Updated September 20, 2024
Have you ever felt lost when trying to create a workout program for yourself? Maybe you know enough exercises to put back to back to call it a regimen, but you’re not quite getting the results you are looking for. My intention with this article is to assess your current workout regimen against my method and determine if there is any need for change. I will outline the importance of creating a well-rounded program that provides all facets of exercise. Having a balanced exercise regimen is important for peak performance with reducing risk of injury.
My program prescription includes equal parts of mobility, strength and cardiovascular work. There are a variety of exercises and variations of exercises that can be performed under each general category. Variations in exercise in addition to changes in intensity and frequency produce a well-balanced exercise program that will offer great results.
Intensity and Frequency
It can be hard determining the right intensity and frequency for your exercises. Intensity refers to the level of effort you put forth in an exercise. This is typically referred to as your RPE, or rate of perceived exertion, and is measured in percentages or on a scale from 0-10.
I will use running as an example. A light exertion or warm up should be about a 2/10 or 20% max effort, meaning it takes little for you to focus, and typically at this stage, you can hold a conversation during running without getting out of breath. On the other hand, pick up your pace to about an 8/10 or 80% of your maximum, then you are traveling a little faster. You should not be able to sustain this pace for more than a few hundred yards, and you will have difficulty getting 1-2 words out at a time during this effort.
These changes in intensity challenge our anaerobic and aerobic systems and put pressure on them to perform. The higher the intensity, the more pressure or harder our systems have to work to stand up to the challenge.
Intensity should change considerably throughout an exercise routine. A good program will have a beginning, a middle and an end, just like a good story. Start with a low intensity warm up, anywhere on the scale from 1-4/10. If today is a weight lifting day, it is best to put your higher intensity in the middle section, which can have varying intensities from 5-10/10. This can also include a mix of short-bursts of cardio during this time at moderate to high intensity of 50-100% max effort. The end of the workout will drop to a lower intensity below a 2-3/10, even less intense than the warm up was.
Although warm up and cool downs take time away from your working period during exercise, they provide the body the essentials needed in preventing further injury. Huebner et. al. 2019 demonstrated that an individualized corrective training program in athletes during preseason reduced significant risk of injury during season. Warm ups should include an almost “rehab” approach to the muscles you are trying to work that day. For example, if you are planning on doing a heavy shoulder day, your warm up should include a variety of range-of-motion exercises in addition to priming the small stabilizer muscles of the shoulders to prepare for larger movements.
Example: performing an overhead kettlebell carry with a light-moderate weight in addition to a light-weight or banded internal/external rotation to work the rotator cuff muscles. The goal in warm up is not only to prime the muscles, but work out any movement problems under low-stress to be able to perform the heavy working sets flawlessly.
Frequency refers to the amount of times you perform your exercises. We can look at frequency as a whole or in parts. An example of this is you exercise five times per week and you perform 3 sets of 12 squats on two of those workout days.
Frequency of total exercise: 5 times per week
Frequency of squat exercises: 2 times per week
Frequency of squat sets: 6 sets, or 72 total reps between the two days
The more specific you can be about which exercises you are doing for a specific body part during your week, the better you can keep track of how often and what type of exercise you are doing for each body part. Many people run into trouble by being too vague when developing a program. The problem that occurs is that it is harder to see how frequently or not frequently you exercise your muscles. There are over 650 skeletal muscles in the human body, so I guarantee you do not have a well-developed program to work all of those muscles.
Mobility, Strength and Cardiovascular
I believe the best exercise programs have an equal emphasis on mobility, strength and aerobic/cardiovascular activities. Even moreso, when you have a program that hits all three of these with variables of intensity in each facet, you won’t become burnt out by trying to perform days of just long cardio, or just pure strength. The key to a good workout routine is to shake it up!
