When you visit the ThriveFit page, you may notice that an unusual piece of equipment is required for nearly all of the workouts recommended there: a stopwatch. Unlike many workouts that you’ll see people doing in your local gym, our regimen involves completing a certain number of repetitions during a discrete period of time. Is there a good reason for working out this way? What are the advantages and benefits? In today’s article, we’ll answer these questions and unpack how this strategy can help you reach your fitness and physique goals!
Better Challenge, Better Results
Most ThriveFit workouts take a form like the following: with a continuously running stopwatch, complete three rounds of: 15 pushups, 20 lunges, 30 jump rope jumps. Your goal is to complete all the reps in as little time as possible. One of the beauties of this method is that whether you’re very fit or a complete beginner, this workout can challenge you. The fitter you are, the lower your time will be, but as long as you’re pushing yourself as hard as you can, you’ll be worn out by the last rep. And if you’re super fit, you can always adjust the workout up by adding more rounds.
Intensity Through Competition
A second benefit of keeping track of the time it takes you to complete a workout is that it promotes competition. This competition could be between (1) you and a friend, or (2) you and yourself.
In previous articles, we’ve explored the many ways that having a training partner helps push you to greater heights and keeps you motivated and accountable. By committing to a program like ThriveFit with a friend, you have the added benefit of being able to compete for the fastest time. If you and your friend have a fitness disparity, you can even adjust the workouts up or down for one of the partners to cause a close finish every time. For example, perhaps the workout for the day is: as many rounds in possible of: 8 clean and jerks 115#, 15 pushups. If one training partner is a little stronger, he may use 135# while his partner stays with the recommended 115#.
A Worthy Competitor
Even if you aren’t able to find a workout partner right away, timing your workouts allows you to compete with yourself. As you progress through the ThriveFit workout plan, keep track of your scores and times in a notebook or a spreadsheet. Them, make sure to go through the list from time to time and recomplete workouts that you’ve done previously. You’ll have your old time in mind while you’re doing the workout, which will push you to move faster and leave your old records in the dust!
Not only do your previous times help you push yourself harder and faster, but you’ll also have a clear basis for tracking your progress. As your times go down and your loads go up, you’ll feel a strong sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Depending on your fitness goals, you may be tracking things like your weight and body fat percentage already, but an even more test of how you’re doing is to track how long it takes you to do 3 rounds of: 15 snatches 95#, 15 pull-ups!
Improve In Multiple Ways
And finally, keeping time while you complete an entire workout turns a strength-only scheme of exercises into a strength, endurance, and stamina challenge. Most people’s workout program involves doing 10 reps of bench press, stand around for 5 minutes, 10 more reps, stand around more, 10 reps, etc. Not only are they wasting lots of time getting through a workout, but that rest between sets allows them to catch their breath each time. Conversely, the ThriveFit workouts keep your body moving constantly, resulting in a challenge to your cardiovascular system as well as your muscular strength and stamina. Incidentally, this is a good reason to keep your rest periods short in the cases where you can’t complete a full ThriveFit workout without stopping. Keep your rest periods to just a few seconds if you must take them, and get back in and knock out a few more reps. Having shorter, more frequent rests will give you a shorter time and a better challenge than taking longer, less-frequent rests.
Our Network is for You
Today we’ve shown just a few of the many benefits associated with working out with a timer. By timing the entire workout, you promote competition between yourself and others (or at least yourself and yourself), you have a means of tracking your progress, and you get to challenge your body more completely, which ultimately leads you to reaching your fitness goals more effectively. Be sure to let us know how you’re doing along the way by sharing comments on the ThriveFit workout pages! Happy training!