Balance is must if you try to jump on a trampoline for the health benefits and it is also must if you like to be social and often, the math behind your fitness success really comes down to simple thing that is, timing, and by extension, effective scheduling . Given how busy life can be, today’s modern girl knows that getting everything she wants out of life (and her fitness workouts) can entail some creative planning and organizing. Beyond setting a reminder in your iPhone about tonight’s yoga and pilates session, see how you can set yourself up for a week of smart fitness goals with these key fitness idea.
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Effective Scheduling Tips:
To imagine the benefits of effective scheduling, just have a look at the following points with a fair attention.
Plan For A Mid-Week Break:
Going straight through to the weekend is doable, but it also comes with a challenge of mid-week fatigue. I’m all for getting your token workouts done and out of the way sooner rather than later, but somehow, my body seems to stage a protest around Wednesday or Thursday each week. If you’re the type to start feeling the burn during your typical week, penciling in a day off around Hump Day can be your best bet for continued fitness target later on.
Breaking in the middle of the week obviously means deferring one of your scheduled workouts to a later day, potentially even the weekend, depending on how many spinning classes you planned on attending.
I try to make it to the gym for at least the first two days of the week, in order to get some fitness momentum and to power through initial “ ripping the bandaid off ” phase. As such, by the time I plan on taking a day off from the gym to regroup, I already have at least two gym sessions crossed off my weekly To-Do list. If I can make it to Thursday, I’m really happy.
Find Your Peak Hour:
That is, when you typically see the best results in the gym and in getting to the gym. Unless you’re a total fitness rookie , you’ve likely got some sense of when it’s “optimal” for you to work out, based on your rate of success in completing your workouts and in how you’d describe the intensity of your sessions.
For me, shortly after my breakfast is when I’m at my best. I’m awake enough and likely to have had enough time to digest enough food to adequately fuel my workouts; this is probably about an hour after I wake up. By the time I’ve eaten, downed a little coffee, and put on my gym clothes, it’s about The Golden Hour when I can really maximize my workouts.
Unfortunately, the time we’re most successful at getting to the gym doesn’t always coincide with when we’d like to go. On my days off, I can easily get in a good workout in the mid-morning, since there’s no need to be anywhere else at a particular time.
However, on days when I’m working, getting in an earlier workout means getting up a couple hours earlier, which is admittedly quite difficult for me. Logistically, it’s actually easier for me to head to the gym after work rather than in the morning. There’s no pressure to be anywhere after I’m done work, so I can spend as much time as I need in the gym without feeling rushed.
The best solution I can offer is to find the best compromise between the two times. If you find yourself in a situation where physically, hitting the gym early in the day is best but logistics force you to gym later on, make sure you’re sweating it out at your first opportunity in the evening. Sure, you might feel a little rushed right after work.
But if you peak during the mornings, the later it gets, the less productive you may be in the gym. Pack up your gym bag and bring it with you to work. This way, you’ll ensure that you’re never stuck exercising at the eleventh hour and you can benefit from getting in the “earliest” possible workout that your schedule permits.
Acknowledge Your Priorities:
I know that any fitness routines of many fitness gurus will emphasize the need to prioritize your health and nutrition goals ahead of other aspirations, but I’m more of a realist in this sense. Despite what others would have you believe, not everyone lives and breathes fitness, and for us to blindly strive for it without being 100% committed to that end is to set ourselves up for trouble.
In my opinion, being honest and realistic about what’s truly important to you in your life is the best way to ensure that you’re consistent, productive, and happy with your choices. If sleeping in on the weekends is important to you, then it’s far more powerful to admit it and accept it.
Otherwise, we’ll constantly find ourselves making fitness “promises” that end up collapsing under the weight of our other priorities. Although falling off the horse once in a while isn’t the end of the world, it can be pretty discouraging if we’re regularly setting out to do something and don’t come through.
Once we acknowledge which items are really in our list of Top-10 Priorities, the easier it becomes to create a fitness plan that we can stick to. It’s totally okay to list “having a fulfilling social life” as one of your priorities in life. Once we know this, we can learn to work around it and find a way to balance this commitment with your health and fitness goals.
