More is Better?

I have often been asked by clients how many days a week I work out. It's true, I'm a lover of exercise. It makes me feel better inside and out. When I miss it I notice- and not in a good way. Exercise has been a staple in my life for many years. But that's me, and let's face it folk, I'm a little cray cray about my exercise!

I do know this. More is not always better. There is such a thing as too much. Much like anything else, you need to find balance so that you reap the benefits of your hard work. A 69 year old client asked me why he always feels sore, why he always feels tired. We looked at his habits and found this: he was pushing his body 6 days a week without adequate recovery time. He was also neglecting to supply his body with enough protein to rebuild and repair muscle tissue after his workouts. As a result he was feeling frustrated- and I'm not surprised.

This is also why I'm a big advocate of cross-training. When people ask me what my favorite format of excerise is I say, "all of it!" This is because the body will react much more favorably to cross-training than the same day in and day out of a repeated format. The exception to this, of course, is sports specific training. Although even those guys and gals can benefit from cross-training.

At the end of the day it's about knowing YOUR body. There's no magic formula that works for every body. Listen to yourself. And if yourself tells you it's time to take a rest day- take it! If your body tells you every day is a rest day, then come see me :-)