Training Smart is For Everyone
Whether you’re training for a marathon, competing in CrossFit, getting your workouts in a few times a week, or just trying to keep up with your kids, we believe the goal is the same:
Stay as active as possible, reach your goals, and stay as healthy as possible while doing these.
And while the people we work with have very different goals, there are a few pieces of advice we come back to again and again.
You don’t have to be a competitive athlete for these principles to matter. In fact, they can make a huge difference in how consistently you train, how you feel, and how long you’re able to keep doing the things you enjoy.
1. Ramp up slowly
One of the most common things we see? Doing too much, too soon.
Maybe you’re starting to run again. You found a new workout you love. You’re feeling good and decide to add more weight, more mileage, or more days.
Trust us, most of us have been there and got excited and gone too hard, too soon.
But when you introduce something new, start a little slower than you think you need to.
You can always go faster, lift heavier, or do more later. It’s much easier to gradually build up than it is to push too hard, tweak something, and then have to back off completely.
Progress doesn’t have to happen all at once to count.
2. Give yourself time to recover
More training doesn’t always mean more progress.
Your body needs time to adapt to the stress you’re putting on it. Recovery is where a lot of that adaptation happens. That means your rest days are part of your training, not time away from it.
We often see people trying to squeeze more miles, more workouts, or more intensity into their week because they think it will get them to their goal faster.
Sometimes, the better move is actually to take a day off.
And remember: rest isn’t just about what you did yesterday.
If you’re “resting” from running but doing a hard lower-body strength session, you may not actually be giving those tissues much of a break. Pay attention to how you’re stacking workouts and whether you’re giving your body enough time between similar demands.
3. Pay attention to the small stuff
A little ache doesn’t always mean you need to stop exercising.
But it’s worth paying attention to.
Small aches and pains are generally much easier to address than problems that have been ignored for weeks or months. If something keeps bothering you during a particular exercise, that’s useful information.
It doesn’t necessarily mean the exercise is “bad for you.”
It might mean you need to change the exercise temporarily, adjust your training load, work on something else, or figure out what’s contributing to the irritation in the first place.
The goal isn’t always to stop. It’s to figure out how to keep moving forward.
Training smarter isn’t about doing less. It’s about making your training sustainable.
Whether your goal is a PR, a stronger squat, a pain-free workout, or simply being able to stay active with the people you love, the principles are remarkably similar:
Build gradually. Recover intentionally. Pay attention to what your body is telling you.
And, as always, we're here to help support however we can!
|
