Whether you want to maintain momentum with your exercise routine or simply reach your fitness goals, working out every day might be something you want to try. Let me tell you, it's the best decision I've ever made.
However, I know you maybe are worried about the physical consequences of overtraining, right?Or maybe you have concerns about mental burnout, which could lead to losing motivation. I totally get it. But the good news is you can work out every day if you carefully plan how you work out. You want to know how I do it?
When I’ve made the decision to commit to daily training, I also thought about how can I make sure I do it safely? How do I avoid the negatives of working out every day? So I've came down to few conclusions.
1.Varieties of workouts
To me, working out every day is safe as long as I include a balance of different types of workouts throughout the week. And I know that high-intensity cardio workouts on too many days a week or overloading my schedule with strength training could inevitably lead to injuries and burnout. So i make sure I get this right, taking my body&s need into consideration.
However, on the other hand, high-intensity workouts combined with strength training, flexibility workouts and light cardio will ensure my body has time to recover too. As long as I am working different muscles on different days there will be time for muscles to repair and come back stronger for my next workout.
My perspective sure is like this;
'Everyone should aim to be active for a minimum of 30 minutes a day. To be more specific, cardiorespiratory exercises can be done every day. However, you should not work the same muscle group(s) every day with resistance training (also known as strength training). Muscles need between 24-48 hours to recover before working that same muscle group(s) again.'
As long as you know what to train and how to train!! That matters most.
2. Mental benefits of working out every day
According to variety of studies, daily physical exercise, particularly light cardio and weights, maintain and improve cognitive functions and memory.
The physical benefits, if you get the right workout balance, are shown to be numerous, too. Regular physical activity contributes to the prevention of many of chronic diseases will likely likely to help you gain further benefits (on all levels).
3. Make sure your workouts are in correct order
If you regularly exercise at a high intensity for several days a week and overtrain the same muscles on consecutive days you will likely experience the negative effects of working out every day. And pushing your body too hard can lead to feeling tired, depressed, having trouble sleeping, getting overuse injuries, losing motivation and feeling anxiety.
Trust me, order is important! Make a plan, schedule everything ahead. Write down until you get used to it. You body's needs above all, ok?
And you have to remember, that overtraining syndrome is a result of an imbalance of the types of workouts done every day of the week and not the actual decision to work out every day!! Copy this.
4. Different types of workout
To give you an idea of some of the types of workouts you could include in your weekly schedule;
There are four types of exercise to improve health and physical ability:
endurance
strength
balance
flexibility.
Across the week you could balance high-intensity cardio workouts with working out a group of lower body muscles and on other day you can train upper body muscles with it. Simply, make it work for you.
5. Lenght of your workouts
The length of your workouts will depend on your level of fitness and personal goals. However I suggest you should do at least 150 to 300 minutes a week of moderate intensity, or 75 to 150 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity. So you could divide this total across your week and allocate a certain time for each of your chosen workouts. I also advise you that you train muscle-strengthening exercises on at least 3 days a week (I do 4-5 ;) ).
6. Plan is crucial
But once you have a plan, how can you ensure you avoid overtraining? Ok I got you. You should
eat enough calories for your level of exercise
decrease your workouts when needed
drink plenty of water when you exercise
aim to get at least eight hours of sleep each night
cut back or stop exercising when you don't feel well or are under a lot of stress, and
rest for at least six hours in between periods of exercise.
If you take all these into consideration, you will - along with consistency - get to the results you've always be seeking.
At the beginning you will have to learn how to 'suffer', overcome struggles, make a routine, turn routine into a habit and that's a side where the results will kick in.
It is not a short term journey. It is a lifetime journey.
And it's not impossible ;)
Make it right.
Until next time, S.
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