Training regularly is an extremely important part of achieving your goals. Building muscle and obtaining superior cardiovascular fitness is a result of the body’s progressive adaptation to stress and does not happen overnight. Without going into all of the physiological mumbo jumbo, let’s use an analogy from the animal kingdom. We’ve all heard about animals adapting to certain stimuli in their environment to increase their chances of survival. This of course is not a process that occurs after a few days, weeks, or months. Instead, it occurs over long, long periods of time and only after the creatures have experienced repeated or continuous stimuli or stresses from their surroundings.
So what does this have to do with bodybuilding? Well, in order to build muscle, strength, endurance, cardiovascular fitness, whatever, you need to convince your body that it needs to adapt to an increased level of stress and stimuli. The only way to do this is by applying regular stress (i.e. regular workouts). Hitting the gym for a few days here and there may leave you sore, but it will only make your body think “ah, this isn’t a regular occurrence…no need to adapt”). However, if you stick to a regular program (and don’t crap out after two weeks), your body will realize that this added stress you’re putting it through isn’t going anywhere anytime soon and it will be forced to adapt with larger, stronger muscles and better cardiovascular health.
The exact amount of time you should be working out (per exercise session or per week) varies to some extent based on each individual’s fitness goals and experience, but in general, you should try to make it to the gym at least 3-4 times a week for at least 30-60 minutes a session. Newer trainees can expect to see some results in about month, but I think a 3 month period (of regularly sticking to your program) is a better amount of time to wait before you start assessing your progress whether you’re a total novice or an experienced lifter who’s recently overhauled your training regimen.
Leave a Reply
|
