By Naomi Rabon, NW Fitness Team Trainer
From day to day, we all encounter slightly (or possibly drastically) different challenges than the previous day.
We might have a great night’s sleep one night, then an awful night’s sleep the next night.
We also have varying degrees of mental and physical energy and strength depending on what is going on in our lives at any given moment.
STRESS VARIATIONS AND FLUCTUATIONS
Your body may be experiencing hormonal changes, or processing external stresses that affect you internally.
You may be mentally distracted with relationships or work projects or significant life decisions you’re facing.
Or you might have internal conflicts you are working through that will hit you in different ways depending on the day.
CRUSHING IT OR JUST GETTING A WORKOUT IN
Because of all of the above-mentioned factors, it’s a good idea to recognize and be in tune with your workout intensity range.
On one end of your intensity spectrum, you barely have any gas for a workout and feel accomplished just to get a walk or some light cardio or yoga in.
On the other end of the spectrum, you feel like absolutely crushing your workout and going to failure each set!
BOOM! Unstoppable.
HOW TO DETERMINE APPROPRIATE INTENSITY?
Guess what? Both are 100% totally fine and acceptable based on what is going on with you that day. Here’s what to consider when determining appropriate workout intensity:
1. What other things are going on in your life? Other priorities, schedule, stresses, significant life events, responsibilities, and, especially, distractions, etc. can all play a huge role in the degree of intensity you are able to put into a workout.
2. How much energy and strength you have? A lot of this can depend on what you have going on in your life (see above point number one), which can affect your strength and energy.
Sleep quality, nutrition and hormonal health will also play a huge role in how much or how little strength and energy you have on a given day, and how intense you are able to push during a workout. How many workouts you are doing per week, how many times you are working certain muscle groups, and how sore or fatigued you are will also play into your workout intensity range.
3. What goals you are striving to reach? Whether you are trying to lose body fat, maintain your current physique, or gain muscle will greatly influence how important the intensity of your workouts are. You don’t always have to have the most incredibly intense balls-to-the-walls, all out, record-breaking, insane workouts.
And you aren’t a failure if you don’t push as hard as you possibly can all the time. The only exception would be, in my opinion, is if you are prepping for a big event such as a bodybuilding competition, athletic event, photoshoot, or something along those lines.
JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT
Don’t knock yourself for not going as hard or intense or heavy as you have in the past, and don’t expect to always have enough gas in the tank to be able to hit it hard every single workout.
Go into this fitness journey knowing that sometimes you will have crazy, intense, hard workouts and other times you will have more moderate, conservative workouts but they are just as important and relevant to your progress because they all add up in the end!
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One of the trainers on Nicole’s elite NW Fitness Training Team, Naomi is a certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. She is a NPC Figure competitor who has been involved in the health and fitness industry for over 12 years.
Go here to find out more about training with the NW Fitness Training Team!