Some clients of personal trainers in Singapore seem to think that all their exercises should be supervised. That’s not entirely accurate. Anyone can benefit from doing some other exercise in between sessions with their personal trainer. And another advantage of these exercises is that they don’t take up a lot of time, so even those who are very busy can fit them in their schedules.
So what kind of exercises should you do when you’re in between sessions?
Pick among the exercises you know you can do properly. If you’re on your own, it’s not a good idea to start trying out new exercise you haven’t done before. There’s a good chance you’ll do it wrong without a trainer to supervise you, and even if you do succeed eventually it will take too much time to master. When you do exercises you’ve mastered already, you can intensify your efforts without worrying about whether you’re doing it right.
One other thing—make sure you have the equipment you need for the exercises you’ve chosen! And they should be in one place, as you can’t waste time looking for them.
It should involve all body movements. You can use 5 exercises that alternate between upper body and lower body movement and conclude with a dynamic movement that uses the whole body. For example, you can do a chin up, a leg curl with a stability ball, a pushup, and a goblet squat. Then you end with the kettle ball swing.
Limit yourself to half an hour. Since you’re doing this on your “off” time, you don’t have to spend an hour for these exercises. About 30 minutes should suffice, and you can just try to do as much as you can within that limit. The shorter exercise time not only makes it easy for you to fit it in your schedule, but it also makes you think that it’s “easier”. It encourages you to do them more regularly and religiously.
But that shorter period doesn’t mean you don’t accomplish much. On the contrary, you can accomplish quite a lot and it can complement your personal training sessions more effectively.
Focus. Since you’re operating on a shorter time frame, you really have to concentrate on what you’re doing. There’s no time for lackadaisical attitudes or relaxed and easy ways. Don’t watch TV and don’t spend time chatting with others. Just concentrate on the task at hand.
In fact, what makes these exercises beneficial is that they’re all high intensity. You have to give it all you’ve got. And that’s another reason why they need to be exercises that you’re familiar with. You can move from one exercise to another without having to figure things out, and you can maximize your concentration on intensifying your efforts.
A shorter time also means shorter rest periods between exercises. You’re packing an hour’s worth of effort into 30 minutes, so that means you need to double your efforts. That also means you need to shorten your rest period.
About 15 to 20 seconds of rest should suffice in between different exercises, and about a minute or 90 seconds in between circuits. Some even progress to doing the exercises one after another without rest.
When you start prolonging your rest periods to more than 2 minutes you lessen the impact and the benefits of these mini-sessions. So use a timer or watch the clock intently when resting.
As you can see, even on your own you can help keep yourself fit and you don’t even need to spend too much time on it. With these exercises, you can look forward to a more active lifestyle, and you can also improve your performance during your personal training sessions.
To your success,
Coach Sharm, MSc
guruFitness.com