SunnyFitness Workout Tips

The SunnyFitness Workout Tips series continues!

If you haven’t read the first 70 tips, you can start HERE!

(click on the titles below to quickly jump to the specific tip)

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #71 Understand the Art & Science nature of sports

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #72 Train also for long, quality life

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #73 Ride the wave of the beginners

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #74 Train as much as you can still adapt

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #75 Relax to be able to push yourself

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #76 Do the hard first

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #77 Bodyweight strength before weights

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #78 Train for the whole body

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #79 Focus on form, not weight

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #80 Put the weights back in place

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #71
Understand the Art & Science nature of sports

SCIENCE: Books, studies, gadgets, training methods which tell you what should be the best for your fitness goals. That’s great and each training plan should based on this accumulated knowledge. However the real life doesn’t always work with textbook accuracy.

ART: Spontaneous, intuitive, creative, unpredictable, unique, in the moment, perfect solutions coming from the ’nowhere’ or from experience, etc..

There are days when you cant make the prescribed training plan or you could do even more.
There are days when the conditions are not perfect, missing some equipments, don’t have enough time, etc.
There are ’science nerds’, who spend more time studying the perfect training method, searching for ’training hacks’ than doing the hard work or losing themselves in the details.
There are ’flowy artist people’, who never have a structure, consistency and their development, performance is chaotic, unpredictable, takes longer time to achieve their goals or they never even reach it.
Before a big competition, peaking period it becomes even more sensitive what and for who works the best to reach the peak performance, which is not written in any textbook.

The truth is, you need the right mix from both world, ART&SCIENCE for continuous development and reach your best in any sports, exercise!

It’s worth to study and use, up to date exercise science. But you should be able to change the plan fast and confident when it’s necessary.

Bonus tip

Have robot like workouts with sets, reps, time periods, numbers but also spontaneous, improvisational trainings as well! This way you will understand this duality in sport (and life). With the years even better!

Are you a scientist or artist in sports or both?

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #72
Train also for long, quality life

Whatever are your current fitness goals (performance, aesthetics, staying fit), probably you won’t complain if you could reach the age 80-100 and still enjoy high level of fitness in sports and everyday life.

There are great studies and interviews of old but fit people where we can draw conclusions what is serving this.

AEROBIC FITNESS: The No.1 is probably the cardiovascular health. No surprise. If your heart and mitochondria are in top shape, there will be always enough energy for life and sports. Walking, hiking, running, swimming, rowing etc. + high intensity interval training
STRENGTH: If you are stronger everything is easier. Be able to handle your bodyweight well and lifting-carrying heavy objects when it’s necessary. Bodyweight & weighted max. strength training
MUSCLE MASS: As we age we lose muscle mass (sarcopenia) and bone density (osteoporosis). Bodybuilding type of trainings
FLEXIBILITY: You dont want to have that stiffness when you cant tie your shoes from standing or not able to scratch your back, right? Yoga-pilates, mobility, stretching exercises
COORDINATION: You don’t have to be a ‘sedentary machine’ who is afraid of any other movement as you get older. Highly technical movements, like balancing, dancing, weightlifting, gymnastics, crawling, climbing
SPEED, EXPLOSIVITY: Old doesn’t necessarily means slow. You can maintain a good level of speed and explosiveness! Sprinting, jumping, weightlifting, rope skipping, martial arts, ball games…
NOVELTY: Your brain and muscles can get rusty even if you do sports regularly but always with the same movements and intensity. Learn every week or month a new exercise, try new sports.

Each above can lead to a great fitness level alone but the best is if you have all and you will be that super grandma/grandpa who don’t need help, medicament’s, sticks but can enjoy any sport and life on high level, without restrictions!

Bonus tip

Start practicing them NOW, not only when the problems start to develop or when it’s too late. Prevention instead of firefighting!

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #73
Ride the wave of the beginners

You are lucky if you are a beginner in any sport!

Ok, it may be hard to develop new habits showing up on the trainings, learning new techniques and having muscle soreness.

However the reward of improving fast is much higher than any later stage!

Beginners can progress fast, sometimes even doubling the weights they use, multiplying their chin-up, push-up numbers within a few month, because there was a huge untapped potential. This is always a super joy, feedback and keeps you motivated.

As the months, years pass by and you become an intermediate, the progress will slow down and you need to put more effort, need more complex training programs to develop further to a pro.

Here you can decide if you continue and specialize more or start again as a beginner in a new exercise or sport.

