Most of us know that I need to do more exercise. However, finding the time to exercise is often easier said than done. For most of us, the only time we have to exercise is on the weekends.
The good news is that the so-called “weekend warriors” (people who only work out two days a week) can still appreciate the health benefits that come from regular exercise, even if their workouts are only concentrated on the weekends. But it’s important to make sure you’re doing the right kind of exercises to get the most benefit from these training sessions.
Cardio or resistance exercise?
There are two main types of exercise that everyone should try to do.
The first is cardio, which of course refers to aerobic exercises, such as walking, jogging, or bicycling. Cardio is ideal for preventing and even treating a number of chronic health conditionssuch as hypertension, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The second is resistance exercise, which involves any activity that requires the body or a particular muscle group to act against an external force, such as weightlifting or Pilates. Resistance exercise is good for bone health, and can improve muscle strength, size, or endurance. It also reduces the rate of bone and muscle loss during aging. Resistance exercise can also be great for control body weight, blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.
Since both types of exercise have different benefits, it is important to do a combination of both to good health and fitness. But with little time on the weekend, the thought of squeezing both of you out can seem a bit daunting.
For cardiovascular exercise, HIIT (high-intensity interval training) is especially suitable for weekend athletes. HIIT produces similar benefits to cardiovascular health like a 30-minute jog, but in a much shorter time. Studies have shown that doing four to seven sessions of intense exercise for one minute, followed by 60 to 75 seconds of rest, can improve fitness and wellness. So in theory, as little as eight minutes of HIIT could be beneficial for your cardiovascular health.
But to get the most benefit from your session, it’s important to perform your HIIT alongside resistance exercise.
There are two main types of resistance exercises. The first type are multi-joint exercises (such as squats or bench presses), which are effective at increasing strength. Single-joint exercises (such as bicep curls) are most effective when it comes to increasing the size of a particular muscle group.
The exercises you do will largely depend on your goals. If fat loss is your goal, then multi-joint exercises may be better, as burn more calories because they use more muscles.
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Similarly, the order of the exercises is important. If your goal is to increase muscle size, then you might do single-joint exercises before multi-joint exercises that use similar muscle groups. hinder your progress. If you want to build strength, the order of your exercises doesn’t seem to matter.
For overall health and fitness, it’s best to combine upper and lower body exercises targeting the major muscle groups (chest, shoulders, back, hips, legs, arms, and core). For each muscle group, try to do eight to 12 repetitions of an exercise between one and three series, resting two to three minutes between series and exercises. You should aim to lift a weight that is challenging (but not too much) for your target rep range.
If you want to save even more time in the gym, try “supersets”. Perform a chosen exercise for eight to 12 repetitions, then go directly to your second exercise. Rest for a minute or two afterward, before repeating for your remaining sets. This method works best when the two exercises target different muscle groups.
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Supersets save time in the gym, which can help you reach your fitness goals faster
Designing your training
How you structure your weekend workouts will largely come down to your preferences, your goals, and how much time you have. Whatever you do, be sure to include a good dynamic heating to avoid injury.
If your focus is on improving or maintaining your overall health and fitness, then mix it up. You may want to include HIIT training for cardio followed by a combination of upper body-focused resistance exercises on your first day. The next day, you may want to start with continuous low-impact cardio (such as a bike ride) followed by some lower-body resistance exercises. Each week try to introduce some new exercises or swap exercises each week, such as using different variations of a squat (such as barbell squats one week and then sumo squats the next).
If you find it hard to fit everything into one session, spread it out throughout the day. Try going for a walk, jog, or bike ride in the morning, and then focus on resistance exercises later in the day. It’s important to find something that works for you and fits into your lifestyle so that these exercises become a lifelong habit.
For fat loss, HIIT has been suggested as the magic bullet. But remember that increasing your muscle mass leads to a higher resting metabolic rate, which means you burn more calories at rest. So be sure to include big multi-joint exercises that target more muscle, like squats or bench presses to improve Loss of fat.
Of course, the more exercise you can get throughout the week, the more health benefits you’ll see. Just make sure that when you do your workouts, you only do what your body can handle to avoid injury, and make sure you warm up enough.
