Why you need to mix things up!
With so many programs on our timetable, it’s easy to mix things up with Les Mills.
The golden rule of effective exercise is to choose a type of physical activity you love. But choosing just one activity isn’t actually enough. Variety is key.
American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) guidelines recommend a varied training program featuring cardio respiratory, resistance, and flexibility exercises.
But it’s not just the type of training you need to vary. It’s a good idea to mix up specific workouts too.
The amount of calories you burn during a workout varies depending on how many times you’ve done the workout before. If you’re doing the workout for the first time it’s likely that the amount of calories you burn will be a little on the low side. This is because the movements are new and you’re unlikely to be executing them with as much vigor or confidence as you would do if you were familiar with the movements.
The more you do something the easier it becomes, and every time you repeat the activity your body is improving its ability to handle that stress. This means you burn fewer calories and build less muscle with every workout.
“Your body knows what to expect and as a result it learns to minimize the energy expenditure. Even if you don’t realize it, you find the class slightly less challenging and automatically begin to take it easy.” says Bryce Hastings, Les Mills Head of Research.
If you want to keep making progress you need to keep introducing new activity.
To get the best results from the time you dedicate to exercise you don’t need to do different types of exercise each day (although that is a good idea), but you should do different variations of the workout.
That’s where the many different Les Mills release options come in.
Every Les Mills program follows a basic structure, but the regularly released new variations of the program feature new music and different movements or exercise patterns. The different releases are designed to continually challenge your body, stop boredom and help maximize your results.
If you’re new to exercise, it will take your body more time to adapt. Your muscles will need longer to get used to the load and your brain will need time to learn the new movement patterns. The fitter you are the more you need to challenge yourself to make continued progress.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- A mix of cardio, resistance and flexibility exercise drives long term engagement and results – and reduces injury risk.
- Do the same workout repeatedly and you’ll burn fewer calories and build less muscles each time.
- To build strength and improve fitness you need to keep introducing new activity.
- Small changes are sufficient, but if you’re introducing more significant changes to your regime you need to give your body time to adapt.
Source – Les Mills
