Weight lifting isn’t the only thing you need to be doing to get in shape. There are so many different factors of fitness that you need to be working on too. Endurance, strength, speed, and flexibility are some of the other fitness factors you need to work on. If you really want to feel good each day, you have to work on getting in great shape.
How do you do this? It’s pretty easy…
You’re already lifting weights and doing cardiovascular exercise, correct? Well, cardio helps you to get in shape but you need to be doing different types of cardiovascular exercise plus some other activities that will help get you in shape.
For cardiovascular exercise, you need to be doing a mixture of low intensity, medium intensity, and high intensity interval training. But that’s not all…
You need to add in just a few sessions per week of exercise that’s going to help get you in shape. We'll call these conditioning sessions.
These sessions are going to be short but high intensity. Ten to fifteen minute sessions at most. You will work on making these sessions more and more intense as you progress. You only need a couple each week and you need to keep them short and intense.
You should also mix in a few lighter sessions just for extra recovery and restoration. If you take off from weight training on the weekends, do a few light and easy sessions just to speed up recovery and to get the blood flowing.
You’ll feel even better.
These short recovery sessions need to be very easy. You shouldn't stress your body at all during these sessions.
Slow and easy. Enjoy the easy workout.
What type of activities do you do during these sessions? Here are some examples:
• Sled Dragging (forward)
• Sled Pulling (backward)
• Lateral Sled
• Sled Pushing
• Tire Flipping
• Tire Throwing
• Medicine Ball Throws
• Burpees
• Body Weight Exercises
• Squat Thrusts
• Farmers Walk
• Wheelbarrow Work
• Moving Heavy Objects
• Sand Bag Carry
• Mountain Climbers
• Weight Plate Throw
• Pushing and Pulling Cars
• Sledge Hammer Work
• Jumping Jacks
• Mountain Jumpers
• Hill Sprints
• Sprints
• Climbing Stairs
Adding these short but intense sessions will help you get in shape and will actually help you get better results from weight training. This is going to set you up for even better results later on… you’ll be able to do more work in your weight lifting workouts without overtraining.
This is also going to lead to even better overall health and fitness.
Many weight lifters only lift weights without any type of cardio or without any attempt to improve overall fitness. This only hurts them. I’ve been there myself.
When I weighed 150 pounds and looked sickly, I decided that I was going to gain weight by building muscle. I made a huge mistake, though, by listening to all the so-called experts out there. I excluded any form of cardio and only focused on weight training. That was the biggest single mistake I have ever made in my journey to get a better body.
I made it up to 240 pounds… I gained 90 pounds of body weight over a few years without any cardio. So I met my goal but I had the wrong goal.
My blood pressure had always been perfect. Well, my blood pressure skyrocketed. I really screwed up by not including cardio and not trying to stay in shape. I got out of breath just walking up a single flight of stairs at work. I was unhealthy and out of shape.
You don’t want to get that way. You want to build muscle, burn fat, and get in better shape. You want to feel better and look better. I didn’t understand that back then and most people don’t. I finally realized my mistake and started doing the right things.
I’m telling you this because I want you to understand the importance of different types of training. You need weight training. You need different forms of cardio: low intensity, medium intensity, high intensity interval training, and conditioning work as discussed in this section.
In summary, you need 2 conditioning sessions per week. Start with 5 minute sessions. Increase to 10 and then 15 minute sessions as your conditioning gets better. These sessions need to be very intense. Add in a few very light sessions per week to aid in recovery.
As an example, you might use burpees for a conditioning workout. You would start out with a 5 minute session and see how many burpees you can do in a 5 minute period. You would then switch activities for the next conditioning workout but eventually come back to burpees and see if you can beat your previous best.
You'll then know that your conditioning has improved.
You've got to work on improving your conditioning. It's very, very important. Just wait and see how great you feel as your conditioning improves. Your results from weight training will also improve.
