Simplify Your Workout Routine
If you know me, then you know I believe simplicity always wins. No matter what. The simple way is quite usually the way to go. When I was younger my dad use to say: “Life is easy. But, it’s people who complicate it.” Any as I get older I realize how true this is. As people, we allow our own beliefs, opinions, and experiences to cloud our judgement. We’ve become too smart for ourselves and leave little space for intuition and common sense. Of course some situations require our fullest intellectual expertise, but trust me when I tell you, fitness is not one of those situations. Fitness is one of the most intuitive of scenarios and tasks. And, if we’re being honest with ourselves, we know that. We know when we can push ourselves harder, when we need an extra day of rest, or that we probably shouldn’t eat the entire bag of chips (family sized, of course). We know these things, we feel it, it’s intuitive; it’s common sense. Unless you’re a fitness nerd like me, there’s no need to make this something it’s not. So put down the calorie counter, your FitBit, and close out those 30 “what to workout in the gym?” tabs, here 3 simple guidelines you should follow to simplify your workout routine.
1) Follow the Rule of 4
This is by far the most helpful in terms of programming your workouts. It can be quite overwhelming to program workouts with the proper exercise selection, progressions, cardio training, rests, sets, etc. Heck, it’s overwhelming for me and I actually enjoy doing it! So, the rule of 4 goes as follows: focus on 4 movements (per upper/lower/core), 4 days a week, for 4 months. Easy to remember and simple to execute. This rule ensures that you give your body enough stimulus and time to see change and growth. Oftentimes people create programs with way too many exercises and then wonder why they haven’t seen results despite their consistency and adherence. You’ll be surprised what can happen when you focus on a select few exercises for a few months.
2) Prioritize Skill Acquisition
This is something that the vast majority of people are missing in their programs. Skill acquisition is cool because it gives you the space to play and explore your body. Whether it’s learning how to juggle, handstand, or even improve your squat technique, skill acquisition allows you to learn and practice master one thing. Not only do our external bodies benefit from these adaptions but our nervous systems and brains benefit as well. As we get older, and confine ourselves to what we believe we should be doing as an adult, we rob ourselves of our freedom to play with our environments or simply “have fun.” As kids we’re constantly learning new things and our brains become stronger because of it. Including skill acquisition into your program will also remove any desire to constantly switch up what your routine because you’ll be focused on mastering your new skill.
3) Sprint Weekly
The benefits of sprinting are tenfold, from improving cardiovascular health and reducing stress to improving your metabolism and glucose control. All you need to know is that you need to be sprinting. Whether it’s once a week or twice a week, just do it. Note: sprinting more than twice a week is actually not beneficial for most, and is likely going to result in overtraining. As simple and easy as it sounds, sprinting is something many people get wrong. Yeah, most people not only program it incorrectly, but they actually sprint incorrectly. So, what is sprinting? Sprinting is a maximum effort run in a given period of time or specified. They key word here is maximum. Sprinting is taxing on the body and extremely difficult. For example, if you’re doing 10 sprints with 30 seconds rest, you’re not sprinting, you’re overtraining, and running fast. When you don’t allow yourself to fully recover (3-5 minute rest), you’re teaching your body to operate at the 70% capacity, rather than 100% capacity, make sense? If you sprint, sprint well, and rest you’ll be good to go!
