How much training do I do?
I get asked this quite often by my clients who are curious to find out what exactly I do and how I find the time for my own training. Like most people I coach, I find it a real challenge to find the time to fit in my own exercise, especially as I’m my own boss and can dictate my own working hours and client sessions often take priority in my diary. But it wouldn’t be right of me, as a fitness expert, to not practice what I preach. And I know first-hand just how important regular exercise is for my mental wellbeing as well as my physical health and being able to maintain a high level of productivity consistently over time.
As many assume, I don’t spend hours in my studio lifting weights, or running 3 hours at a time or riding 5 hours at the weekend. I just don’t have the time nor the inclination to want to do this. And, it’s not necessary for what I want.
My aim with exercise is to be in the best overall state I can be in, as often as possible. And I need to be efficient with my exercise because I’m really busy. And so…. I do the least amount of exercise possible to achieve the results I want. I know that by doing 30 minutes exercise every day of the week I attain 80% of the benefits I’m looking for. Perhaps if I trained an hour a day I’d get attain an extra 20% benefit but that’s not smart because I’d be overtraining, not recovering enough and doubling the time I train for only a 20% gain.
I tend to run 3 to 4 times a week and work on my strength on the other days and it works really well. I gradually build my fitness and strength and still allow my body the time it needs to recover and rest to be in optimal health as consistently as possible.
People ask me how much exercise they should be doing, I’ve answered this in another blog. But in short ideally 30 minutes daily, however, be realistic and set yourself up for success by setting a weekly target that you are 100% guaranteed certain to be able to achieve and build on from there by increasing the exercise sessions each week or two.
Matt Jordan – the Energy Coach