Challenge Yourself: Steps To Achieve Athletic Fitness In Less Than 6 Months
Many people would love to be able to achieve athletic fitness, but the majority of the general public believes that it’s something that takes years to accomplish. Athletes often train from childhood and are only able to reach the top of their careers after multiple gruelling workout sessions that push their bodies to the limit.
The truth is actually quite different from this. What matters more than intensity is consistency. People who constantly show up to work out often have the best results and continue to experience gains for years.
Figure out where your fitness is at right now
If you want to dramatically improve your fitness over the next six months, you need to figure out where you are right now. Getting your baseline measured tells you what your performance is currently and what you need to do to improve.
Data is beginning to drive modern athletics more than anything else. It’s essential to understand where you currently stand and where you want to go from there.
For example, if your goal is endurance, you could time yourself on a 3 km run to see how long it takes you. Similarly, for strength, you could measure your deadlift, squat, or bench press to see where you’re at right now, and then set goals and targets for where you want to be in six months.
Build your basic engine
It sounds like a strange thing to say, but the next step is to build your basic engine. You need a base level of fitness so you can continue to transform your body without it hurting or causing you excessive distress.
Many people try to launch immediately into hardcore workouts instead of easing themselves into it. This often causes them to unconsciously believe that exercise is associated with pain and is something they want to avoid.
Don’t take this approach. Instead, focus on things like zone 2 cardio and your mobility. Spend 15-20 minutes every workout doing some dynamic stretching, then do 30-45 minutes on the cross trainer or the running machine. Don’t allow your heart rate to rise too high, otherwise your body will start receiving stress signals that it will associate with exercise. Keep the movement gentle and do something enjoyable. If, for example, while running, you are listening to music
Work on your power and explosiveness
After a couple of months during which you’ve built your baseline, the next step is to build up your strength and explosiveness. You want more functional power in your fitness so you can take on more challenging resistance training or outdoor athletics.
- Start with progressive overload, making sure you are increasing your squats, deadlifts, and overhead presses every time.
- Add pull-ups if you want, and aim to lift with more reps or heavier weights every week.
- If you notice the weight is getting too heavy for you to complete a set, don’t increase it anymore. Instead, try to push out extra reps. Additional reps are usually the best variable to focus on because they reduce the risk of injury and may even ensure you guarantee more progress.
- You could also introduce plyometrics to your routine. These include medicine ball slams, kettlebell swings, and box jumps. Plyometrics train your nervous system to respond quickly to signals from your brain. Over time, this can lead to the development of more muscle fibres.
Introduce more intensive training
After about month four, you should feel like you’re able to introduce more intensive training to your routine. For example, you might want to join a HIIT workout program. High-intensity interval training has been shown by researchers to be one of the most effective ways to increase fitness in a short space of time. This approach is handy for professionals and business leaders with limited time because it enables them to send strong fitness signals to their body, often in less than 15 minutes, instead of spending one or two hours doing steady-state cardio.
Most high-intensity training takes the form of 30 seconds of maximum effort followed by 60 seconds of rest. You can, however, modify your routine depending on your requirements. For example, you could go hard for 1 minute, then relax for 1 minute, and repeat that cycle 6 to 10 times. The key with high-intensity interval training is not to overdo it. You should feel exhaustion in your body after a few cycles, and that’s great. Usually, that’s all you need to do to improve your fitness level.
Another popular training method right now is change of direction training. This involves shuttle runs, cone drills, and ladder drills. The idea is to improve the speed at which your body can stop and the amount of force that it can absorb. This type of training is especially helpful if you’re getting involved in sports.
Speaking of which, you might want to pick up a sporting activity that requires a combination of hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness. Tennis, martial arts, basketball, and rock climbing all fall into this category.
Treat recovery like a full-time job
Finally, you’ll want to treat your recovery periods like a full-time job. Ideally, you don’t want to stress or strain yourself, but you should be focusing on relaxing your muscles and ensuring that they get all of the recovery they need to be at their best.
If you don’t follow a proper recovery protocol, you’ll find yourself burning out after 3 to 6 months, and your central nervous system will want to take a break from further training. Most athletes get more sleep than the average person because they need additional time to recover and repair. Don’t worry, you don’t need to plan this. It should just happen naturally for you. After a week of intense training, most people want to sleep more than if they’d just been sitting at a computer.
At the same time, you need to make sure you’re eating enough protein for muscle tissue repair. Experts vary on how much they recommend, but getting more calories and eating higher-protein foods can be extremely helpful.
