Basics
A lot of people like to point out the differences between “fitness routine” and “training”. While they certainly share differences in terms of their intensity and sport-specificity, they are not mutually exclusive. You can’t start training without first establishing a good baseline for your general fitness. For a lot of people, attaining a good level of general fitness is the end goal while there are others who will want to take it further by pursuing specific goals such as completing a half marathon, participating in an Ironman race, or in my case, climbing high-altitude mountain peaks. Either way, the basics remain the same. What I am going to write about in this post will refer to general fitness.
Over the years, I have tried many different types of fitness routines and as has been said by wiser people before me, I too have realized that the best routine is the one you can stick to. Be it cross-fit, boot camps, traditional resistance training, HIIT, jogging, biking, swimming or just playing soccer or racketball with your friends, doing a little bit of exercise every day (or on most days) will work better than an intense regime that leaves you too exhausted to exercise more than a couple of days per week.
Frequency / Consistency
I typically aim to work out 4-5 times a week which leaves me enough number of free days to finish my errands, socialize, engage in hobbies, or just laze around watching Netflix. I started out with exercising just twice a week and then gradually built more days into my weekly schedule over the course of a year – yes, it takes time to bring consistency, especially if you log your workouts honestly. The key is to aim for a certain frequency and maintain it every week. It’s no use if you work out every single day one week, only to slack off over the next couple of weeks and lose your momentum. As it is, life is full of unplanned events that would take you away from your routine. So my recommendation is to do the best you can when things are under your control and plan as much as possible for the unforeseen.
Accountability
Diligently logging every workout activity is an important part of my routine as that’s the only thing that has kept me truly accountable. Our perception about the consistency of our activities can get distorted rather easily and it’s best to use mobile apps or a simple excel sheet that can perform the job of quantification better than our deceitful minds.
The Routine
My workouts are divided into 3 main types:
- Endurance
- Strength Training
- Fun, Flexibility, Coordination
1. Endurance
The Why
In general, endurance workouts, especially when performed at zone 1 and zone 2 heart rates, make the cardio-vascular system stronger and force our body to use fats (instead of carbohydrates) as the primary source of energy. Exercising for longer duration and maintaining a low-medium intensity are two key aspects you should remember if you want to get the most out of this type of workout. While HIIT or muscle building workouts can keep your body metabolically more active even after the workout is over, they cannot match the long term benefits of transforming the body physiology in a way that it prefers to use fats as its default source of energy.
The How
Endurance can mean any activity that is 40-60 mins (or more) long and elevates your heart rate to zones 1 and 2 (but preferably not higher). Endurance workouts can take the form of jogging, hiking, biking, swimming, rowing, or even brisk walking, although trail running remains my preferred activity.
Here again, I started out with running shorter distances, not lasting for more than 20-25 mins and gradually built my endurance to perform longer duration runs. Using a mobile app or a fitness tracker is of immense help in quantifying your mileage and speed during such workouts.
There was a phase when I spent a lot of time on the treadmill, especially when access to decent trails was difficult. However, treadmills are the worst when it comes to maintaining motivation and the mental barrier to finishing a long run while starting a wall or a TV is just too high. When not on a trail, I typically run multiple rounds around the local park or a stadium or on residential roads inside gated community complexes and try to avoid the treadmill altogether.
I like running because it requires the minimum investment in terms of gear and you can do it pretty much anywhere (even when you are traveling and don’t have access to a gym).
2. Strength Training
The Why
Everyone likes a well-toned body. It makes you feel good about yourself and it looks great in those Instagram pictures! Aesthetic reasons apart, building strength is an important aspect of general fitness as it will allow you to exercise more and chase ambitious fitness goals, decrease the chances of injury and well, come in handy in a countless number of day-to-day activities. Say goodbye to those random body aches and back sprains when you flip the mattress, spontaneously break into a dance move or decide to go play a game of badminton after years of inactivity. We recently moved into a new apartment and being able to lift and move heavy boxes without hurting my back or knees made me feel great.
A lot of women I have spoken to have said that they like a well-toned look but do not want to be ‘muscular’. However, you shouldn’t limit yourself to a ‘toned’ look if you want to make any serious strength gains and have it contribute to your fitness. So my personal suggestion is for women to move away from these typical notions about looking ‘feminine’ (irrespective of whether the female body can really become as muscular as a man’s body for the same level of effort).
The How
There are several ways of gaining muscle strength but most of it comes under the umbrella term ‘resistance training’. Be it lifting dumbbells, working with kettle-bells or resistance bands, or simple body-weight exercises like squats, lunges, push-ups, and dips, you are gaining strength through two main adaptations:
- Muscle hypertrophy – this refers to the increase in the overall size of the muscle as it builds more muscle fibers to help you keep up with increasing loads
- Neural adaptations – this refers to the enhancement in the interactions between the muscles and the nervous system. In the case of beginners, the first few weeks of gains in the muscle strength come largely from these neural adaptations, as the body learns to recruit muscles in a way that it had not done before
After going through a few weeks of full body weight training (where you exercise all muscle groups in the same session by working with lighter weights), I started dividing my strength training workouts into ‘Push’ and ‘Pull’ muscle groups. Full body weight training was great for getting my body used to the staring of working with dumbbells; however, I wanted to make bigger strength gains and they would not have been possible without divvying up my sessions into different muscle groups so that they can be worked to a greater extent. There are multiple resources online that provide advice on how strength training sessions could be divided – just pick something that makes the most sense for your routine and stick to it.
Whatever strength training strategy you choose, do not forget your core muscles as they are the most important muscle group in your body. I currently do 10-15 min abs workouts with each one of my two strength training sessions per week.
3. Fun, Flexibility, Coordination
The Why
As the header implies, this is the workout where the main intent is to just have fun and treat any fitness gains that you might make through this workout as a bonus. This not helps in breaking the monotony of a disciplined routine but also addresses important areas such as flexibility and coordination that are sometimes left out by our main go-to workouts. Many times, this can take the form of cross-training and help in the active recovery of the body.
The How
Typically, this forms the fifth day of my workout routine and it can sometimes be a scenic hike, an outdoor rock climbing day-trip, a fun mountain biking route, a game of table tennis with friends, or a relaxing yoga session in front of the TV. At times, I also use this day, especially if it’s a weekend, to do the longest run or the steepest hike of the week. In such situations, while it ends up being the most intense workout of the week, the fact that there is no fixed agenda to the workout makes it mentally more relaxing. I find myself enjoying the surroundings more and stop worrying about my mileage or speed – I even take breaks to click pictures.
So that’s it folks! That’s how I go about my fitness routine. My training regime before a mountaineering trip sets me on a slightly different path, but it’s still a variation on the same routine that I have described above. I hope it helps and I look forward to your feedback!
To Wonder & Wander 