The good news is that maintaining an intermediate level doesn’t require too much effort and time, so it’s yours if you give some minimal attention to it.

Thatswhy I like the complex, Generalist Training approach, because even I was high level in a few movements but I had a lot of untapped potential in others.

For example I started calisthenics, sprinting, Olympic weightlifting, OCR, windsurfing way over 30 years old and I really enjoyed the weekly, visible fast progress. I could reach a good level in all relatively fast and it feels like I can speak 10 different languages.

Pick up new movements from time to time and enjoy the wave of the beginners!

Bonus tip

Think in years and decades in your fitness journey and you have time to reach a good level in anything! It’s never too late to start something new.

Do you experience the same beginner’s fun effect?

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #74
Understand the Art & Science nature of sports

The human body is amazing, in ideal conditions everyone can do a lot of work and become even stronger, better with time.

However, except elite athletes, almost nobody has ideal conditions to adapt and recover from any volume and intensity of training load.

Ideal conditions: No other serious responsibilities, stress factors in life than doing sport. Having high quality and 8-10 hours of sleep every day. Having high quality nutrition (and maybe supplements) every day. Having a team around who is constantly optimizing your trainings.

Most people have work, school, relationships, family, socializing, daily commuting, etc. in their life which all takes from the time/energy resources and stress tolerance. They are competing for the training performance and recovery capacity.

A heavy workout is also a stress for the body and the nervous system, which has a recovery demand. So it’s no surprise most people cant train as much as the professionals. Don’t worry!

The good news is, that you can still develop nicely in your fitness goals if you find the right amount of volume and intensity with smart workouts. Even with 2-3 times/week training, you are far ahead of the people who do nothing! If you do 4-6/week, then you can go faster but the training design and recovery is getting even more important.

Always try to find the optimal workload and enjoy the training! In other words, a necessary and sufficient training stimulus which you can adapt with your current life circumstances.

Bonus tip

Think in years and decades when it comes to your fitness goals instead of magical overnight sixpack programs. This way you won’t have the anxiety and stress to reach something extraordinary fast but you can arrive there joyfully in your own rhythm.

How many trainings/week fits to your lifestyle?

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #75
Relax to be able to push yourself

Those who always just push themselves full power, sooner or later will get injured, burn out.

Those who are always soft and lazy, avoid heavy workouts, will never experience development and their best potential.

Find the balance between the 2 extremes!

Daily, weekly, monthly, annually as well.

Daily: daily light movement practices, warmup, cooldown, walking, improvisative-fun Movement Snacks, good quality and quantity sleep, breathing exercises
Weekly: rest days from trainings, hobbies, social life
Monthly: one deload week/month in most cases fits, with less volume/intensity.
Annually: 1-4weeks off from organized trainings every year in 1 or 2 blocks

Bonus tip

Be aware of your body’s feedbacks when you reach a personal best in any exercise or competition after a long training period. Usually after the peak we need some rest or deload week even when the motivation is on top, because it’s easy to overtrain with this high confidence state.

Are you the lazy, the machine or the balanced type athlete?

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #76
Do the hard first

If your train for the Generalist fitness, multiple fitness goals at the same time (skills, power, strength, muscle building, endurance together), it’s wise to put them in hierarchy in a workout and also in a training week.
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After warmup, in most cases start with the most challenging tasks when you’re still fresh in the head and your energy stores are full.
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Highly technical tasks requiring high mental focus and/or high intensity.
– Olympic weightlifting
– calisthenics, OCR or other movement skills
– sprints
– jumping, plyometric exercises
– heavy strongman exercises
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After that, you can move on to the technically easier, ’dumber’ exercises and the more ’delicious snacks’.
– strength, powerlifting, bodybuilding exercises
– strength-endurance exercises
– aerobic exercises
– isolation exercises
– mobility work

Bonus tip
Usually the ’hard first’ system works well also in the weekly schedule. For example: weightlifting, max strength, speed first part of the week, then strength-endurance, bodybuilding, aerobic conditioning in the second part of the week.

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #77
Bodyweight strength before weights

Before serious weighted training, it’s worth to reach a ‘good’ level in bodyweight exercises.
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In fact, you can improve here for years and decades! There are many challenging calisthenics skills and strength exercises.
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With bodyweight training the whole body is working as one unit, gives better body awareness and coordination in most movements, more mobility and flexibility gains, less injury risk.
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So weightlifting is not really necessary for many fitness goals, but it has some extra benefits! Like more hormonal effects, faster muscle building..
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What does a ’GOOD LEVEL’ of bodyweight strength mean?
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The exact numbers and exercises could be debated for years (you can write in the comments), it depends on the context, but I hope you get the point I am trying to make.
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I would quietly note that it would be better to achieve at least these results before practicing any specialized modern sport as well. That way you can start from a higher level, learn faster and have less risk of injury.

