Hyunsoo Lim
Different Purposes
Purpose of Losing Weight
People who have the purpose of losing weight mostly do cardio workouts. They are recommended to do “two days of moderate activity and two days of vigorous aerobic activity or high-intensity-interval-training (HIT)” and “include both HIIT and moderate-intensity exercises and perform different methods of cardio in a week, like running on the treadmill, biking, and swimming” for effective results. Moreover, circuit training can help since it is a training method where people do a series of exercises one after the other with no rest in between and repeat the circuit multiple times with different methods of cardio workouts. This can help by keeping the calorie burn high. Although some people work out daily for weight loss, it is still not recommended because the expert says to “take at least two days of rest each week” (Lindberg).
Purpose of Gaining Muscle
People who have the purpose of gaining muscle mostly do weight training. Some people want lean muscle, whereas others wish for bigger muscles. For people who want lean muscle, in order to do so, they need to “find the right balance of cardio exercise and strength training” because excessive weight training can cause overtraining and lead to losing hard-owned muscle mass. For people who want bigger muscles, in order to do so, they “need to change things up. Here are some ways to do so: Add weight to your lifts. Swap out your current exercises for a fresh set. Change the number of sets and reps you’re performing. By varying the rep range, you combine lighter and heavier loads to elicit greater strength and muscle size increases. For example, a heavy day will consist of three to five reps, a moderate day will have 8 to 12 reps, and a light day will be 15 to 20 reps.” Moreover, giving the body time to rest between strength training sessions is essential when adding muscle to the body frame. “ Doing the same amount of exercise day after day can inhibit recovery and cause you to lose muscle over time. If taking a day or two off each week is hard to manage, consider treating these days as active rest. Do a gentle yoga class or spend extra time stretching” (Lindberg).
