Intuitive-design fitness training

In this vast fitness training world in which we live, ideas about how to train overflow from more experts out there than the ham and egg training types like you and me.

And I suppose that’s the way it should be because we’re all different; in who we are with our current abilities and/or limitations, desires, fitness goals, motivation, lethargy and a host of other factors that I could ramble on forever if I didn’t quit while ahead.

Some advocate daily training and I’ve taken a ride in my fitness training past on that bullet train with good results.

Others advocate less frequent training of a high-intensity flavor with intensity being either/or the amount of weight lifted, the difficulty of the exercises performed, how brief the rest time between sets or rounds, or some other intensity measure that we recognize when we’re in the thick of it.

I’ve tasted the high-intensity flavor in my training past and am currently licking that “fitness training lollipop” right now with the kettlebell complex workouts I’m doing with good results.

Then there are the bodybuilding training types who like training primarily in the hypertrophy zone.  These fellows are committed to not only the basic barbell exercises but also a slew of follow-up ancillary isolation exercises using dumbbells, machines and other gadgets to create a nice pump to their targeted muscles. 

They oftentimes like to “do chest” on the start of their fitness training week with Monday afternoon around 5:00 p.m. being the start of “International Bench Press Day” at many gyms across the country.  Their demanding onslaught of hypertrophy-based exercises rewards them with bulging and massive chesticles of Mount Rushmore awesomeness. 

Some like more of a catch-as-catch-can approach to their fitness training workouts with no clues of what lies ahead until they’re ready to roll.  I’ve trained this way in the past and enjoyed it.  So long as the requisite intensity is there, good general conditioning results will be achieved.

Others like a very structured and progressive approach that lays out ever exercise in set, rep and weight load detail that will be followed over an extended period of time – say 8 weeks – before changes are made.  I’ve trained this way during a chapter in my fitness training life when chasing strength as measured by the amount of weight I could lift for a single repetition for a basic barbell lift like the overhead barbell press.

By golly, it’s all good if we just show up and do it with a decent amount of effort and, if we do, we’re likely to achieve good results as a minimum. 

As I’ve said before, the fitness training program has got to match our training personality for best results.

At this leg in my middle-aged man fitness training journey, the approach I’m taking is closer to the catch-as-catch-can approach discussed above. 

But instead of being a loose cannon character suffering from an acute case of fitness training attention deficit disorder, I’m doing it methodically and giving great thought to what my body is telling me on the day I’m scheduled to grab another fitness workout.

How are my legs and shoulders feelings today is what I ponder while thinking about what I did my last couple of workouts.  If it’s been about a week since I’ve blasted by thighs, then intuitively I’ll tell myself it’s probably time to do it again.

If my previous workout was very short duration with very high intensity as measured by some reliable heart rate beats per minute information, then intuitively I’ll tell myself it’s probably time to do something more of a medium to longer duration with medium to lower intensity.

This is working for me during this sexagenarian chapter of my life so I’ll continue until further notice with my intuitive-design fitness training. 

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum