The One Thing Missing From Your Workout

I have done quite a lot of work in a few different gyms in my area, I’ve also trained at a few different gyms and there is one big thing I notice, and that is that around 80-90% of the people there look exactly the same as they did last year.. and the year before.. and the year before that.

Yes they may be eating rubbish when they get home but in exercise terms there is one thing missing.

Can you guess what it is?

INTENSITY

The majority of people in the gym’s training is done in a slow and steady manner they can spend 90mins plus in there and not really get out of their comfort zone, yeah they get a bit of a sweat going but not really enough to call the training high intensity.

Given the option wouldn’t you prefer half as much time in the gym and get double the fitness and potential fat loss benefits?

I know I certainly would which is why I train and train my clients with a high intensity.

I know full well not everyone in the gym is capable of performing sprinting or various jumping about, good news is you can apply intensity to pretty much any exercise with pretty much any fitness level and ability.

Intensity is like I said so often the missing element in people’s training but annoyingly it is the thing which so often isn’t achieved.

The correct intensity is what helps our fitness to improve, body shape to change, our muscles to build and helps maximise fat loss.

The high intensity stuff which takes you out of your comfort zone boosts your sympathetic nervous system. (Is that good?)

Doing this helps to:

  • Keep your blood glucose and insulin levels low which makes fat loss become easier
  • Boosts production of GH (growth hormone)
  • Forces your body into releasing more free fatty acids which means you can burn off more of the stubborn fat
  • Improve cardiovascular function (stronger heart and lungs and higher fitness level) and stimulate more muscle fibres
  • Massively increase the amount of fat and calories you burn both during and after every single workout

All good right??

And like I said it’s not just cardio which you can apply high intensity training to it’s your resistance workouts too.

If you are training at the right intensity you’ll find you will sweat one hell of a lot. If you aren’t breaking a sweat 10-15 mins in then potentially you aren’t quite hitting the intensity.

Also your heart rate should be progressing upwards throughout your exercise session. If you are on a cardio machine you can check your heart rate on most of them or alternatively you can pick up a heart rate monitor and watch for relatively cheap. Basic rule of thumb to calculate your max heart rate is 220 minus your age. To train intensely you’re looking at getting over 80% of that.

So try something different and see if it works.

Instead of a 20 minute run on speed 10 why not do 10 minutes 30s sprint 30s jog and see how you find that. Can use the same principle on the cross trainer, bike and rower as well.

Instead of doing 3 sets of every weight exercise 12 times each with 60s rest in between why not try cutting the recovery or supersetting (performing 2 exercises back to back and then rest).

There’s plenty you can do.

So there we are! Let’s up the intensity and watch the results go wild!

Take care,

Jamie ‘Up The Intensity’ Stedman

PS Just over 7 weeks until Christmas now. If you are looking to shift a few pounds and get into shape beforehand or just boost your fitness I am running a special offer.

15 sessions for £300

There are 4 spaces available and this offer is valid for the next 10 days only. If you want to do it as a pair there is an additional cost of just £50 – £175 each. Message me for more details or email Personaltrainerllanelli@gmail.com

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