3 Types of Exercise and Their Associated Goals

As a personal trainer the first question I ask my clients is "What is your goal?" This often leads to an ambiguous answer like "I want to be in shape." or "I want to be fit." These are great answers and generally what many of us would respond with but there is one little problem with, they don't niche down on what your specific goal is.

What shape do you want to be in? Do you want to be big and muscular or lean and toned? Maybe you're just wanting those chiseled abs or that firm booty. How exactly would you like to be fit? Do you want to be ready for a marathon or have the strength of a kryptonian? (Super-man/Super-girl, not an accurate or realistic unit of measurement but one can dream right?)

There are many ways to train your body in order to produce the best results. The exact same exercises can be used to produce different outcomes too, the structure of your workout is what makes the difference. More often than not you can break down the type of workout into 3 groups.

1. Resistance
2. Cardio
3. Flexibility

So how do you know which one is best suited for your goal and what are the differences in each type of training?

1. Resistance

Resistance training is training that focuses on putting the muscles under tension and incorporates weights, bands, slow & controlled movements, as well as a few others, depending on your goal. Exercises are centered around amount of weight moved/held, reps (the number of times an exercise movement is repeated) and sets (a group of reps) and the time in which a rep should be performed in.

Resistance burns calories long after you have finished your workout so if you're one who loves food and still wants to manage their weight then resistance is your best friend. Resistance will be your main focus for weight loss, body building and strength development in order lift more weight or produce more explosive movements. It is also used in rehabilitation and balance, usually coupled with flexibility which we'll get into further on.

2. Cardio

Cardio is training that focuses on increasing your cardio-vascular performance (how efficiently your system can provide your body with oxygen and clear out toxins). Exercises are centered around increasing and decreasing the heart rate over certain intervals of time within a set time frame by increasing or decreasing the rate of movement. Exercises like running, skipping, cycling and rowing are all cardio based exercises.

Individuals with heart, blood pressure and similar cardio vascular problems should consider taking up cardio exercises in order to improve their systems, however these individuals need to be very careful in doing so as going too hard too fast could cause problems. Cardio develops your heart muscles, essentially making your heart stronger, increasing your endurance, recovery and resting heart rate.

Cardio will be your main focus if you're training for marathons or long distance sports. It is usually coupled with resistance for weight loss to improve an individuals overall health. Agility is focused on during cardio training as it's quick and explosive movement that get's the heart pumping quickly.

3. Flexibility

Flexibility is training that focuses on increasing the range of movement in your joints. Normally performed at the beginning and end of the workout. Exercises are centered around progressively opening up joint movement through repeated stretching of the muscles, each time trying to go a bit further in the range of movement but not to the point of pain or hyper-extension of the joint (moving a joint past the natural stopping point).

Flexibility should be performed by everyone regardless of whether resistance or cardio based training, it increases the recovery rate of the body by allowing more blood flow through as well as prevents muscles from staying contracted after a workout, which could lead to muscular imbalance and skeletal problems.

Major flexibility routines would be more of a focus for individuals who already have muscular imbalance or skeletal problems for corrective purposes as well as for those in the performing and martial arts due to the movements their bodies are required to perform without causing injury.

As you can see reaching one's goal is reliant on knowing which form of training is best suited towards obtaining the best results. If you have a basic idea of what your goal is you can focus on your major form of training and incorporate the others as your goals shift or your performance increases.

• How to Structure a Beginner Muscle Building Program.
• 10 Muscle Building Questions & Answers.
• How to Structure a Beginner Weight Loss Program.
• 10 Weight Loss Questions & Answers.
• The Power of Stretching.
• Be prepared and refine your Gym Lingo, Etiquette and Workout Gear.