Weight Loss: The smart way to work out less and get better results

Accommodating a work-out session in your daily schedule is a huge challenge especially when you have to juggle a family, work and fitness all at once. It also goes without saying that all three are equally important and when it comes to bailing out on one, we find it convenient to bail out on fitness and health. Here is good news for all of us who wish to pursue everything while looking after their health.

Science says that the intensity of your workout matters much more than the frequency of sweat that you break. Recent studies have also shown that a three day workout and a six day workout had the same effect on individuals performing them. Focusing on hitting complex movements with decent amounts of weight can help you achieve the gains that you wish to by only working twice a week. Here are the key points that you should keep in mind while performing exercises.

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Volume and intensity, if regulated efficiently, can turn a short workout in to an effective and fulfilling one. Volume refers to the number of exercises that one does; the combined reps and sets. Intensity refers to the amount of effort you put in, or how hard you push it. Intensity should never be compromised on and you should only stop when you cannot go beyond one last repetition with the correct form.

Fatigue is another factor that you should take into special consideration, especially if your goals go beyond strength and into muscle building or general health and fitness. Mechanical fatigue or individual muscle fibre damage is the first form of fatigue in which stress will leave you a little sore the next day. Metabolic fatigue leads to fatigue due to depletion of glycogen. An average individual needs approximately 24-48 hours to restore that glycogen and these are the days that you can count as rest days.

Fitting a three day workout in your life can prove to be effective only when the other three days are taken for rest and recovery. Intense workouts especially HIIT workouts multiple days a week can lead to overuse of tissues or injury because HIIT isn’t designed to be done five to six days a week, rather only on two to three days. Since the body is in stressful state post high intensity workouts, a day is required to recover so that blood reaches all parts of the body that require it. If you need to get into a workout the very next day after an HIIT workout, you should go for a steady jog which only takes up seventy-five percent of your effort and thus leaves no room for over-stressing. A moderate intensity workout will always provide you with the required relaxation and movement to replenish blood supplies.

Having a game plan for your cardio, strength or HIIT session means you got no time to figure out what you want to do. You can do supersets for strength, i.e. alternating two sets that focus on two different body parts with a minute of rest in between. Mobility work, conditioning and strength are the three principal factors on which general fitness depends. Working on these factors will help you immensely and improve your workouts a great deal.

A five minute warm up followed by five minutes of corrective exercises or mobility work can do wonders for your overall workout. Do a 15-minute total body strength workout with complex weighted movements and conditioning intervals. This can be followed by a five minute cool down session. The main workout should consist of four to five sets of kettlebell swings, followed by two to four sets of ten clean and jerks on each arm. Pull ups and push ups for fatigue can follow and you can finish with one or two Tabata bursts.