Change It Up: Time It!

Here’s another simple yet effective tip that you can implement into your fitness routine. Time It!

What does that mean? It’s simple really, get yourself a stopwatch – or a Gym Boss timer (you all know I’m a fan and start timing sets in place of counting reps!

The fact is it’s always been interesting to me that people choose a certain number of reps for each set they perform and simply stop exercising when they hit ‘the number’. But if you’re after true conditioning and fitness, timing your sets will take things to a whole new level.

For instance, instead of dumbbell bench pressing 50 pounds for 12 reps, grab the 40’s instead and see how many reps you can get in 30 or 45 seconds. Plus you can also time your rest periods, so try choosing 10, 15 or 20 seconds of rest before going to the next set. I happen to like to circuit train, so I choose 4 exercises, perform each for 30 seconds and rest for 15 seconds in between. Trust me when I tell you that this builds serious endurance and get’s your heart pumping. If you’re more interested in muscle building then stick with the same exercise for 4 ‘rounds’ before moving to the next exercise.

When you go to the gym without a plan or a set regimen, things just don’t go smoothly. You get caught talking with friends, maybe procrastinate a bit, start daydreaming, etc. When you have a timer or a watch, you HAVE to go when the time is up. So your workout becomes more productive and a greater challenge. It’s almost as if the timer becomes your trainer – when it beeps you go, when it beeps again you stop. There really is no grey area.

What’s really great when using a timer in your workout, is that you can plan for progress. Let’s say you started with sets of 30 seconds with 20 seconds rest. In two weeks time you can set the timer to 35 seconds of work with 15 seconds rest. In fact you could even add or subtract just one second from each period. After a period of a month or two you’ll be able to see how much better your conditioning is because you’ll remember where you started. Cool right?

I highly suggest you try timing your workouts – so what are you waiting for. Time’s up!

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