Regular physical activity is very good for your health. Exercise offers many benefits to our body, including weight control, reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, reduced risk of hypertension, reduced risk of diabetes, and improved mood control. While 150 minutes of medium-intensity physical activity per week is enough, many studies show that by training harder and harder you can get even more benefits.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Increase the Intensity of Specific Exercises
Step 1. Increase the intensity of your walks
Walking often is a great low-impact exercise. It offers the same benefits of running and sprinting, but without putting too much strain on the knees and hips. Walking is a great idea and you can increase the difficulty in the following ways:
- Carry a 5-7kg backpack with you as you walk. The additional weight forces the body to work harder and increases the intensity of the walk. Avoid weighted anklets or wrist bands, which can cause injury; remember that by loading a weight at the end of a long lever (the wrist or ankle), you exert great force on the pivot (the shoulder, the elbow, the hip joint and the knee). If you want to use these tools, wear them only for the first 5 minutes of the walk, then put them inside the backpack.
- Increase the incline of the treadmill while walking, or if you walk outdoors, find a route with many hills. Slopes make your legs work much harder than flat surfaces.
- Walk on the sand if you live near the beach. It's hard to push yourself on sand, so your feet and legs will work much harder.
- Gear. This type of walking at a very fast pace (about 10-13 km / h), allows you to reach a level of effort similar to that of running.
Step 2. Run at a high pace
Increasing your running intensity helps improve speed and endurance. Try the following tips to engage your muscles more when running:
- Run uphill or on steps. Find a new path with lots of ups and downs, increase the incline of the treadmill, or better yet, run up a flight of stairs. Find a stadium with bleachers or a park with a long staircase.
- Include sprint intervals and medium intensity running phases. Alternating your pace greatly increases your heart rate and, in the long run, can improve your speed.
- Increase your running distance by 500 meters per week. The longer you can run, the better your cardiovascular health will be.
- If you only run three times a week, try adding a day or two to your training schedule. This will help you improve the shape of your body.
Step 3. Make your swimming sessions more difficult
Diving into the pool is a great way to get active. It is a low-impact exercise, capable of developing a lot of muscle endurance. You can increase the intensity of your swims like this:
- Do an interval workout. It is recommended to increase the speed every 50-100 meters, until the maximum effort is reached. This helps improve speed and performance.
- Also try timed sessions. Complete a certain number of laps or strokes in a shorter period of time than you normally do, in order to be forced to accelerate.
Step 4. Increase the intensity of your cycling workouts
Cycling is excellent aerobic exercise, and the possibilities for making it more challenging are endless. Try these tips:
- Take a spinning class. These classes are very high intensity and force you to work very hard.
- Create your own personalized interval workout by cycling uphill trails, alternating between high and low speeds, or using an exercise bike and increasing resistance.
- If you train outdoors, deflate the tires slightly so that the bike moves more slowly and you have to work harder.
- Do not ride a bicycle in the city in the middle of traffic, where there are traffic lights and stop lights. Train in an area where you can maintain high speeds for long distances, without having to stop.
Step 5. Make weight lifting more difficult
Unlike aerobic exercise, weight-bearing activities serve to build muscles and build strength; Fortunately, there are also many ways to increase the intensity of these exercises. Try the following tips:
- Alternate your upper and lower body exercises after each set, or pause for jumping jacks.
- An easy way to increase the intensity of a weight training is to do more reps or more sets.
- Another way to increase the intensity of the exercises is to spend more time lowering the weight (for example when you bring your arm back to the starting position after a bicep curl). This helps to prolong the effort and make the muscles work harder.
Part 2 of 3: Making Your Workouts Tough
Step 1. Include one or two HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts in your schedule
If you are interested in increasing the intensity of your workouts or incorporating more challenging exercises into your fitness program, consider this type of activity once or twice a week.
- HIIT is a specific type of training that focuses on very high intensity efforts.
- Typical HIIT workouts are short and alternate very high intensity exercises with less demanding periods with medium intensity exercises.
- HIIT workouts burn more calories from fat and push the body to work in the anaerobic zone, improving speed and endurance.
- You can do these types of workouts with any exercise, such as running, cycling, or swimming. For example, try alternating between a one-minute sprint and a 3-minute run at medium intensity. Repeat this cycle a couple of times or until you can no longer continue.
