Importance Of Workout Frequency
Thursday, February 28, 2008
I had a pretty interesting conversation yesterday with a colleague.
She works shifts, so she's seldom at work the same time I am, or the rest of us are, for that matter. She hasn't seen me in like about 2 months due to the weird rostering of her shifts. So finally I met her yesterday and she commented at how much weight I'd lost in the 2 months she hadn't seen me.
So I told her about my workout routines, what I do, circuit training etc those kind of stuff. Then she commented:
"Wow and I have been going to the gym for 3 years and all I did was to lose 2kg!"
Now doesn't that strike you as odd? It sure did to me.
So I found that due to her weird rostering shift schedules, she is only able to go to the gym to workout once every 8 to 10 days. Because of that, there's hardly any results from her 3 years worth of "gym workouts".
See, from what I understand, you need to tell your body that it's gonna be getting "regular workouts", hence they better start being efficient at expending energy and burning fuel. To the body, "regular" means once every couple of days. 8 to 10 days is not "regular" to the body, more like "infrequent".
Once the body realises it's going to need to burn fuel regularly, it'll "switch gears" into a more efficient (or "easier") mode - burning the fats stored in your body, instead of breaking down muscles to use as "temporary fuel" if you work out infrequently.
So, I am glad I didn't join a gym. Having to "go to a gym" means I need to plan when I need to go, and if work gets in the way, it'll get "postponed". I work out at home, with my Steel Bow and my Bodylastics kits. That means I won't ever miss any of my "scheduled" days for workout, since I will definitely be home at some time of the day.
Even if I'm short on time, ie reach home late, the Steel Bow is great for those "short" workout sessions. You still expend energy and "burn calories" when you're spending 10 to 20 mins going through the Steel Bow sequence. As I have posted before in this blog, I can even do some workouts on the Steel Bow sitting in front of the computer reading emails.
Being able to stick to my workout schedule has allowed me to produce results - visible results.
You should too.
She works shifts, so she's seldom at work the same time I am, or the rest of us are, for that matter. She hasn't seen me in like about 2 months due to the weird rostering of her shifts. So finally I met her yesterday and she commented at how much weight I'd lost in the 2 months she hadn't seen me.
So I told her about my workout routines, what I do, circuit training etc those kind of stuff. Then she commented:
"Wow and I have been going to the gym for 3 years and all I did was to lose 2kg!"
Now doesn't that strike you as odd? It sure did to me.
So I found that due to her weird rostering shift schedules, she is only able to go to the gym to workout once every 8 to 10 days. Because of that, there's hardly any results from her 3 years worth of "gym workouts".
See, from what I understand, you need to tell your body that it's gonna be getting "regular workouts", hence they better start being efficient at expending energy and burning fuel. To the body, "regular" means once every couple of days. 8 to 10 days is not "regular" to the body, more like "infrequent".
Once the body realises it's going to need to burn fuel regularly, it'll "switch gears" into a more efficient (or "easier") mode - burning the fats stored in your body, instead of breaking down muscles to use as "temporary fuel" if you work out infrequently.
So, I am glad I didn't join a gym. Having to "go to a gym" means I need to plan when I need to go, and if work gets in the way, it'll get "postponed". I work out at home, with my Steel Bow and my Bodylastics kits. That means I won't ever miss any of my "scheduled" days for workout, since I will definitely be home at some time of the day.
Even if I'm short on time, ie reach home late, the Steel Bow is great for those "short" workout sessions. You still expend energy and "burn calories" when you're spending 10 to 20 mins going through the Steel Bow sequence. As I have posted before in this blog, I can even do some workouts on the Steel Bow sitting in front of the computer reading emails.
Being able to stick to my workout schedule has allowed me to produce results - visible results.
You should too.
Labels: workout
2 Comments:
commented by 
Health, Fitness, Science, March 2, 2008 5:45 PM
Health, Fitness, Science, March 2, 2008 5:45 PM
Thank you for your input. Many people think "regular exercise" means once a week. Perhaps the phrase should have been "frequent exercise" instead, to indicate the frequency instead of consistency.
It also gives me a good night sleep