Welcome back to this week’s edition of 2-Minute Tuesdays where we are talking about one exercise topic for two minutes and giving you three reasons why you should follow our advice. Now this week, we are talking to those of you who feel like your exercise may be a little bit much for your body. Your body might feel like it is starting to break down or might be achy and sore. Here are three things you can start to do with your exercise if you feel like your current exercise routine is too much.
1) Slow Down
Exercise Tip Number One If Your Exercise Routine Is Too Much For Your Body: Slow down. Every time we walk into a gym, we see all of the patrons moving their weights WAY too fast. One of the biggest tips we give to our clients is to slow down when you are weight training. When you slow down, this helps you be able to listen to your body, and it is also more effective for building muscle and less effective at injuring muscles.
Action Step: Try out a 3:2:3:2 tempo when you lift weights, where you take three seconds to lift the weight, pause for two seconds, take three seconds to lower the weight, and pause for two seconds. This is a nice starting tempo for most exercises that will help teach you how to move slower when you lift weights.
Related: 3 Reasons To Move Slowly When You Lift Weights
2) Think About Squeezing Your Muscles
Exercise Tip Number Two If Your Exercise Routine Is Too Much For Your Body: When you are doing your exercises, think about squeezing your muscles and what is going on within your body. Keeping your focus on what is going on within your body and squeezing your muscles helps you feel what is going on in your body better than if you are thinking about moving the weight or what song you are listening to. This will allow you to pick up earlier on when your body is not feeling well versus having to wait until after your workout to realize you did a little bit too much.
Action Step: When you do an exercise, decide which muscles you are really trying to challenge and then focus just on squeezing those muscles. Not only will this lead to better results, it will keep you safer, too!
Related: The #1 Thing To Think About When Resistance Training
3) Check Out Our Virtual Membership Program
Exercise Tip Number Three If Your Exercise Routine Is Too Much For Your Body: Check out our Virtual Membership Program. For those of you who don’t live in the Schaumburg area or don’t have access to getting to us here at Muscle Activation Schaumburg, you can do our full-body assessment and get a customized exercise program made just for you that will help you exercise in a more productive way.
Action Step: Click here to learn more about our Virtual Membership Program and see if it will be a good fit for you!