subject: High Intensity Weight Training - What Works Best! [print this page] High Intensity Weight Training - What Works Best!
High-intensity weight training can be a good way to maximize the effects of weight training, but don't forget that this cuts both ways. The risk of overdoing it and injuring yourself can be increased just as much as the potential benefits in a high-intensity workout. However, if you design your routine carefully and always listen to your body, high-intensity weight training is a great way to take your exercise up a notch.
Faster and Harder!
The simplest kind of high-intensity weight training is just weight training for speed. Take your existing workout routine and time yourself, then work on beating your previous best time little by little.
Or try devising a compact, high-speed routine by cutting the number of repetitions of each exercise in half, but running through them twice as quickly. You can use a weight training chart to keep track of how your time is improving, as well as how many repetitions of each kind of exercise you're able to do in a certain amount of time.
The results of this kind of speedy workout might surprise you. After running through a high-intensity version of my normal strength training routine, I found more muscles sore the next day than I ever had going at the usual pace. The same exercises done faster required using more muscle groups and provided a better workout.
Keeping Your Body Healthy
However, I had to pay extra attention to what my body was telling me it could deal with. It can be easy to come up against the limit of what you can safely do without injury when the intensity of your workout is cranked up by going faster. High-intensity weight training should only be done using exercises which you've already got a good grasp on, and you should always take it relatively easy to begin with.
Listen to your body and stop if any exercise causes undue pain. Additionally, always remember to stretch before and after your exercise. This goes double for high-intensity weight training. Lots of stretching after your workout is also a good way to cool down.
Once you get into the swing of your high-intensity weight training routine, you can gradually increase the speed and number of repetitions for each exercise - and see how far your workout can take you! But, where can you get weight training workouts, exercises, and routines?
