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Fitness Tips For Training
People often misunderstand what it means to truly get fit.
15:32 13 January 2020
Your level of fitness revolves around more than just how well you fit into your jeans. While there’s no definitive measure of it, fitness encompasses the following: stamina, flexibility, speed, power, coordination, agility, balance, cardio endurance, and strength.
You may not master each individual skill, but in the fitness world, a well-rounded individual would be generally competent in these areas. Training is the only way to increase your level of fitness proficiency. In order to have strong cardiovascular endurance, you need to train your heart.
To build strength, you must push your muscles to greater extents each training session. To increase flexibility, you need to maximize your range of motion. To become faster, you must work with resistance. Each skill demands specific training and other supplemental restraints and restrictions. Here are five broad tips to aid in your training and help you become as fit as you can be.
Change It Up
Getting into some sort of training routine is key for development. This meaning you should make sure to get in one workout per day and have an eating schedule in mind to maximize the result of your sessions. What routine does not mean when it comes to fitness training, is doing the same workouts over and over again. Repetition is great, but if you run 1 mile a day at the same pace, you’ll never get any faster. The same goes for weight training. If you don’t expand your horizons, hit different muscle groups, and work your heart at different intervals, you won’t see a difference in your fitness level over time.
Eat Healthy
If you ask anyone with knowledge of fitness, they’ll tell you that abs are made in the kitchen. While being fit doesn’t necessarily mean you must have a 6-pack, it still requires you to eat well.
Food is the fuel that enables you to train at your maximum capacity. With the wrong fuel, the workout doesn’t mean as much. The proper mix of fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and complex carbs are the key to balancing your calories and overall nutrition. Avoiding sugars and processed foods is another way to stay on track.
Also consider incorporating healthy spices into your meals. A common spice used in Indian dishes worldwide is curry, which contains turmeric. The number of turmeric health benefits is astounding, with thousands of studies confirming the same. Give it a shot!
Use The Right Supplements
Using the right supplements at the right time of day can aid in muscle growth, focus, meal replacements, muscle repair, and many other helpful elements of your body’s preparation and recovery. Supplements should be chosen wisely, for some are bogus, while others are incredibly beneficial.
Creatine is one of the most effective supplements out there when it comes to muscle gain and boosting muscle size. Some people however, supplement with their favorite protein powders. There are supplements out there that aid in training but aren’t necessarily it’s main purpose. For example, peppermint is said to make your workouts seem less strenuous, and lavender helps you relax post-workout.
Track Your Heart Rate
It always feels great to see a neckline full of sweat on your t-shirt during and after a workout. While it may feel good, it isn’t the best measurement of how hard you actually worked. With this, you shouldn’t set a time limit or repetition limit on your workout, either.
While last week you were able to run for 30 minutes straight, you may have built your endurance and it could take you 35 minutes to achieve the same heart rate this time. A heart rate monitor is key to tracking how hard you are working throughout your workout. You want to see peaks and troughs throughout the session, pushing yourself to your highest level of intensity and then resting before you do it all over again.
Set Goals
Getting fit is a great goal, but how do you know when you’ve accomplished it? Dropping to an ideal weight for your height and age is great, but it doesn’t mean you’ve gotten yourself into an ideal place to be considered fit.
This takes us back to those nine skills involved in fitness levels. Training properly enhances each one of them, but it’s important to set goals for the ones you find most important. If you’re looking to get faster, stronger, and gain balance, set numbered goals. You may want to take 10 seconds off your 100-meter sprint, bench your weight for more reps, or get through a yoga class without falling over. Concrete goals turn into motivation and make it much easier to see progress over time.
Achieving levels of fitness is a journey that requires motivation, patience, and some serious self-control. Losing weight is one thing, but bettering your overall health through strength, endurance, flexibility, cardio workout, and all of the other skills takes much more time and training. Without setting goals for yourself, it’s hard to determine how fit you really are. Following these five tips, and truly understanding how to achieve your specific fitness goals is key to maximizing the results of your training.