There are some basic principles that govern the world of exercise, and knowing them can help you set up and manipulate different components of your workout.
FITT is an easy way to remember the exercise variables you can manipulate to avoid plateaus and to keep your body challenged:
- Frequency – how often you exercise
- Intensity – how hard you exercise
- Time – how long you exercise
- Type – the type of exercise you’re doing (e.g., running, walking, etc.)
When you work out at a sufficient intensity, time, and frequency, your body will improve (also called the Training Effect) and you’ll start to see changes in your weight, body fat percentage, cardio endurance, and strength. When your body adjusts to your current FITT levels, it’s time to manipulate one of more of them.
For example, if you’ve been walking three times a week for 20 minutes and you’ve stopped seeing improvement, you could change your program in one or more of the following ways:
Frequency – Add one more day of walking.Intensity – Add short bursts of jogging, speed walking, or hill training.
Time – Add 10 to 15 minutes to your usual workout time.
Type – Do a different activity, such as cycling, swimming, or aerobics.
Changing any of these variables every four to six weeks can help you keep that training effect going.
Progressive Resistance (the Overload Principle)
In order to improve your strength, endurance, and fitness, you have to progressively increase the frequency, intensity, and time of your workouts. A simple way to stimulate your body is to try different activities. If you normally walk on the treadmill, try riding the bike which will use different muscles and allow you to burn more calories. If you’ve been doing bicepscurls with dumbbells, change to a barbell.
Specificity
This principle is just what it sounds like. It means your workouts should be specific to your goals. If you’re trying to improve your racing times, you should focus on speed workouts. If your main goal is simply health, fitness, and weight loss, you should focus on total body strength, cardio, and a healthy diet.
Make sure your training matches your goals.
Rest and Recovery
While we often focus on getting in as much exercise as possible, rest and recovery are also essential for reaching your weight loss and fitness goals. While you can often do cardio every day (though you may want to rest after very intense workouts), you should have at least a day of rest between strength training workouts. Make sure you don’t work the same muscles two days in a row to give your body the time it needs to rest and recover.
The FITT Principle helps you with the broad view of exercise, but to really get that strong, fit, body, you need three major components. These include cardio, strength training, and flexibility training. Having all of these elements gives you a balanced exercise program that will help you build strength and endurance while working on flexibility, balance, and stability.
Knowing the guidelines for each component will help you set up the perfect exercise program.
Cardio exercise is any rhythmic activity performed continuously and can include activities like walking, running, aerobics, cycling, swimming, and dancing.
Cardio strengthens the heart and lungs, increases endurance and burns calories, which helps you lose weight. While you should always stick with a cardio program that fits with your fitness level, the general guidelines for cardio exercise include:
- For health benefits, do moderately intense cardio 30 minutes a day, five days a week OR vigorous cardio 20 minutes a day, three days a week.
- For weight loss, you may need to do 60 to 90 minutes of activity several days a week.
Working at a moderate intensity means you’re working but still able to talk, which is about a Level 5 on this perceived exertion scale.
Keep in mind that you can also split your workouts throughout the day and get the same results.