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Drop the Weight with EJ: Here’s How to Space Out Your Work Outs For Best Results
Working out is a great part of a healthy lifestyle that supports weight loss, but if you listen to the way popular media tells it you’ll think you have to workout for hours a day to get results.
But there’s something to be said for having recovery time between workouts and if you’ve been struggling to maintain your daily workouts, you’ll love what you’re about to read next.
You don’t need to workout everyday to get results.
Here are some basic guidelines I give my clients to space out their workouts:
If you’re just starting out, start with 3 days a week. And put at least one day between your workouts.
As you get stronger, add a new workout session up to no more than 6 days a week so you have at least one rest day.
I repeat… you do not need to workout everyday to get results.
Exercise plays an amazing supporting role in your weight loss journey, and it doesn’t have to take up all of your time.
And here’s why… Working out without enough rest days
- increases your chance of hurting yourself,
- increases your chance of overeating,
- and causes you to lose out on the benefits of rest days.
Let’s take these one at a time…
If you exercise too much, you run the risk of hurting yourself.
If you’re exercising every single day and you’re going hard with your intensity, then you’re increasing your chances of injury with each workout.
When you push as hard as you need to to get the kind of weight loss results you want, chances are that you’ll be sore more often than not.
And when you’re working out while sore all the time, you increase the chances that your form isn’t on point. And when that happens… well you’re putting your body in a compromising position to get hurt.
Getting hurt will put you out of commission and increase the time it’ll take for you to get the results you want.
So why not give your body a breather every now and then…
Then there’s the fact that…
When you exercise too much, you increase your chance of overeating.
This is one part of the equation that a lot of us tend to ignore. Your body needs a set amount of energy to keep you alive and thriving.
The truth is you probably won’t burn enough calories to get to this point. But if you combine your workouts with calorie restriction or skipping meals, your hunger is going to eventually be out of control.
You can’t expect to use up so much energy without your body wanting to replenish it. And yes there’s willpower, but at some point your body’s need for food will override your ability to say no to it.
And finally…
The results you want happen on rest days
Now let’s get to the reason why you do want to space out your workouts. Because you get results when you get enough rest.
What you’re doing with your workouts is challenging your muscles enough to create small tears in the muscles.
And then on your rest days, your body goes to work to heal these tears and make these muscles stronger. And it does this by generating more muscle cells that demand more calories from your body so you burn more calories at rest.
I wrote something about this on my website where I shared facts about losing fat and gaining muscle.
And all this awesomeness that happens on rest days makes you stronger so you can handle even more challenging workouts to level up your results. Rest days are awesome right?
It’s time to take action…
Take audit of your workout plan to make sure you’re allowing at least a little time for rest and recovery. You don’t want to sabotage your desire for results by going too hard. And if right now you can’t see yourself taking a whole day off your workouts, then make it a short and sweet workout like my 12 Minute Full Body Blast workout.
It’s a short workout that packs a punch of intensity so you feel like you’ve done good by your body without being counterproductive.
Remember, the gains you need to get results happen while you’re resting.
Till next time…
Photo Credit: Robert Lerich | Dreamstime.com