Pull-ups: women 1-2, men 3-4
Push-ups: women 10-15, men 20-25
Single leg ‘pistol’ squat: women 1-2, men 3-4
Hollow body hold on the floor: both women and men at least 30-40 seconds
Passive hanging on the bar: women at least 1 minute, men 1.5 minutes
Handstand: both men and women at least 5-10 seconds free or at the wall at least 20-30 seconds
Horse stance: both men and women at least 1-1,5 minutes

Bonus tip
If you like both world and you are more or less healthy, strong and flexible then of course you can train with bodyweight and weights at the same time! Practice weighted calisthenics (pull-ups, dips, push-ups, pistol squats) or a hybrid training approach where you mix smartly the 2 different type of exercises within one workout or separate training cycles.

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #78
Train for the whole body

I don’t know when it became fashionable to train only abs, glutes, biceps, shoulders, etc… but it’s time to see the human body as a whole!

Of course, there are always exceptions, e.g. bodybuilders or after an injury when a body part is weaker. However in most cases, it’s better to do a full-body workout programme and work with compound exercises that work several joints at once.

This will give you a musculature that is balanced in strength and size, useful in everyday life and athletic performance.
Balance in strength and size of the lower and upper body. Balance in pushing and pulling strength, etc.

If you have time for 1-3 strength training sessions per week, it is usually better to train all muscle groups within one session.

If you can fit in 4+ workouts per week (guaranteed), then you may want to do a so-called split program to give a larger load to each body part.
However, with weekly training schedules, things will balance out here too in the end.

Bonus tip

There is no localized fat loss. E.g. endless sit-ups for six-pack abs. If you want a flatter belly, it’s first worth getting things right around diet, sleep, circadian rhythm.
Then doing squats, deadlifts with relatively heavy weights, progress in calisthenics exercises, sprinting. These will trigger the biggest post-exercise ‘fat-burning’ hormonal response and the body weight will also be optimized for the gymnastic exercises sooner or later.

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #79
Focus on form, not weight

When it comes to weighted strength exercises it’s very easy to fall in the trap of using too much weight for your current fitness level.

Even advanced athletes are making this mistake who knows this temptation but when they are on fire in the middle of the workout, they may forget it sometimes.

Then we can see the execution with decreased range of movement, using momentum, not able to finish the plan etc.

Ego lifting, impatience, wanting to progress too fast, rushing on the workout, frustration from underrecovery or stress etc.

With improper technique + too much weight the injury risk is growing and the progress will plateau sooner or later.

Yes, use weights which are challenging but not for the price of losing the form, technique of the exercise!

Think in years and decades, don’t care about showing off for others and you can progress continuously in your own rhythm.

It’s better to be a few % undertrained then overtrained or injured!

Find your optimal workload and pack useful workouts into the bag!

Bonus tip

Do a few progressively heavier warmup sets with perfect technique, then you will feel how much weights you can use in the working sets on the given day. For ’ chronic overestimators’ use 5-10% less weight in the first working set then they would for the first thought. If it’s too light, move faster and/or put a little bit more weight in the next set.

SUNNYFITNESS TIPS #80
Put the weights back in place

99% of people take it for granted that they will put the weights back after a workout. The readers here are certainly part of that majority!

However, who could that lazy, sloppy 1% be?

In almost every gym I’ve been to I’ve seen weights abandoned after a workout.

Someone has to put them back sooner or later. Why shouldn’t it be the user? Unless they also paid for extra ’weight-carrying’ services.

Of course, the main results of a workout do not depend on whether we put the weights back or not, but it does give us a kind of mental boost, a sense of stability, if we keep our surroundings tidy and honor also others with it.

That way the story is rounded, the training process is done from A to Z. Training not only builds you physically, but also mentally, for life.

BTW, carrying is also a natural movement and should be practiced regularly.

Bonus tip

If you happen to run into a case where someone wants to leave the weights there, pick them up and carry them spectacularly back to their place and nudging the person a little. Or follow the person to the changing room and tell he forgot something. Sooner or later he’ll just wise up and learn.