By Michael Krueger
Many people spend an awful lot of time and energy looking for the “best” way to exercise. Magazines, books, and the Internet are always more than happy to offer up many different alternatives from month to month. Those who are unsure of themselves often fall prey to these frequently changing fashions.
The thing about this situation is that there is no answer, no one best way to work out; there are simply too many variables to consider.
So, considering all the available options, how should you train?
The Obvious
If you told me what you wanted to achieve, your time parameters, your likes and dislikes, and your available equipment, and if I could spend some time talking with you and then working with you, I could tell you the best way for you to work out. But, despite it being the ideal workout, you still might not like it, so you wouldn’t do it. If you aren’t willing to do it, you’ll get zero benefit from it, so obviously it couldn’t possibly be the best workout for you.
Every trainee will benefit from cardiovascular exercise, yet most don’t like to do it. But, if you searched and tried different protocols (while maintaining an open mind), you would eventually find some method of progressive cardio training that you’d find tolerable and that would provide your desired results. This doesn’t mean that it will provide the absolute optimal result, but it will at least get you to where you minimally need to be.
It’s the same deal with strength and flexibility: You may need to try a lot of different protocols before you find one that you are willing to do consistently and long term.
I know people who switch up their programs way more often than is optimal for good long-term progression, although since these people have ever-shifting goals, or perhaps no definable goals whatsoever, this isn’t a huge problem. Some of these people have been doing this for years and on a very consistent basis, so they have in fact found a way to exercise that works for them. It’s not the way I would prescribe a program for them, but there is no way that they would stick with a progressive, testable, and “boring” routine; so they have found their way.
Therefore, the “best” program is one that you enjoy enough to maintain long term and that gives you an acceptable fitness return on your investment of time and energy.
Minimums
Now that we have accepted that you have to be willing to do something, what are the parameters of what that something must contain for it to be worth your while?
For cardio, your chosen activity must raise your heart rate and increase your breathing enough to create a training effect. That means you’ve got to work hard enough to get out of breath. Out of breath is loosely defined as being able to talk in three-word phrases while you are working out but not being able to sing or whistle. This definition is a little vague, but you’ll know it when you are there.
The basic thing with strength training is that you need to exercise all of your muscles through a full range of motion. Then you need to train up to your point of momentary muscular failure–in other words, until you can’t complete another lift in good form. This could be anywhere from five to 20 repetitions. The number of reps really doesn’t matter all that much and neither do the sets, so long as you are working hard.
Flexibility is no different than the other two; you just need to find a protocol that works for you. My favorite is yoga. Since there are so many variations of yoga to choose from, I would be surprised if you couldn’t find one that fits your needs. You can learn and do yoga on your own, but I would recommend finding a good teacher to ensure that you are doing it right.
The Next Level
Once you have found ways to address all your basic fitness needs and have thoroughly integrated them into your life, you may find that you want to do more. Rest assured that you don’t have to take it up to the next level of training if you don’t care to. So long as you are keeping you workouts challenging and progressive, you can stick with it exactly as you have been and you will continue to enjoy success. But if you want more, you have built a solid foundation on which to do just that.
You may find that you only want to work harder on one facet of your fitness and that is fine, so long as you work hard enough to attain a training effect in the other two. If you focus only on one and let the others slide, you will more than likely develop imbalances that will create minor issues short term and major issues in the long run.
Let’s take your cardio training as an example. Say you have laid down a good base of running and now you’ve decided you’d like to ramp it up. It’s easy to increase the volume, intensity, or frequency of your workouts, but you will need to choose at most two of them–and one is probably better. Once again, there may be an optimal way to do this, but that “best” way may not appeal to you or it may not fit into your life.
If you are time crunched on a daily basis, then increasing the volume may not be an option. If you have been putting in 30 minutes of running, increasing that over a few weeks to an hour may be the ideal protocol for you goals, but if you don’t have the additional 30 minutes to spare, you won’t be able to maintain it. If your time issues are more in the vein of being busy all week, then finding an additional day to train might be next to impossible. Either way, you may get so annoyed and frustrated by trying to find a way to fit it all in that you get to the point of dropping it altogether; this obviously is not the result for which you had hoped.
Instead of adding volume or frequency, it may be better to increase your intensity by adding sprints or hills. That way you won’t need more time, just more effort. Of course if that doesn’t appeal to you either, maybe you don’t really want to (or just can’t) increase your workouts at this time. There is no crime in that either, since you are doing what is needed and anymore at this particular time might be too much.
Finding Your Way
Running, biking, swimming, hiking, free-weights, bodyweight, machines, or Cross-Fit at the station, in your basement, at a club, on the road, on a treadmill, or on a rower or elliptical trainer–there are so many ways to get and stay fit.
You have so many options and so many options within those options that with a little effort you can find a way that works with your personality, goals, and life. You just have to try and maybe try again and maybe even again. But don’t get discouraged, since by continually trying new ways of working out you are already training. Even if all you do for years and years is try different protocols for short eight-week blocks, you will still be improving.
So if you’re having problems finding an exercise program that works for you, don’t worry. Try anything and everything, and eventually you will find your way
… and you’ll be healthier, fitter, and happier for the effort.
Michael Krueger is an NSCA-certified personal trainer. He got his start in fitness training while serving in the United States Coast Guard. He works with firefighters and others in and around Madison, Wisconsin. He is available to fire departments, civic organizations, and athletic teams for training, consulting, and speaking engagements. He has published numerous articles on fitness, health, and the mind-body connection and was a featured speaker at the IAFC’s FRI 2009 Health Day in Dallas, Texas. E-mail him at MKPTLLC@gmail.com.