Mobility
Mobility refers to our body’s ability to move within normal ranges of motion. Being too mobile or not mobile enough can impact the type of exercise and tasks we are able to perform. A person who lacks good mobility can be susceptible to injury, especially during repetitive lifting movements. An example of this is with hip mobility during a barbell squat. During the phase of eccentric loading (coming into a squat position), the hips are the primary movers at this time. Once you hit the lowest part of the squat is when the hips are flexed at their maximum. However, if you have “tight hip flexors,” you may feel a pinch or in some cases a mechanical ‘block’ when you get into the lower portion of your squat. If you are attempting a deep squat and your hips are too stiff to allow you to go through the full range of motion, then the laws of physics kick in and energy will follow the path of least resistance. This means that the motion to complete the squat repetition will need to be translated somewhere else - which typically means your low back. And if you ever had a loving grandmother or grandfather, then you know, “don’t lift with your back!”
So, by lifting with your back, you are making your spine susceptible to disc and joint strain which over time can develop into a painful arthritis and disc herniations.
On the opposite end of the spectrum of lacking mobility is being too mobile, or hypermobile. This is typically a problem with upper extremity injury, such as in the shoulders or elbows. What will happen under higher lifting loads is an instability problem. Stiffness in a joint does offer some support for lifting. It is a protective mechanism that allows your joint to ‘lock-in’ to its final position. Unlike our more immobile person that will start to see injury at the joints above and below the body part that lacks mobility, hyper-mobile injuries occur at the joint that is hyper-mobile. The reason is because there is no end range. Your joint will keep stretching beyond a normal range of motion, injuring the ligaments, tendons, bones and muscles because they are not used to having a high stress placed on them beyond normal capabilities.
If we think of mobility like a bungee cord while bungee jumping, then we can picture the importance of being too mobile and not being mobile enough. If my bungee cord while jumping has no stretch at all, when I go to jump, I am not going to have a very soft end point, and may injure myself when I reach the terminal end of the cord. On the opposite, if I have a bungee cord that is too stretchy, it may not stop me or be able to support my weight and my terminal end may be the ground below. So just like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, we want to find a balance between mobility and strength that is “Juuussstt Riighhht”
Strength
Why is creating muscle mass so important? I want you to look at your skeletal muscle like a bracing system that supports your body. The stronger the brace, the more stable the body. Building strength in your muscles not only supports things you can see, like reduced injury, better endurance, etc. But the more we regularly introduce strength into our regimen, the more efficient our body can convert food and nutrients into energy. Studies have shown links between poorer health outcomes and lack of muscle mass. Specifically, increased loss of muscle mass and bone strength led to metabolic diseases and an increase in all-cause mortality (Westcott 2012).
Cardiovascular
Cardiovascular. Aerobic. Endurance. All three words describe the same process. The goal of this training is to place the body in a higher demand beyond a resting state, but not too high that it cannot be sustained for long periods of time.
Endurance refers to our ability to sustain an activity at a steady rate for prolonged periods of time. This is done in an aerobic state. Aerobic means we are utilizing what are called our Type I (slow-twitch) muscle fibers, which provide a steady state of carbohydrate to glucose conversion within these muscles to be used during the work period. As opposed to anaerobic, which utilizes Type II (fat-twitch) muscle fibers which already have a back up store/supply of glucose on hand for short, intense bursts of energy. And lastly, cardiovascular refers to our heart and all the blood that is transferred to our body. Without a strong beating heart, there is no good blood supply. Blood is life. Without proper blood flow, we die. Dramatic, but true.
In summation, any exercise program should have an equal balance of exercises that promote mobility, strength and cardiovascular work. A program that can ensure that all three criteria are met into one exercise routine will help prevent injury, fatigue and burnout from your program. Furthermore, consider varying the frequency and intensity of your mobilization, strength and cardiovascular exercises day-to-day. If for example, 2 days per week you are running at 80% of your maximum capacity, you may want to take 2 or 3 days of 50% or less exertion for recovery.
Lastly, rest days are important too! Everyone should incorporate at least one to two rest days from the gym. It doesn’t mean you should refrain from any physical activity, but take a mental health day - go outside, enjoy your family, maybe do some work that you have neglected throughout the week. Organizing your life and keeping your mind healthy are just as important as keeping your body healthy.
References:
Westcott, Wayne L. PhD Resistance Training is Medicine, Current Sports Medicine Reports: July/August 2012 - Volume 11 - Issue 4 - p 209-216 doi: 10.1249/JSR.0b013e31825dabb8
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