One of the hardest questions to answer in fitness is, \u201cWhat\u2019s next?\u201d The first step in figuring out this complicated and challenging question is to decide on your goal. For some, it might be training for a specific sport, adding muscle, or losing fat. For others, it might just be for general fitness and feeling better. Whatever your goals are, here are three questions you can ask yourself to make sure you achieve your goal.<\/p>\n
As someone trying to get back into fitness, you have to be realistic with yourself. If you\u2019re forty years old, thirty pounds over your goal weight, and haven\u2019t touched a weight since you lifted in high school for football, you might want to start off slow.<\/p>\n
Progress slowly to avoid injuries and so you don\u2019t burn yourself out. If you\u2019ve been intensely training and feel completely dead, maybe you should take a week to recover so you don\u2019t end up overtraining<\/em> and moving backward. If you\u2019re feeling energized but experiencing some joint pain or tautness, you might want to take some extra time to address the discomfort before jumping back into training.<\/p>\n Making sure you\u2019re in tune with your body is important in staying healthy. Don\u2019t let your ego put you at risk for potential injury. In other words, don\u2019t try to be so impressive at the gym that you push your body beyond its limits. A fitness-related injury could be something small like a strain that could set you back a couple of days to a week or something much more serious like a complete tear. The former could interrupt your fitness routine, and the latter could affect your training for the rest of your life.<\/p>\n Make it a priority to always think about the long term. It\u2019s better to stop one rep short of your limit or even take some time off to address an issue than to sustain a major injury that sets you back for weeks or even months. This is why assessing where you are at and how your body feels should be the number one priority when considering what to do next in fitness.<\/p>\n Are you still enjoying what you are doing or do you dread training every day? If you\u2019re enjoying your training, keep on keeping on. If thinking of your next workout brings back a feeling of dread, something needs to change. If you dread your workout because you\u2019re tired after a long day of work, try starting off your day with the workout instead. If you hate working out because it takes so long and you usually workout for two hours, it\u2019s possible to get in a very beneficial workout in half that time. If you just don\u2019t enjoy the style of training you are doing, then find something you do enjoy!<\/p>\n If you can only get yourself to workout once a week doing that, it would be better to challenge yourself and be more consistent doing the ten to twelve rep range with cardio you enjoy. Remember, it\u2019s better to do an okay training routine consistently than a perfect training routine inconsistently. If you\u2019re not doing something you enjoy, you\u2019ll be less likely to give it your all and be consistent.<\/p>\n If what you\u2019ve been doing has been working and you\u2019re still making good progress, then nothing needs to change. If you feel like your progress is starting to slow down or has come to a standstill, you should switch it up.<\/p>\n In fact, it\u2019s generally recommended to add some variety to your workout every three to four weeks. That\u2019s how long it typically takes for your body to get used to working out, making progress, and making proper adaptations. Anything after that tends to have slower progress. If you are a powerlifter and have been training only five sets of 1-3 reps, try doing three sets of ten. It might not be what the books say is best for your progress, but you will see the most improvement in the things you do the least. Do a couple of weeks of this, and then go back to your regular training to see if you\u2019ve improved.<\/p>\n Always keep in mind that there is no single right answer to what you should do next. Each person has a different goal, different injuries and restrictions, different enjoyments of different styles of training, and bodies that respond differently to different styles of training. Just because one person achieved great results training a certain way doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ll get those same results. Just because someone didn\u2019t achieve great results training a certain way doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t achieve great results with that style of training.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s next?\u201d takes a lot of practice to answer. You have to try new things and learn what works and what doesn\u2019t work for you. As long as you ask yourself these questions, you can at least be guided in the right direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the hardest questions to answer in fitness is, \u201cWhat\u2019s next?\u201d The first step in figuring out this complicated and challenging question is to decide on your goal. For some, it might be training for a specific sport, adding muscle, or losing fat. For others, it might just be for general fitness and feeling…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2380,"featured_media":14896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[194,284],"thb-sponsors":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitness","tag-fitness-2","tag-goals","post_format-post-format-image"],"acf":[],"views":5749,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2380"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14895"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14904,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14895\/revisions\/14904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14895"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=14895"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How\u2019s my mind?<\/h3>\n
How\u2019s my progress?<\/h3>\n