The Right Workout

I wanted to share a great article I found by Dr. Jeff Spencer.  Dr. Spencer was an Olympic cyclist who came to even greater fame as Lance Armstrong’s coach and chiropractor and now trains many world-class athletes.  In this article, Spencer addresses the question, “How much exercise is too much.”  Obviously, this is only relevant to those who are exercising regularly.  But whether you’re a beginner or a peak athlete this advice is critical.

Dr. Spencer points out that those that adopt the “more is better” approach will not usually get the results they are working for and will likely be nagged by continuous low-grade injuries that can ultimately interfere with workouts, create more stress, and zap motivation.  All levels of training must be balanced with appropriate recovery.  He breaks workouts into easy, moderate, and hard categories.  To simplify, an easy workout would be one where you could maintain a conversation through the workout.  A moderate workout is where you could talk, but wouldn’t want to -- especially in full sentences.  A hard workout is where you simply could not carry on any conversation.  His biggest rule to prevent overtraining is that hard workouts should only be done once or twice per week with three days recovery in between.  Likewise, you should allow two days of recovery in between moderate workouts.  Understand that you still can plan easy workouts on these in between recovery days.

Dr. Spencer admits that high intensity training is the best way to get results and stay fit, but his experience is that most people overdo it.  He recommends doing two hard workouts per week, but allowing two easy workouts in between these to provide balance.  I think this is great advice for those already training in order to avoid setbacks and injuries.  I also think this is helpful for those looking to get started to understand that you don’t have to kill yourself every day in order to get the same results the pros get.  If this interests you, please read next week for another set of tips from this world-class trainer and coach.