Age Strong

Do you always do the same thing whenever you go to the gym? Are you a “runner”? Or someone who does just yoga classes? Or someone who only hits the weights?

I want to introduce you to or remind you of one of the most essential concepts in fitness and the most important thing you can do to ensure you maximize all the benefits fitness offers.

I mean…. If you’re going to bother to exercise… don’t you want to maximize your time?

So here it is, WORKOUT DIVERSITY…This concept is broad… But to break it down, there are four different categories of exercise and training, all of which have unique benefits. ALL these categories must be incorporated weekly to keep you healthy and strong!

In addition to the four categories, there are four principles to consider when looking at each category.

OK. Are you ready for the categories…?

1. Conditioning is your cardio training. Easy right. Can you move for a long time?

2. Mobility: This type of training emphasizes increasing motion you can move through at your joints. How well do you move?

3. Strength: This training applies an overload to your muscle tissue and typically yields strength gains and increased tissue resiliency. How much weight can you move?

4. Recovery Activities: This is not a form of exercise, but I wanted to mention it here to show its importance when thinking about your workouts. Are you allowing your body to repair for more growth in all three categories above?

Now, Here are the FOUR PRINCIPLES to consider concerning each category above. 

1. Frequency: How often do you do each category weekly.
2. Intensity: How much effort do you put into the category.
3. TYPE: This can refer to the four categories listed above but also can refer to subtypes within each category, which is how we will be looking at it for this email. For example, within the strength category, there are many subtypes, such as isometric training, overload eccentric training, super slow training, etc.
4. Time: This powerful principle also has several meanings. Time can be measured as how long you rest between sets or between workouts, or it can be measured differently, such as how long you’ve been training with a particular subtype of exercise within a category. 

To tie this back together, here are four workouts that get progressively better at implementing all the categories and principles above, from OK to BETTER to EVEN Better to BEST.  

CLICK HERE to see the PDF of the workouts

The body thrives on variability and changing things up. The best workout you can do is the one you are not doing now. So don’t be afraid to try something new by mixing and matching the categories and principles above!

Also, check out our episode on workout diversity if you want to dive deep into these concepts more! CLICK HERE