Afternoon all,
It’s chucking it down here in Surrey so I thought I would get the computer out and do some rambling on the blog.....
Today’s topic - striking the right exercise dose!
(My best attempt at amateur graphic production!!)
As my beautiful graph demonstrates, exercise, like many things in life requires balance for optimum benefits to be achieved. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell you that doing little to no exercise is not going to be great for your health and performance. You will simply end up weak and unfit. I think most people get this!
It is at the other end of the scale where there is a little more confusion floating around. Here you will find many exercise-aholics who are bleeding their energy resources dry with massive training volumes. For some this is probably a result of enjoying the ‘high’ they derive from exercise, for others it may stem from a long-term belief that the more exercise they do the better it is for them!
Now for sure there are some people who can probably pull off ridiculously high training volumes week in week out, month after month and suffer no ill consequence! This does not mean you should do the same. For many following these kind of high-octane, daily grinds will lead to a catalogue of problems including excessive cortisol production, insufficient muscle recovery, joint issues, decreases in energy, reduced performance and a general reduction in the quality of your life. This is crazy! Special circumstances aside (e.g. elite level athletes) training should do the very opposite and increase the quality of your life!
So what is the optimum volume of exercise? Unfortunately the answer is not black and white. As with so many things in the field of personal fitness....it depends!
It depends on.....
- The types of activities you participate in
- The intensity/volume of your training
- How well you recover from training
- How well you eat
- How well you sleep
- The volume of stress in your life
- Etc etc
Given all these variances it is impossible to say how much is too much or how much is too little. You will have to get out there and find out for yourself. My best advice for now is this...
FIRST AND FOREMOST FOCUS ON QUALITY NOT QUANTITY
Start out with one or two really good intense training sessions (in whichever field of fitness you enjoy) and see how your body goes. How do you feel? How do you perform? Are you progressing? If the answers to all these questions are positive and you feel like you have more to give perhaps add a third session to the mix or maybe even a fourth. This may improve things or it may make things worse. Try it and see.....find your therapeutic dose of training activities and volume and go with it. Just remember, more is not necessarily better!
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