How to work out for optimal health

workout2The best way to approach your weekly workout regiment is to break it up into cardio, strength and rest.  All three are important components without which your workout routine would be ineffective and incomplete.  Now, how you accomplish these is completely upto you.  Cardio should be a big chunk of your routine since its benefits are well documented to provide total body conditioning as well as overall health benefit.  You can walk, jog, run, swim, bike, hike, box, play basket ball or any other sport.  If you can mix it up from time to time, that would be even more ideal in order to keep things interesting and in order to activate different muscles.

workoutIt’s worth noting that not all cardio sports affect your body in the same fashion.  Playing sports like soccer or basketball increases your agility which you wouldn’t get from exercises like jogging for example.  Biking activates different muscles than running.  I’ve heard many times that runners should bike from time to time and vice a versa.  I personally run during the week, and then box or kick box on the weekend.  Sometimes instead of boxing, I’ll play tennis.  Again this type of exercise increases agility since you are constantly moving in different directions.

workout4Let’s also not forget strength training.  Depending on your goals and time constrains, you can lift two to three times a week in order to target all major muscle groups.  This can be accomplished in many different ways.  You can use free weights, cables, machines or your own body weight.  Again mixing it up is optimal.  Muscles have an amazing ability to adapt to the same routine.  By mixing up your strength training methods, you will be challenging your muscles and making them work harder resulting in better outcome.  I personally strength train three times a week, run at least three times, and box/kickbox at least once.  On some days I work out twice a day as long as one of those workouts is cardio and the other is weight training.

workout3And last but not least, rest.  Yes, for optimal health benefits and fitness results, rest is an important part of your workout regimen. Rest days can and should be used strategically in order to give your muscles a chance to heal and become stronger as a result.  Overtraining is dangerous and counter-productive so please listen to your body and don’t push through pain and exhaustion.

13 thoughts on “How to work out for optimal health”

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