Thursday, June 18, 2009

Oops!

So, I just read through the cardiorespiratory training chapter in my personal fitness book and I realized that you're not actually supposed to workout at 85-90% of your maximum heart rate for more than 30-60 seconds! So yay, I'm not totally lazy!

Here's the things I'm totally boggled by:
1. After you workout, your body's metabolism is elevated, like a car's engine that stays warm even after the car is shut off. I finally understand why fitness experts have suggested morning workouts. Then your "engine" is burning more energy from the start of the day. The problem I have with that is that a lot of people aren't morning people and just won't get out of bed. I for one love mornings but I have yet to make it to the gym consistently in the morning.

For me, the afternoon is the perfect workout time. In my opinion, you should workout and be active at the time of day that's best for you, not the time fitness experts say is great. Workout at midnight if that's what works for you.

2. You also reach higher fitness levels if you split your cardio workout in two equal amounts of time (for example, cardio, weight lifting, cardio). Weird huh! I'm going to do more research to find out why that is because well, it's just fascinating to me why cardio split up would make your body work more than altogether. Perhaps the rest in between allows for recovery so that the second time you can work just as hard, if not harder than the first? I'll let you know what I find out.

3. That the human body is so efficient. Your body will adapt to whatever work you do and try to do it with the least amount of energy as possible. So if you do the same routine, you eventually plateau and stop improving your fitness level because your body has adapted to the routine. Isn't that amazing! Our bodies are incredible! They rock!

On a side note, in spite of all these revelations and wanting to be super fit, I swear to you the first thought that went through my head today was "Juan Valdez chocolate manjar cake." How's that for a balanced life!

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