Exercise Doesn't Have to Be Extreme to Be Effective

Workouts are not about no pain, no gain, and push till you puke. That doesn't sound like a fitness program that is enjoyable or sustaining. There will be some discomfort with exercise but it doesn't have to be extreme to be effective.

The best exercise is one you enjoy and keep coming back to as part of a healthy lifestyle. If you hate your workout, it will more than likely be discontinued in short order.  

Keep Workouts Short and Effective

Great workouts don't have to take up lots of time and good news for most of us with busy calendars. And honestly, there is something wrong if it takes hours to complete a fitness program. Time is precious in and out of the gym. Effective exercise is planned, focused, works best for your body, and can be completed within an hour. 

I believe in quality and not quantity when it comes to workouts. When the focus is on quality, the exercises are challenging but without risk of injury. You are on a mission to build muscle and strength, not hurt yourself. Nobody wants to sustain an injury from exercise and be laid up unable to train at all. 

Train Smarter Not Harder

Training smarter requires focus and listening to how your body feels during a workout. There is a difference between normal exercise discomfort and pain that doesn't feel right.

Many people fail to listen to the wrong pain and perform movements that should have been immediately halted or modified. Pushing through the wrong type of exercise discomfort can potentially lead to an injury that could become a chronic problem. What it comes down to is knowing how to train smarter, not harder.

Your Body, Your Workout

You don't need to prove anything to anyone when it comes to fitness and workouts. Exercise programs are individual, not universal. This means we all work at different fitness levels doing our own thing. As long as you're bringing the best of yourself to the workout is all that matters.

Your goal is to maintain a healthy body through your workouts. Of course, healthy nutrition goes along with that and will be different for each person. And the big reason why generic diets don't work and shouldn't be an option. The point is to do what works best for your body in the gym and in the kitchen.

Avoid Overtraining

Physical training is important but can overly stress the body without adequate rest periods. A body that's in a constant state of overtraining will experience wear and tear. Poor exercise technique lumped into this scenario makes it even worse.  Eventually, this type of training will break down and create a body that doesn't feel good in the years to come. 

It's important to include rest and recovery as part of your fitness program. As long as you're challenging the different exercise components 3 to 5 times weekly should be sufficient. Hitting the gym daily can actually be counterproductive to losing fat and gaining muscle. Give your body some time to recover from intense workouts.

Components of Physical Fitness

Smart training consists of challenging the following components of fitness:

• muscular strength

• muscular endurance

• cardiovascular endurance

• flexibility

• body fat composition

Simple programs can accomplish all of these goals and are necessary to create and maintain a healthy body. 

The challenge doesn't have to be gut-wrenching, feel like death kind of stuff. You simply need to push your body above the physical limits of what is considered normal physical status. Standing would turn into brisk walking for 30-minutes for example. Combine that with resistance training and a stretch program to create a smartly balanced fitness program.   

Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed 

When physical training is kept simple and smart, it doesn't feel so overwhelming. It's important to feel great about your workout and not consider it a burden. A positive attitude brings about the confidence you need to achieve your fitness goals.  

Training smart also helps you see exercise programs as an easy process. It enables you to best select workouts to best fit your body. This creates a training environment that produces results and keeps you healthy.

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