Today we will be covering how to assist training goals, this will be short summaries into ways to enhance your performance to exercise. We will cover the following:
. Cardiovascular training
. NEAT
. Stretching
. Recovery
Cardiovascular Training (CVT)
Depending on your goals, you may want to include some cardiovascular training. Additional CVT can benefit goals such as:
. Fat loss
. Health
. Fitness
. Maintenance
. Speed and power
Whereas there are a few goals where your energy and time should be spent just on strength and hypertrophy:
. Muscle gain
. Strength training
. Powerlifting
Remember to focus on your priority first, for example if you want to build muscle and get a little fitter - you should do resistance training first or in a different session so they do not impact each other.
Please go back to week 1 where we discussed different types of training and use the tools provided to suggest what type of training works best for you. If not, use this simple trick:
- Longer and lower heart rate = endurance
- Shorter and higher heartrate = speed and power
NEAT
As discussed previously, if you want to burn more calories everyday and place yourself into a calorie deficit - you can choose non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). This includes walking more, standing more, taking the stairs and moving around more everyday.
If done correctly, you can actually save yourself from having to do CVT. Just remember your heart rate will often not exceed what you would achieve in dedicated CVT sessions.
Increases in NEAT have proven to reduce risks in certain medical conditions and generally is a preferred way to increase daily calorie consumption.
Stretching
Incredibly important to performance and recovery! You will inevitably encounter muscle soreness or limitations in mobility throughout your training life - stretching can offset and prevent some of this. You should follow the below whilst training:
Before training - Dynamic stretching
After training - Static stretching
If sore from training - static stretching and plenty of moving (don't sit on the sofa if sore!)
Recovery
You will become fatigued and sore from training, this is natural but exceeding amounts of either is not a good thing - also usually a sign of over-training.
To assist recovery you should remember that rest is often more important than training, to better help your recovery you can focus on the following:
. Sleep! Nothing beats it at recovery.
. Protein - eat enough daily
. Calories - eat your required amount
. Stretching
. Anti-inflammatories if overly sore
. Ice/cold straight after exercise (bag of ice)
. Heat later to assist (baths)
. Moving around - try not to sit still. Increases in NEAT will help this
Be your best!