Either you have exercise for fun, for weight loss program or for toning your body, the exercise intensity should be adjusted to your own body. That’s why there is no instant way to lose weight or to build muscles. High intensity exercise is not always correlated to better result.
Want a proof ?….
Have you ever got these symptoms during or after your workout session ?
Decreasing performance
You are in a good shape, and in a high mood to have an intense exercise today. But when it comes to muscle exercise, suddenly you face a difficulty to lift the same weight you usually have. Why?
Rapid pulse
At night after exercise…your heart is still pulsing rapidly that force you to stay awake for hours. What’s wrong?
Lack of fitness motivation
You are a fitnessholic, and exercise has become your favorite activity. But today…you really don’t feel like going to the gym neither to do exercise at home. Suddenly exercise becomes a responsibility. What happened?
Decreasing immune system
Up till now you are proud of your health, as one of sport’s benefits is increasing body immune system. But lately you get sick so often even though you keep maintaining your exercise schedule. What’s wrong?
Recovery Problem
In a healthy person, recovery after workout usually takes 1-2 days time, depends on the exercise intensity. However after your last exercise, you still got soreness and exhausted after 4 days. You feel weak and lose concentration at work. Is it normal?
Lose appetite
This has gone too far! When you lose your appetite, you won’t regain your energy to do another exercise. And if you force yourself to continue your exercise, you will only torture your body!
So, what is going on here ?….
Within your routine exercise and obsession of weight loss or muscles toning, you have unconsciously come to a level of overtraining. Overtraining doesn’t mean you lift a heavier weight or run faster than usual. Overtraining happens because you do not give your body enough time to recover. This is where you need an exercise break before having another exercise.
There are two types of exercise break :
Exercise Break Between Exercises
If you used to have intense daily exercise, then you can choose cardio-muscle exercises combination in every session. However, do not train the same muscles (back & chest or triceps & biceps) exercises on the same day. To avoid overtraining, have one week exercise break after every 8 weeks of exercise. You can have a swim or enjoy other sports that you like just for fun, remember…you’re on an exercise break!
For men or women who don’t need intense exercise, and only go to the gym 2-3 days a week, you can have your exercise break between your exercises to recover your muscles.
Exercise Break Between Sets
Either cardio exercise or muscle exercise should be performed with exercise break between sets or session.
Cardio exercise
20 minutes exercise break between 2 sets of 30 minutes of static bike, is believed to burn more fat than having 60 minutes nonstop exercise. It’s because your body will use the exercise break period to get more energy from the fats. Use the exercise break period to do stretching or light treadmill.
Muscle exercise
Exercise break is very important in weight lifting exercise, to optimize your exercises. The rule of exercise break depends on your goal in having weight lifting exercise.
* For toning muscle: 30-60 seconds between sets, with minimum 10 repetition each set.
* For muscle resistance: 30 seconds between different muscles or 3 minutes between the same muscles, with 12 repetition for each muscle.
* For muscle strength: 3-5 minutes between sets, with 3-6 repetition each set.