Are you training or exercising?

FITNESS AND KNOWLEDGE DAILY...

TODAYS WORKOUT OF THE DAY

20 SPIDER PRESS UPS
20 TWIST CRUNCHES
20 JACKKNIFE SITUPS
10 PUSH-UPS WITH AN ALTERNATING SIDE SHUFFLE
20 SECOND SHOULDER BRIDGE (TIMES TWO PER SIDE)
10 FRONT KICK STRAIGHT INTO REAR LUNGE (PER SIDE)
20 SQUAT JACKS (THREE SETS)
25 SECOND PLANK WITH ALTERNATING LEG LIFT (THREE SETS)

TODAYS TALKING POINT

"Are you training or exercising...?"

For the first post on the blog this is going to be a very quick and easy question for you to answer and it will benefit your routine greatly. Are you training or exercising? To correctly answer the question we need to know a little bit about you and what your ultimate goal is through your fitness. Are you aiming to maintain fitness, improve fitness, control your weight, maintain or improve muscle tone simply to look and feel good or attract the opposite sex? If the answer is yes to any of these questions then you are exercising.

If however you have a specific goal or targets with regards to a sports events in the future or your program designed to prepare you to compete at particular level of fitness or strength in order for you to compete then you are training.

Why does it make a difference? Just like anything in life out of fitness level can move in peaks and troughs. Naturally you will not be at the peak of your fitness constantly therefore if you plan to compete in an event on a specific date your workout programming must reflect that date by gradually ramping you up to the peak of your fitness over time. Peak too soon and you risk being on the downward slope when the event is upon you. By holding back too much you will not be at your optimum to compete at the time of the event.

Whether you adhere rigidly to the traditional belief of periodised training using macro meso and micro cycles (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_periodization) theory or follow any other system the smart move for the competitive sports person is to look to their events calendar and set their training out accordingly.