Whether your goal is working on overall fitness, improving a specific aspect of your fitness (such as a strength), or losing weight, it is well documented that going “all out” month-after-month, for an extended period of time, will often result in injury, “burnout,” or failure. While improving your current fitness level or state of health is most definitely a year-round effort, going outside your comfort zone with respect to intensity, frequency or dieting should be well thought out and limited to shorter bursts of time, such as 4-12 weeks.
So, for those of you who are currently trying to achieve a fitness goal, lose weight, or are involved in a fitness challenge such as Fall Back to Fitness, know that there are three areas to focus on – we call them “The Big Three”:
- Frequency: For weight loss, 6 days a week of activity (3 full body circuit based strength training sessions, 2-3 interval cardio sessions).
- Intensity: Minimum 125-150 MEPS each workout. Green and yellow during the “work” periods (some red is acceptable); yellow, green or blue during the recovery periods.
- Quantity: Track your food, in a notebook or via an app like My Fitness Pal. Some of our coaches are certified in Precision Nutrition and they think this Perfectly Portioned Meals “Cheat Sheet” is a great tool to use while meal planning.
As some of you may know, we have a Licensed and Registered Dietitian at APTC and offer one-on-one nutrition counseling. In addition, we are certified in the Precision Nutrition (PN) Program. Below you will see a link to the PN handout, the Perfectly Portioned Meals “Cheat Sheet”. We think this is a great tool to use while meal planning.
Good luck and let us know how it goes!
