Often you might feel like you are working really hard on your fitness programme but not seeing the results you want. While there are a lot of factors involved in achieving your goals, sometimes we might focus on minor things and miss out on bigger issues. Different training goals will require different training approaches. Understanding what you need to do to achieve your specific goal will set you up for a more successful journey.
Muscle building
While you can use a variety of strategies to build muscle, there are certain things that you simply can’t ignore. Muscle building is a long process and you will have to repeat the same exercises and try to get better at them.
You will need to follow a structured routine and find a balance between pushing yourself and being safe. If you love moving around, getting your heart rate up, feeling the burn and sweating, training to build muscle might seem boring. However, this is just what it takes to increase your muscle mass.
What to do: follow a structured programme that involves progressive overload, have a good balance of exercises (focus on compound movements with a few isolation ones), focus on the quality of your sets, have a variety of rep ranges, don’t ignore diet and recovery.
What not to do: following random programmes online, changing exercise routine too often, not having a structure, not working on your mind-muscle connection, not improving form, not tracking progress.
Strength training
Strength training and muscle building go hand in hand. From the moment you start your resistance training as a beginner you will be building your strength. When you become more experienced and want to focus primarily on increasing strength, your programme will be structured slightly differently.
To build strength you will be prioritising compound movements. You will perform fewer reps, more sets and take longer rest periods. This means you should be prepared for longer sessions. Realistically, you need to have a good amount of lifting experience before attempting to lift significantly heavier and pushing yourself close to your limits.
What to do: taking your time with basic movements and mastering them, choosing lifts that work for your body, working on mobility/core strength, being patient, knowing your limits.
What not to do: trying to lift heavier than you should with bad form, doing exercises your body wasn’t built for (for example if you can’t perform conventional deadlift off the floor with good form, try sumo deadlift instead).
Athletic performance
If your training goal is to improve athleticism for a chosen sport, the programme should reflect the specific needs. However, regardless of the sport, there are a lot of similarities in terms of required physical abilities. From swinging a golf club to riding a horse – you will need good core strength and stability. From playing beach volleyball to boxing you will need to be able to generate power. Whether you do climbing or martial arts you will need good mobility.
A well-designed programme to improve athleticism will be the most versatile one. You don’t even need to play any sport to benefit from this type of programme.
What to do: focus on exercises relevant to your sport, work on your core/mobility/stabilizing muscles, work on the foundations.
What not to do: do advanced exercises without having the prerequisites (e.g. you need to be able to squat properly before you box jump).
Weight loss
When it comes to weight loss, an exercise regimen is one of the first things people turn to. Unfortunately, this has created a lot of misinformation about how many calories you can actually burn doing various exercises. From highly misleading 10 minutes HIIT workouts full of promises of hundreds of calories burned to highly inaccurate fitness trackers.
Similarly to building muscles, burning large amounts of calories is not always easy or fun. A lot of people would rather do a bunch of random exercises nowhere near high intensity than go for an hour walk where they would burn more calories. The best weight loss programme will include moderate-intensity cardio (to burn calories while being active) and building muscle (to burn more calories at rest).
What to do: focus on sorting out your calorie intake, find an enjoyable way to expend more energy, focus on light and moderate-intensity cardio, build muscles to increase resting metabolic rate.
What not to do: solely relying on exercise to help you lose excess weight, only doing 20-minute “HIIT” workouts, trusting the fitness tracker that you actually burned 700 calories in a 30 minutes workout.
Overall fitness
Simply training for overall fitness gives a lot of exercise options to choose from to keep fit. Going to Zumba classes, playing tennis, doing home workouts, going for a hike. Training for overall fitness means you are not particularly concerned about any physique or performance goals. It simply means you want to have a healthy body.
However, it would be still beneficial to have variety and structure for your training. For example, if you do nothing but running and already have pre-existing muscle imbalances there is a good chance you might eventually get an injury. Choose activities that will address various aspects of fitness (strength, cardio, mobility) for a truly functioning body.
What to do: do the type of activity you enjoy – from body pump to pilates, have a routine.
What not to do: only focus on one area of fitness, ignoring good form and technique.
If you have a goal in life, you will probably put together a plan and try sticking to it. You will also have to often make adjustments and act according to a situation. Similarly, if you have specific fitness goals you need an appropriate plan. Sure, you might get some results if you do a workout here and there. However, planning your fitness journey according to your goals will help you get where you want to be.