Step 2. Do cardiovascular and strength-building activities at the same time
These exercises become more difficult when done at the same time. This way you can benefit from both and increase the intensity of your workout.
- The intensity of a cardiovascular workout can be increased by adding exercises such as lunges, pushups or squats. Strength training workouts can be made more difficult by adding jumping jacks or knee lifts between sets.
- Combining these two types of exercises helps improve metabolism and keeps your heart rate high during and after physical activity.
- This advice can help you burn more calories and increase your muscle mass.
Step 3. Add explosive movements
One method of increasing the intensity of cardiovascular and weightlifting workouts is to include some explosive movements and work until muscle failure.
- Try platform jumps and Olympic lifts, for example. These movements work many muscle fibers, increasing strength and endurance.
- Include these explosive movements only in a day or two of your training schedule to prevent injuries.
- Work until muscle failure. When you feel like you can't do another repetition or run another step, force yourself to give even more, or complete another repetition at a lower intensity. This helps you make your muscles work harder.
Part 3 of 3: Increase Intensity Safely
Step 1. Talk to your doctor
Before starting a new exercise program or increasing the difficulty of your exercises, be sure to consult your doctor.
- Your doctor can assess whether a more intense training program is safe for your health and suitable for your physical characteristics.
- Some high intensity exercises are not appropriate for those who are not in sufficient form. Talk to your doctor.
- It is normal to feel discomfort or out of breath during an intense workout, but it is important to be able to listen to your body and always keep the difficulty of the exercises within safe limits. Making too much effort can be harmful to health; you must always have a realistic idea of your limits.
Step 2. Create a training program
If you try to increase the intensity of the exercises, you probably want to achieve a goal. Maybe you'd like to run faster, lift more pounds, or be able to ride a bike for longer. Create a calendar that can help you, using a real paper support, or by downloading an app on your smartphone.
- It is important to proceed slowly and carefully to avoid injury.
- Make a calendar of your training program. Take note of what you will be doing during the week and how you will gradually increase the intensity over time.
- Also write down future events, races and competitions. If you want to improve your pace over the next six months ahead of a race, it is important to plan your weekly workouts and gradually increase their intensity.
Step 3. Measure your heart rate and RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion)
If you are looking to increase the intensity of your workouts, you should become familiar with measuring your heart rate and perceived exertion, so that you can monitor the intensity of your exercises.
-
The RPE scale allows you to evaluate the effort made during an exercise. By paying attention to how you feel, you can be sure that your workout is challenging but safe. The scale is as follows:
- 1 Very mild exertion - almost complete lack of activity in the waking state.
- 2 - 3 Light activity - it is easy to keep up and you are able to breathe normally. No problem conversing.
- 4 - 6 Moderate activity - significantly more demanding intensity. Shortness of breath, ability to hold only short conversations.
- 7 - 8 Vigorous activity - you can't say more than one sentence. Fiatone and discomfort.
- 9 Very hard activity - very high intensity and difficult to maintain. Difficulty in breathing and inability to pronounce more than one or two words.
- 10 Maximum effort - it is almost impossible to maintain this level of activity for more than a few seconds and you are unable to utter a single word.
- Take note of your RPE score during one of your typical workouts. For example, after you estimate that your morning run represents a 5 or a 6 on the scale, try to increase your effort by one or two points to level 7 or 8.
- You can also measure your heart rate. Target heart rate is based on age and represents the range of beats per minute that are safe for health and in which you can get the best results from your workout. On the internet you can find tables and calculators that can give you an idea of what your target heart rate is during physical activity.
- Working near the upper limit of your target heart rate means doing medium or high intensity physical activity.
Step 4. Learn to recognize the symptoms that you are trying too hard
While increasing the intensity of physical activity has many benefits for the body, overdoing it runs health risks.
- Studies have shown that continuous high-intensity workouts can lead to heart problems in the long run. High-intensity physical activity is good for your health, but you need to alternate it with medium or low intensity exercise.
- If you experience sharp pain in your joints, muscles or chest after high intensity exercise, stop exercising right away.
- If your muscles feel sore or fatigued, be sure to take a day off before resuming workouts.
