There’s a Goldilocks moment for every activity. It’s the sweet spot where everything is “just right.” When you exercise, there’s the perfect amount of time to do it and the perfect time of day for you to exercise. It’s why I tell clients in Houston to time their workouts. Working out too long can be counterproductive or it can mean you’re wasting time. Working out too little won’t achieve the results you want.
Timing is even more important for some exercises.
If you’re a runner, knowing how far you ran in a half hour can help you calculate how much progress you made. It lets you know how much you’re accomplishing. Circuit training can be timed with the challenge of increasing the number of repetitions at each station. This time the number of repetitions in a specific amount of time can provide you with information about your progress.
Whether you work out at a gym or home, timing your workout can keep you focused.
People often spend a lot of their exercise doing non-exercise things unless they’re accountable for their time. If your workout is created to take 30 minutes, but it constantly takes longer, you might be one of those people. Do you take frequent breaks? Do you stop to talk to others at the gym? Take long breaks between exercises? If so, you aren’t focused and either spend far more time than you should or finish the entire workout because it’s time to leave. You may be “putting in the time” but not putting in the effort, so you’ll get less from every session.
Maybe you’re too dedicated to exercise.
You might be spending more time than you should exercising every day. That can be as bad as not working out at all. That’s especially true if you’re doing strength training. When you do strength training, it creates small tears in the muscle tissue that takes from 48 to 72 hours to heal. When the tears repair, the muscles are stronger. Doing strength training too frequently with no rest between sessions doesn’t give time for the body to heal. That can cause a loss of muscle tone and can make you sick.
- Spending too long doing a grueling workout increases the stress hormones and affects your immune system for up to 72 hours. Timing a tough session helps prevent that.
- If you aren’t sure how intense your workout is, consider using a heart rate monitor. If you’re not as active as you should be, your heart rate will be low consistently. If the exercise is intense and you need to cut it shorter, your heart rate will be high.
- Rapid transitioning from one exercise to another can improve your muscular endurance and cardiovascular health. It keeps you more focused since you have to think quickly.
- Timing your sessions also includes the time of day you exercise. If you exercise at the same time every day, you’ll develop a habit, and habits are hard to break. That means you’ll be more likely to work out regularly.
For more information, contact us today at Reggie C. Fitness