Fun and Fitness for the 40-Something

If you’ve been working out to lose weight or improve your fitness, you’ve probably noticed that your progress can seem to plateau. To fend off such plateaus and continue making fitness gains, the American Council on Exercise recommends “periodized training.”

When you rely on the same routine for too long, your body becomes accustomed to it. With periodized training, you change your workouts at regular intervals or “periods” to both keep your body working harder and give it adequate rest. By challenging your body on a periodic basis, you’ll continue to see gains.

Cardio training

Other than when I was training for a race, I usually ran the same distance every outing, until this year. But the experts say you shouldn’t do the same run every time. So now I do a 3-miler, a 4-miler, a 5-miler and a long run every week (well, until I got to Chicago this month). A recreational runner who does the occasional short race should do some flat, easy runs, some that incorporate hills and some that focus on speed and strength.

The benefits of periodized running training are multi-fold. You’re less likely to get bored and more likely to avoid injury and burnout. And, as I’ve found, you can improve your speed.

Periodized training programs also pay off for cycling, swimming and other cardio exercise.

Strength training

When it comes to strength training, a variety of periodized strength-training programs are available, with many targeting the strength, power and demands of specific sports. The most common program moves you from low resistance and a high number of repetitions to high resistance and a lower number of repetitions. Your muscles thus strengthen gradually.

You also can shake up your strength-training routine by adjusting the following:

• The number of repetitions per set
• The number of sets of each exercise
• The amount of resistance/weight
• The rest period between sets, exercises or training sessions
• The order of the exercises or the types of exercises
• The speed at which you do each exercise

Put simply, you won’t progress if you don’t push yourself—whether in strength training, running or other cardio exercise.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 4:50 am and is filed under General Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.