There is an ever expanding variety of fitness options out there. Besides all of the different gym and group fitness models, the internet has made home workouts more accessible than ever. With all these tools at our fingertips, it can be tempting to constantly change things up. That can be a way to keep things exciting, but there are drawbacks to the approach.
Jack Of All Trades Or Master Of One?
Versatility is a good thing, in health as it is in life. However, it is also true that achieving peak results sometimes requires focus. This is why professional athletes specialize. Sure, they maintain a certain level of overall fitness, but they know that whatever they need to be best at has to get the most of their attention. By making sure to focus on something specific, they really get to know their skill from the inside out, in all its nuances, which is a big part of what makes them better at it than the next guy.
Fitness works in much the same way. Peak performance comes from focusing on something enough to really get good at it. Take squats for example. As a favorite in the fitness industry, they appear regularly in both group fitness and solo training. Usually though, they are often treated as just another exercise in the routine—something to get through. If you slow it down and spend time focusing on the nuance, you will find there is much to discover and learn from. For example, maybe one side is stronger than the other. Maybe you have trouble keeping the knees out. Perhaps bracing your core is difficult, or you have tight shoulders, hips, or ankles which make it hard to stay in an upright posture. These are all areas of opportunity that one could discover and work on which, over time, can make some major, positive changes to the body.
This Is Why We Periodize
But don’t we all need a variety of training so that we can work on cardiovascular health, strength, and flexibility, you ask? This is where periodization comes in. Periodization is the method of breaking up the year into different segments in which you can focus on one thing over others. For example, maybe you take the warm summer months, when you’d rather be outside than in a gym, to focus on cardiovascular training. Then in the winter, when you’d like the warmth of the club, you focus on strength. You don’t have to totally drop cardio in the winter or strength in the summer, but you can change your focus so that you get higher results in that season’s target area.
This approach might feel counter intuitive, but sometimes it really is true that less is more. Whether you are an avid exerciser who is feeling a little stagnant or a newcomer easing in for the first time, instead of jumping around all over the place try picking a few key exercises and focusing on getting better and better just at those. You might find you get more results.