Top Five Truestar Exercise Principles
Combine strength and cardio training as part of your circuit training program.
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Principle 1: Combine strength and cardio training as part of your circuit training program.
Both strength training and cardiovascular training offer different benefits. Training in approximately 65 to 85% of your maximum heart rate range improves the efficiency of heart and lungs and burns many calories. Strength training shapes and tones your body and revs-up your metabolism by increasing your lean muscle mass. Moving from one resistance training exercise to the next non-stop burns approximately 25% more calories than resistance training alone. Also, since our program is based on a timed sequence, beginner and intermediate are given a few seconds to gear up for the next exercise. Not only do you feel better and look better, but you burn more calories while you sleep!
Principle 2: Reversibility: Use it or lose it.
The principle of reversibility simply states that if you don’t use it, you will lose it. Unfortunately the gains you fought so hard to achieve will quickly be lost if you stop exercising. Your metabolism will return to pre-exercise levels, your gains in strength and endurance will diminish and even if you don’t deviate from your nutrition plan, you may find yourself regaining some of the lost weight. Our bodies are very plastic and love to adapt to new and exciting experiences. However, the adaptations must be maintained. As a rule of thumb, if you must cut back on the frequency of workouts, bump up the intensity. Exercise as hard as you can 1 to 2 days per week and if possible complete a short 8-minute circuit (one full set of all the exercises) on another day. Even one full round of the circuit can help you maintain your level of fitness and keep you motivated. You have worked so hard to gain it, try not to lose it.
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Principle 3: Always perform a proper warm-up and cool down.
An improper warm-up is the main cause for injuries. I suggest that you perform some light callisthenic exercises like jogging on the spot for 2 to 3 minutes and some light stretching before beginning the circuit. A warm muscle responds better to exercise than a cold muscle. After your workout is complete, take 2 to 3 minutes and perform the same stretches as you did warming up. This will give your body an opportunity to relax before resuming your hectic schedule and stretch the energized muscles back to their resting length. Perform 3 to 5 stretches and hold each stretch for 15 to 25 seconds.
Principle 4: Overcome fatigue with exercise order.
Eventually fatigue will catch up to you regardless of what tactics you use to overcome it. Properly planning the order in which exercises are performed is a logical way of preventing or at least delaying the onset of fatigue. For instance, performing 3 upper body exercises in a row may be good for fitness, but will inevitably hamper your performance on subsequent exercises. Ideally, you would exercise the large muscle groups first followed by the small muscle groups. I have designed workouts with different exercises on different days and also in different orders so that your body is always kept guessing and improving while providing the variety and excitement you need to keep moving.
Principle 5: Increase reps first and weights second.
This is a very important exercise principle. We want to make sure that you maximize the results you can achieve at every phase in your exercise program. If you begin to exercise at 30-second intervals (beginner) at a moderate pace, it is important that you first increase the time you perform each exercise by moving onto 45-second and 60-second intervals before increasing the weight you use. This will insure proper progression, maximize your muscle endurance potential and improve your fitness. Oh, and it helps you burn more calories too!
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