This chick is seriously insanely awesome. She is dedicated to health and fitness and is a fellow Clean Eater! I love the yummy recipes she posts (a recent one, just in time for Halloween, was "Spooky Ghost Fingers". TOO cute!)
Here is here awesome guest post centered around fitness routines. Take it away Dee! <3
Switch Up Your Routine!
**Am encrypt of Fall Appreciation**
The other day I was doing my first 15 minute HIIT workout in months. I haven’t done it in a while because it’s noisy and takes up space, which would make it hard to hide from my parents. I did burprees, lunges, split jumps, and lots of squats! It was harder than I expected. Needless to say, today I woke up sore. During the summer and last winter, I had been doing a lot more high intensity training and didn’t always wake up sore the next day because body slowly adapted to the training. It made me realize how important it is to switch up your routine!
Why?
•Keeps your body guessing! Ever been to a fitness class and couldn’t my keep up with the instructor? Good! Chances are, the their body is adapted to the exercises while yours isn’t yet, which means you have to work even harder. Remember! The easier the workout is, the less calories you burn, which means, you are burning a lot more calories than them! If you look pretty working out, you’re not training hard enough. Challenge yourself to keep your body a fat-burning machine!
•Keeps your weight loss from plateauing. If you’ve looked through some online weight loss forms, you’d see the term “plateau” quite often. All it means is you’ve reached a point in your journey at which you are stuck at your current level. You can plateau at a certain weight. Athletes plateau, or otherwise call it “hitting the wall”. Switching up your routine helps maximize your potential and prevents the plateau.
•It helps you get stronger! Athletes cross train all the time. Dancers do yoga and conditioning to add dynamics to their dance. Runners use legs machines at the gym to to strength weak muscle groups. Switch up your routine to remain strong in all aspects of your fitness.
•It’s fun! Repetitive workouts can be such a bore. Sometimes, I feel like ditching the workout all together. Keep your exercise as appealing as you can to keep yourself motivated!
What I personally like to do is split my training into 4 categories, one focus per season. Take a look at my action plan, and see if you agree.
Spring: Sports (skills, technique, coordination)
Summer: Yoga, Freestyle training (flexibility, wide range fitness)
Fall: Long cardio/Fartleks (stamina, agility, speed)
Winter: High intensity training (strength, VO2 capacity, etc.)
Of course, it doesn’t mean that here and there I won’t do, let’s say, a high intensity workout during the long-cardio focus season. It just means the majority of my workouts will be of that one focus.
Spring is like fall, but warmer, humid, and wet from not only the rain but also the melting snow. Due to the unpredictable weather, I keep a bit of spontaneity in my workouts too. If it rains, I can play indoor sports. If it’s sunny, I’d play outdoors. It’s a good time to try out new things!
I dislike heat. I dislike summer. Sorry folks—I just can’t stand it! I’ve come to notice that my motivation and performance greatly deteriorates with increasing heat and humidity, thus why I don’t schedule anything too intense in the summer. Yoga helps me wring out the toxins, and depending on the day, I may or may not go out for a run.
Fall is so perfect for running. Everything about it—the scenery, the chilly whether appeals to me and makes me feel alive and free. It’s my favourite season of all.
Winter is cold—the best time to blast a sweat! The day gets short and so does time to spend outside. Instead, I’ll do at home HIIT workouts in my comfy home.
Want to switch it up, but don’t know how? Try some of these activities:
- Running
- Interval training
- Yoga/Pilates
- Swimming, Cycling
- Playing sports
- Extreme sport such as rock climbing, surfing, etc.
- Gymnastics/Acrobatics
- Aerobic workouts(at the gym or follow DVDs)
- Dance
- Weightlifting
- Skipping
Happy Butt-kicking!
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