How to Get Fit, Fast
by Lisa Gartland
posted April 4, 2009

There is no magic fitness cure! But you can ramp up your fitness quickly and effectively by using these four concepts: consistency, efficiency, variety and recovery.

Consistency: Plan to exercise three to five times a week, and stick with your plan. Showing up is often the hardest part of the process, but nobody gets fit by skipping a workout. Anticipate and avoid the obstacles that keep you from exercising.

Efficiency: Train at the right level. Go too easy, and you’re not getting the full benefits. Go too hard and you risk injury, plus you’ll hate it! Track three things during your workouts: your pulse, your breathing, and your level of effort. First, keep your heart rate in its target zone, at 55 to 85% of its maximum rate (220 – your age). For a 40 year old, the maximum heart rate is about (220-40) = 180 beats per minute, and the target zone is between (0.55 x 180) = 99 and (0.85 x 180) = 153 beats per minute, or 16 to 25 beats over ten seconds.

Second, if you can breathe and talk easily, train harder. If you’re gasping for breath and can’t talk, you’re working too hard. Third, if you can do more than twelve repetitions of an exercise easily, you need to make that exercise more difficult. Conversely, if you can do fewer than eight repetitions, you need to make the exercise easier.

Variety: For the quickest gains in fitness, don’t do the same workout all the time. Alternate endurance workouts between 1) steady, medium-paced routines, 2) interval training, with sustained bursts of effort added to a steady routine, and 3) longer, slower sessions. Vary your strength work by doing an extra set or two of exercises after a brief rest, or by doing different types of muscle work. Weight lifting, body sculpting, pilates and yoga each build strength in different ways.

Recovery: Some people think they must exercise every day to be in top shape. Not true! In order to come back stronger after a workout, your body needs time to repair itself. For the best results, train no more than five days a week. It’s also important to eat regular healthy meals, drink enough fluids, and get plenty of sleep.

These four techniques will help anybody - from exercise novices to experienced athletes – meet their fitness goals.

Lisa Gartland is the owner of Inside Outside Fitness, a friendly, neighborhood gym at 4444 Piedmont Avenue in Oakland.

This article was also printed in the Piedmont Post.

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