hard.  We see it all the time at Gainline in Ascot.  People allow their enthusiasm to take over and the adage that ‘more is better’ comes into play.  Here we zoom up and take a bigger picture perspective to fitness goals.  Being patient, tempering enthusiasmand waiting for the cookies!

 

Enthusiasm is good, to a point

Our fitness goals have to mean something to us.  If they don’t then we simply wont be motivated enough to achieve them.  So often though it’s not a lack of enthusiasm that derails our efforts, it can be too much.  In a bid to reach a goal quickly we do too much specific training towards it.  Doing too much training can overload the body excessively, leading to injury, illness and even overtraining.  Once we get into a maladaptation training can grind to a halt.  Having to take time off of training is completely counterproductive to acheiving our goals.

 

Training Smart

So we know we can’t train excessively.  But we also need to stimulate the body to adapt.  This is the everpresent art of strength and conditioning.  But all isn’t lost.  We have several methods to guide our efforts and progressions when chasing fitness goals.

  1.  Look at the big picture and goal setting.  Like any travel trip, plan your journey.  What are the sensible markers on your journey, towards the final destination?  Also, be aware that you may have to take a detour everynow and then!
  2. Use RPE.  Rate of Perceived Exertion is how hard we feel we are working, and we usually use a score out of 10.  Generally speaking effort level needs to be 6 out of 10 to provide a suitable stimulus for change.  Most sessions performed at 7/8 out of 10 will provide a really nice stimulus to improve fitness.  Some people talk of conversartional pace – 7 out of 10 intensity roughly  correlates to a workrate that enables you to just about hold a conversation with someone.
  3. Baby Steps.  Don’t be in a rush to increase weight, distance or speed.  In previous blogs we’ve talked about the 2 for 2 principle and the 5% rule.  It onlt takes one rep too many, or one kilo too many to cause an injury.  You’re better off establishing consistency in your training rather than having to miss days because you’re injured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nathan Kelly