Is A Holistic Training Routine Good For You?

By Howe Russ


Every ten years or so, an old style of exercise comes back into the foreground. From kettlebells to high intensity interval training, the fitness world loves a comeback. One of the items doing this right now is the art of holistic training.


You could be forgiven for thinking your local gym didn't want you to train, such is the fitness industry's obsession with developing new methods to get you in and out of there in less time each day.

Despite the constantly evolving world of fitness, the workout styles you can see on display in any gym or fitness magazine have existed for years. The industry operates on a fifteen year cycle, with old techniques disappearing from the public eye for a while and then making a comeback a few years down the line. So the next time you ask for tips on how to lose weight, bear in mind that the answer you'll be given could be older than you are. This can be seen already with kettlebells and fat loss boot camps.

Back in the 1980's, holistic methods were all the rage. As with most things, we do love to give things scientific names. When you get down to the real facts, however, you'll notice that the things at the foundation of this training method are actually very simple indeed.

If you'd like to train holistically you simply need to inject constant variety into your program. Every week you should train with a different focus in mind.

So, what are the benefits to this often overlooked method?

There are two main advantages.

* Weight loss and muscle growth will be increased via a constant focus on new training sessions, never allowing your body to adapt.

* Your workouts will become more interesting as each week forces you to try something new.

That's why the main person who would benefit from using this technique is somebody who has always had trouble in the past with their ability to stick to a program. If you find that your fitness goals crumble once you've got past the three month stage, this is definitely something you should look at.

That's because it involves switching between different styles on a weekly basis. You'd be going from training with high resistance and low repetitions in one week, to suddenly doing high intensity sessions involving lots of work the next, followed by extremely low rep strongman style workouts. The constant variation is enough to keep most people away from the slightest plateau. This is great for both muscle building and fat loss.

There is one drawback, however. Monitoring your progress can become tricky when you are using so many different options. It's going to be difficult to tell if your bench press has improved over the course of your training month because you'll be switching between heavy and light resistance every seven days.

If that's a highly important thing for you then you might want to consider using a different approach. All in all, however, holistic training is something which appeals to most folks and can be used whether your goal is to learn how to lose weight or how to gain strength.


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