The FIT formula involves the variables that you can adjust in order to change around your walking program around and to maximize your personal benefits. By restructuring your workout, you can avoid being trapped on a plateau and you can stay on track for meeting your personal goals. So what does FIT stand for?
- Frequency
- Intensity
- Time
Let’s take a look at what these variables are so you can understand how modifying them might affect your workout. It’s also important to realize that when you change one variable, you affect the other two. So if you want to modify your workout – adjust just one variable and give yourself time to get used to it before you modify the other two.
What is Frequency?
Frequency is exactly what it sounds like. It refers to how often you perform your cardiovascular workouts. Unlike strength training, you could perform your cardio workouts seven days a week, but it’s not necessarily the best of ideas to not take at least one day off. So let’s say your frequency is going to be six days a week, that’s considered a highly active schedule and it’s not recommended if you are sedentary prior to beginning your cardiovascular workout. If you have been sedentary, your best bet for frequency should be every other day. This gives you 3 to 4 days a week and as you build up your endurance, you can add another day or two to your schedule. Just remember to take one day off per week, minimum, in order to let your body rest and recover.
What is Intensity?
Intensity refers to how hard you are walking or working on your cardiovascular program. Intensity can refer to the power walkers or fitness walkers who are going at a fast pace and they are breathing pretty hard and likely sweating just as hard. In treadmill terms, the person walking at 2.5 is working out at a lesser intensity than the person who is walking at a 3.5 on the treadmill next to them. The amount of incline you utilize will also dramatically change the intensity of your workout. If your cardiovascular workout is at a high intensity, you are not going to maintain your frequency if you were performing your cardio six days a week. At a very high intensity, you’ll want to step back down to 3 or 4 days a week.
What is Time?
Time refers to how long you perform your cardio workout. Do you walk, run, cycle or go to an aerobics class that is 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes or an hour? The ideal cardio workout is generally 30 to 45 minutes in length, but you’re pushing yourself hard because you want to meet some goals, you may walk 90 minutes a day, but you’re not going to maintain a very high intensity for that 90 minutes. One walking program that I performed for a while involved 20 minutes at a comfortable pace of 2.5 to 2.7 with five minutes of ramping up to 3.5 and then another 20 minutes back at 2.5 to 2.7, followed by another five minute interval at a higher intensity and finally another 20 minutes at the 2.5 to 2.7. The overall workout was about 70 minutes with 10 minutes of cool down and warm up on either side. Those intervals at 3.5 were hard, but they ramped up my heart rate and helped me to keep the burn going.
Managing Your Variables
When it comes to managing the variables in your cardio workout the FIT formula is your best bet. But remember, it’s important to only adjust one variable at a time and to pay attention to the effect that it has on the other two. So if you want to work out six days a week, you’re not going to keep your workout at a high intensity nor should you work out for longer than 45 minutes per session. If you want to ramp up the intensity, you may not want to workout as often during the week and again, keep your workouts to 30 to 45 minutes. Finally, if you want to walk, run or bike for longer periods of time, keep the intensity at a comfortable level and watch the number of workouts you do per week so you don’t overdo it.
Have you used the FIT formula in your cardio programs?
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