The Optimal Exercise Routine
This applies for people who exercise daily and are not injured. This is focused on an all-round fitness so you are a machine at 100 years old. For me the ideal routine would be the mix of resistance training, cardio and flexibility. Each week you would do the following sessions:
Higher Intensity Cardio – A session of high output fitness so that you are pushing it hard (for your current abilities). This could be done in many forms such as short spin class, bike or rowing intervals, 400m sprints, hill running repeats, 1km x 3 jogging, 200m swim intervals above CSP (Critical swim pace) or much more.
Longer Lower Intensity Cardio – This is a zone two heart rate exercise session, ideally somewhere from 60 up to 120 minutes. The session should not feel that difficult nor painful, e.g. 2 hour group cycle, 10km easy run, 15 minutes x 5 gym cardio stations, 3 hour hilly walk, two cardio classes back to back.
These two cardio sessions would reach the upper amount of weekly cardio for optimal health.
Lower Reps Strength Session – This lower rep session would be between 1 to 6 reps covering the main motion planes (lifting, pushing, pulling, twisting and jumping motions). There is no ideal exercise you have to do, ideally you would use different exercises over time, e.g. for two months you may do deadlifts, lunges, bench press and chins etc but the following months you might do sumo squats, step ups, shoulder press and weighted body rows.
Higher Reps Strength Session – A higher rep workout with shorter rest periods would allow you to cover more movements and exercises within a session. This could allow you to identify and resolve any weaker muscles or movement actions. You can build more muscle throughout the body and include injury rehab type movements. People become too attached to the exercises they do and doing this sort of session allows you to include more options.
General Stretch – Most people would do well on a session that stretches their whole body. The more we train, sit around or simply as a result of getting older the stiffer we become. A regular all body stretch will bring great benefits. This is why yoga is so beneficial and popular.
Specific / Non Regular Stretches – When I am working with people I have found you only need a few specific stretches to transform your movement patterns. You do not need 60 minutes of yoga if simply one ankle is stopping you squatting better, in that case, 4 minutes of a specific ankle stretch will immediately improve your squat. The problem is knowing which stretches your body needs if not next to someone who is able to analyse your movements. The easiest way around this is to just throw some non-regular stretches into the mix to see what improves afterwards. Most people would benefit from my anti-sitting stretch routine here for example.
Additional Sessions – The six sessions above fall nicely into 6 days leaving you with an off day for the 7th. However, the stretch sessions probably count as a rest for most super fit people so this may leave you with one or more additional sessions to add to your weekly routine. You can use these to really focus in on a specific area, or to build extra muscles etc.
The best way to apply the extra sessions though would be to use them for your weakest areas. Most people of course do the exact opposite and do what they enjoy the most, which is usually what they are best at. I would advise you to use focused blocks of action, it could be you dedicate a month to doing four fitness sessions a week to improve this element and then go back to a more balanced approach. Any of the exercise types above would also follow an appropriate level of programme rotation or variation to keep the body stimulated.
What Does This Mean For You
I am well aware that the above conversation does not apply to many people as they are simply nowhere near this kind of exercise frequency or consistency. If you look at people who are really regular with their exercise they are usually focused on one endeavour, e.g. an obsessed runner, bodybuilder or a total yogi, and their daily fitness is like 90% of one type of exercise type. If you do go for just general health and feeling epic then balancing these three types of sessions is the way to go.
If the above outline seems way too much then the basic premise is outlined below, for example – If you only do exercise classes then you could do:
Monday – Spin class (30 mins and go ‘hard’)
Tuesday – Body pump weights
Wednesday – Yoga
Thursday – Off
Friday – Circuit weight training class of functional movements
Saturday – Two fitness classes in a row (body combat then Zumba)
Sunday – Barre class focused on flexibility
I know most people are not doing this much exercise even in classes. However, do not panic, I have already set out the very simplest way to get your exercise needs covered in previous newsletters, simply combine the following:
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Daily Routine For Life – Follow my 7 minute daily strength circuit and do it every day going forwards to see you strength skyrocket. Watch here>>.
Walk – Doing Steps still covers the basic elements of your health needs. To make it even more beneficial try to find a minor hill to walk up a couple of times a week.
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If you did just these two things it would put you ahead of 80% of people and ahead of 95% of people as you get older.
Photo – Me in Dubai last week, A disaster of a run, a new Personal best for my horrendous swimming and enjoying the hottest sea I have ever been in.
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