By now, you should already be very aware of all the different amazing benefits that doing plenty of exercise and getting fit can bring you in your life. You might have even got into a really good fitness routine as a result. If you have, you should already be feeling a lot more energized, sleeping better, and struggling from fewer mental health issues like anxiety.
Do you think that it’s time you started to think about taking your exercise routine up a notch? If you’ve been getting fitter over the past few months, then it will probably be time to do so. Sure, you could simply stick at your current frequency and intensity of exercise but as your body and mind start to get used to it, you may no longer feel the benefits that it once brought. Not only that, though, but you might find that you start to feel quite bored when working out. To prevent this, you will need to move from your beginner’s workouts to something at a more intermediate level.
Many people struggle when trying to move up a level with their fitness. If you follow these next few tips, though, you’ll be able to take your fitness to new levels with plenty of success.
Make Sure You Are Ready
First of all, you need to make sure that you are ready to take your fitness to the next level. You should be able to tell this by judging how easy your beginner workouts and classes feel to you. When you started your fitness journey, these workouts might have felt quite hard to you even though they were a beginners level. Over time, as you get fitter and your body gets stronger, you will adapt and find these workouts and classes easier to manage. That’s good! Once you start to find them this easy and you don’t sweat or get as out of breath as much, it’s time to move up a level and start some intermediate workouts and classes.
Give Yourself Plenty Of Rest Days
When you do move up a level with your fitness, you should still have plenty of rest days in between all the workouts. This will give your body time to recover and get stronger, making it easier for you to adapt to the new intensity levels in your workouts. Ideally, you should allow at least one day of rest in between your exercise days. If you have taken part in a particularly strenuous workout or class, it could be worth giving your body an extra day to recover. If you don’t, then you are putting yourself at an increased risk of an injury.
Move Up To A Slightly Harder Gym Class
When you know that it is time to start increasing the intensity and frequency of your weekly workouts, you should sign up for a slightly harder gym class. These further fitness courses you the chance to do some slightly more difficult exercising under the supervision of the fitness instructor. They will be able to watch how you do each move to ensure that your form is correct. If you are doing anything incorrectly, they will be able to tell you and make sure that you aren’t moving in a way that could cause you an injury. If you do struggle in the slightly harder classes, the instructor will also be able to tell you how to adjust each exercise to make it slightly easier for you to manage.
Take It Easy
Sometimes people want to improve very quickly with their fitness. This can sometimes result in them taking things too far and pushing themselves more than what they are ready for. As you can probably tell, this won’t do your body any good at all and could cause a sports injury. When you do decide it’s time to move on to some slightly harder exercises, it’s necessary to increase the intensity and frequency little by little so that your body can slowly adjust.
Give Yourself A Goal
Some people find that moving up a fitness level can be too hard for them, even if they do take things very slowly at first. The harder exercises can make you feel like you have started at square one again, and you might notice that your progress slows down. For some, this can be very demotivating. Rather than letting this get you down, you just need to power through. Eventually you will see some results. In fact, setting yourself a goal could be very useful, as this gives you something to work towards. If you are taking gym classes, it could be worth speaking to the fitness instructor about the best kind of goal to set yourself.
Adjust Your Diet Accordingly
Now that you are working out more, your body will be in need of more energy to keep it going. So, you will probably need to adjust your diet accordingly. Again, this is something that a fitness trainer, or even better a dietician, can help you work on. Generally speaking, though, you will need to have a diet that is very high in carbohydrates. These are the nutrients that your body will use for an instant release of energy. Protein is also important as it can help the body quickly recover after an intense workout. Eating enough protein should also reduce your risk of injury as well.
Don’t Forget To Stretch
No matter what kind of exercise or workout you have been doing, it is always important that you stretch well afterwards. This gives your body the chance to cool down, which can prevent any injuries from occurring. It will also prevent your muscles aching too much the following day too. The instructor at your gym class should take you through some stretches at the end, and you might want to find a YouTube video of cooldown stretches for whenever you are working out at home.
Moving up to the next fitness level should be very achievable if you follow these tips!
Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.