Taking this as an example, it’s safe to assume that evenings and most weekends are when the bulk of the fun social stuff happens. As such, if getting in shape is also a priority, we know that our workouts have to get slotted in before we go out. In order to free up time in the evening, getting our sweat on during our lunch hour, before breakfast, or immediately after work is our best option. Think of fitness scheduling as another exercise in budgeting, only now we’re using time as the commodity instead of dollars and cents.
As you have also known that I’m all about finding the balance between getting social, getting active, getting outdoor backpacking and getting the necessary stuff done. Time is almost always a commodity nowadays, so it can be difficult to do everything and still remain in good health.
The girls at Fit Bottomed Girls recently blogged about how overtraining and lack of sleep can negatively affect your weight management goals. I read their article with interest, as I often “forget” to pay attention to my body’s own cues sometimes. Once you’re on the horse, it can be tricky to want to break that momentum, but remember, it’s all about moderation. Today I’ll take you through ways to help you find that Balance while not falling off the bandwagon completely.
Know The Difference Between Fatigue and Laziness:
You know that
successful weight management is all about striking a careful balance been extremes
Interestingly enough, fatigue can be caused by any number of factors. Overtraining, as I’ve been reminded, can actually leave you feeling tired and run-down. It may seem like you’re doing good work at carving away the pounds, but if you don’t allow yourself enough rest, your body begins running on fumes, so to speak.
On the other hand, poor diet and lack of activity can also leave you feeling as tired as if you’re overtraining. Exercise stimulates the production of red blood cells, among other things. Your muscles need to be “worked out” through regular activity so that they stay resilient.
If you’ve ever broken a bone and had to wear a cast, you’ll know what I mean. A mere couple of weeks with a broken ankle can leave your lame side with a shriveled, skinny calf by the time the cast comes off. As it were, both extremes, extreme lethargy and over-activity, both have a similar effect on your body.
I do talk a lot about how to push through your tired periods in order to make good on your commitments to getting to the gym . However, it’s clear that this advice should be heeded with the full picture in mind. Depending on how hard you’re training and what your overall diet is like, getting tired can be as much a bodily call for help as it is a byproduct of training reasonably hard.
Equally, it can be tricky to tell if you are truly feeling “fatigued” from a fairly active week or are simply turned off by the prospect of hard work altogether. When I talk about overcoming being tired and getting your butt to the gym, I’m saying so with the intention of defeating laziness.
If you’re constantly making excuses for surfing the web and watching TV, chances are you’re simply favouring the ease of inactivity. After all, sometimes even I’d rather be sleeping in a warm bed than braving the cold morning. Point being, examine your overall level of activity and your diet when responding to your body’s physical cues.
An Hour or Less:
Fit Bottomed Girls talked about keeping your sessions short and sweet, and I’d have to agree. Most of what you can do in one workout can be completed in an hour or less. I enjoy going hard and quick, if only for the benefits of getting out of the gym more quickly. An intense cardio session of 20-25 minutes can burn a ton of calories, so don’t feel like you need to be slogging away for hours on a machine. Get in, get out, and try to keep to about an hour or less.
Mental Fatigue Also Counts as Fatigue:
I think we often forget that a tired mind needs rest as well. No doubt, you’re going hard five days a week for anywhere from eight hours onwards at work or at school. You’re pouring over spreadsheets, engaging in business meetings, cramming for exams, and striving to keep up with those labs, cases, and assignments. If this isn’t taxing on your mental health, then I don’t know what is.
We often overlook the fact that excessive stress and mental exertion can negatively affect our ability to workout properly. Without concentration and focus, our workouts are only half-baked. After that, there’s no way you’ll be reaping the benefits of a clean sweat session. Point being, you can’t expect to put 100% of your efforts into work, school, family, friends, and your health simultaneously. Mental fatigue counts as fatigue. So make sure you’re balancing your efforts at work and school with time spent away from the stress and also don’t forget to create an effective scheduling.