Go Intense Then Go Home
(Guest blog by Rich Berrian, head personal trainer)
Intensity, intensity, intensity – we all think we have it. But do we?
When we say 30 minutes of exercise is all you need and all you should be able to handle when attending one of our bootcamp sessions, we aren’t lying!
If after 30 minutes you are barely sweating, still breathing normally, and able to stay for ANOTHER 30 minutes, chances are that you are not super human and aren’t being as intense in your workout as you should be or think you are.
Being intense takes a lot out of you and your body, and to be honest is a crappy feeling at times, but by keeping your intensity high you maximize your results, regardless of what your goal may be.
Here are a few things to implement to make sure you are getting the most out of your body and each workout:
One way to step things up is to decrease your rest time. Instead of lingering in between exercises and talking to your partner or person next to you, rush to the next exercise and continue your workout.
Rest times should last no longer than 20 – 30 seconds between exercises at bootcamp sessions.
Often we try to “out-do” or “one-up” ourselves or the people around us while in a group training environment, that we actually end up cheating ourselves and compromise form!
When exercise form is compromised we allow our body to complete more reps or lift heavier weight at the expense of shifting emphasis away from the muscle group intended for use/target.
When the exercise starts to become difficult, the muscle being worked is starting to fail, which then causes our body to break form and bring in other muscle groups to keep the exercise in motion. This is where we must be diligent about keeping form tight; to exhaust the proper muscle group and avoid injury!
Another way of increasing intensity is to control the tempo of the execution of the exercise.
“Tempo” is the rate of speed of which the positive and negative portions of the movement are being performed.
Dropping, swinging, body sway, and bouncing are all ways of cheating and just keeping the weight or exercise in motion as opposed to using the actual muscle to cause this movement.
A good rule of thumb is to perform a 2 second tempo count on the positive part of the movement and a 3 – 4 second count on the negative part of the movement.
Of course there is always the option to join the ‘Club of Bane’ founded by Beard and PJ (two bootcampers) by purchasing an oxygen restriction training mask!
These masks work by limiting the amount of oxygen you can breathe in and not supplying the vast amount of oxygen to the blood stream that it is use to receiving.
In turn, oxygen restriction hinders performance of the muscles and body due to lack of red blood cells/oxygen within them. It is theorized that the body will adapt to this restriction by producing more red blood cells which are responsible for transporting oxygen.
Thus, resulting in more oxygen in the blood/muscles when training or working out without the mask on and increasing performance.
In summary, whether its coming to one of our bootcamp workouts, a training session with Sara, JT or I, or working out elsewhere, BRING the intensity!
Don’t cheat yourself out of a good workout, remember quality of quantity!
To demand the most of your body, you must know your body!
In Fitness and Health,
Richard Berrian
Personal Trainer
#gunslikerich
