There still seems to be this conception that every time you step foot in the gym you need to go flat out…

“NO PAIN NO GAIN”

“BALLS TO THE WALLS”

If you are not throwing up after your workout then you’ve not trained hard enough! What a load of rubbish! The truth is you do not have to train like a Spartan Warrior every session to get great results.

Training like a warrior every session is a one way ticket to planet burnout, injury and misery! Lets dive into this further and i’ll provide some solutions to help you moving forward…

The harder you train the longer you need to recover

Hypothetically speaking let’s say you set yourself a goal to run 26 miles every week. What routine do you think would be easiest for your body to recover?

1) Running 26 miles in 1 day

or

2) Running 6.5 miles x 4 days per week

Both are the same volume (26 miles) but the way your body would react to the stress would be very different. If you were to run 26 miles in one day the chances are you are going to be pretty knackered! There’s a high probability that your legs will ache for days and it will take your body much longer to recover than had you just ran 6.5 miles.

Increase training frequency…

One thing I really encourage clients to do is increase training frequency. It’s much better to train in short bursts and more frequently than to complete long winded workouts, which leave you sore for days on end!

My aim with most clients is to push them out of their comfort zone, but at the same time i’d still like them to be able to walk the next day!

45 minutes is plenty of time…

Unless you’re an athlete or professional bodybuilder you really don’t need longer than 45 minutes in the gym. I personally believe that 30-45 minutes is a great length of time to dedicate to training. I also think you can achieve a lot in just 15 minutes, especially if you are new to working out or haven’t trained in a while.

Wrap up…

Every time you workout you are placing stress on your body. There’s no way that you can train 100% every session. It’s great to push yourself in the gym, and i’m all for doing crazy workouts which push you to the absolute limit but be mindful of how long it’s going to take you to recover. In my opinion it’s much better to train 60-70% 4-5x per week than to try and go ‘balls to the wall” every session!

Nick