Fit 4 Life | Organising your training [Part I]

With all the training and nutrition information available, it can be difficult to wade through it all and organise an effective fitness plan.

So how do you get it all to work together?

How can you use the training and nutrition information we provide to get Tuff Enuff?

Let's walk through a productive training day and try to solve the puzzle?

START STRONG

An effective training day, strange as it might sound, starts in the days leading up to it. Proper nutrition and rest in the lead up to a training day will ensure that your body is firing on all cylinders and can make the most of training day.

Adequate rest is paramount. Be sure to get a good night's sleep the night before training. But it doesn't stop there. Training is stress, or, more accurately, stress management. You put your body under stress during a workout, then try to get it to recover from and adapt to that stress.

Heavy workouts should be scheduled for not-too-stressful days. Training hard on days when you are very busy or otherwise stretched can affect recovery and, over time, lead to overtraining.

Nutrition is as important on the days leading up to a training session as it is for pre- and post-workout periods. Days of bad nutrition cannot be corrected with a pre-workout meal, not even if the food is swimming in supplements.

Ensure that you are getting enough micronutrients as well as high-quality macros. That means eating as naturally as you can. Whole foods not only provide high-quality proteins, carbs, and fats, they are also loaded with vitamins, minerals, and phyto- and zoochemicals, which you would struggle to get from processed foods.

The days before training should be spent preparing you to make the most of your workout.

CHOOSE CAREFULLY

Training success comes down to one thing: choice. Whether it is picking the type, frequency, and intensity of training, or choosing the time of day at which to train, all choices add up to determine the results of your training plan.

Choosing exercises can get very complicated. Let your goal and fitness level guide you.

If you have average aerobic capacity, training at the minimum of 20 minutes of cardio twice a week is unlikely to get you any significant improvement. You will require increased frequency, duration, and intensity.

If you are trying to improve strength, compound moves such as the squat will get the best results.

Choose exercises and periodisation that will get you to where you want to be in the remaining 10 weeks of Fit 4 Life's Tuff Enuff competition - safely.

Choices are also important when it comes to food and rest. All calories are not equal. Choosing complex carbs such as oats over refined carbs will have a massive impact on training. Consuming high-quality protein such as fish will aid performance, recovery and growth. Choosing healthy fats and managing fat-carb balance will help you control body composition while remaining healthy.

TIPS

Limit training sessions to 45-80 minutes. This should include cardio, resistance, flexibility, conditioning and any other training to be done. Unless you are a professional, avoid training twice a day.

- Marvin Gordon is a fitness coach; email: marvin.gordon@physiqueandfunction.com; yourhealth@gleanerjm.com