What is AAARRGH!!? | Your state of fitness | Training | Exercise of the month | Who is AAARRGH!!? | The AAARRGH!! gallery | Choosing a trainer |
"Whomp!", acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 72" x 60" , 1998 Len Whitney
Most new exercisers respond well to three full-body weight-training sessions a week, with three to five sessions of cardio / aerobic training a week. This might sound like a lot, but the cardio sessions (walking, jogging, treadmill, elliptical trainer, exercise bike or stair climber) should be 20 - 30 minutes, and the weight training sessions shouldn't take much longer. Though it's important to challenge yourself to avoid boredom, it's as important to avoid overtraining and burnout. At the end of a workout, you
should feel pleasantly tired and pumped, not wiped out. Feeling good
helps your motivation so that you'll always look forward to exercising.
Eventually, when you feel you've moved beyond the beginning stage, you may decide to switch to a "split" routine where you train four days: alternating half your body parts one training day, and working the rest on the next day. This keeps your workout from getting too long and unwieldy, and also gives each body part a longer recovery period to rest and grow between workouts. I like the "push-pull" split, where you exercise body parts that work together in the same workouts. The muscle groups that push, the shoulders, chest and triceps (back of the upper arm) work one day, and the pulling muscles, the biceps and back, work out the next day along with legs. |
What is AAARRGH!!? | Your state of fitness | Training | Exercise of the month | Who is AAARRGH!!? | The AAARRGH!! gallery | Choosing a trainer |