In any workout you do, the best workout routine must contain 4 key parts for it to be the most effective workout for you. If you spend the time and effort to workout, you want to make sure you get the most from every minutes that you spend working out. The 4 components of your best workout routine are rest, nutrition, weight training and cardio.
If you work out hard, your body needs rest as much as anything else to work at its best and most efficient and build muscle and heal damage to the muscles. If you exercise regularly you should sleep between 7 to 8 hours per night to aid in healing and recovery. It is understandable that you don’t think you need that much, I didn’t for many years, but I have found that if I get 7 hours of sleep after working out hard, my muscle soreness doesn’t last as long, it really works.
Your nutrition is equally important as any other part of the whole healthy lifestyle. You can’t put bad fuel into your body and expect to get good results out of it. What you eat is the fuel for your body engine and the quality of the fuel is important. You should eat 5 to 6 smaller meal spread out over the day, make sure you get good enough quality protein, good fats and good quality carbs in each meal.
The third piece of the equation is weight training that should be done 2 or 3 times per week. The best way to fit everything into a busy schedule is to do a full body workout of compound movements in each workout. Focus your workout on pushups, pull-ups, dumbbells lifts, squats, overhead press, dead lifts, abdominal bicycles and dips. Pick 6 to 8 exercises focused on the above movements and do 3 sets of each exercise, do reps to failure for each set. Increase weight when you can do 3 sets of 15 reps.
The final piece in the equation is cardio. Cardio can be the most difficult part to stick with living in Minnesota; we have weather issues for 4 to 6 months every year that make it less than pleasant to do cardio outside in the winter. The key to keeping up with your cardio is to have a variety of cardio exercises that you enjoy doing. Variety is the key to getting in your cardio through all types of Minnesota weather. It also gives you no excuse to put off a workout if you have alternatives that you can do indoors. You should get in 3 or 4 cardio sessions per week.
The best way to workout to your best benefit is to have an alternative to not skipping your workouts. Just allow yourself 45 minutes per day to workout to improve your health and fitness level. If you stick to your best workout routine, you will be far ahead in the long run. Look at my other articles for some great cardio variety ideas.
