It’s never been easier to workout on your own time, in the comfort of your own home. But not every workout video is created equal! The fitness DVD/video industry is worth $245 million per year, which means there’s a video for any workout you can imagine: pilates, kickboxing, cardio, and countless others.
Some workouts, like PILOXING, incorporate a mix of styles for every skill level! You just need to be sure you’re getting results! With all the tools for a home workout, how can you be sure your video workouts are working?!
High-energy interval workouts like PILOXING SSP and PILOXING Knockout ignite your workouts and get that heart pumping! Monitoring your heart rate is the most objective way to gauge the effectiveness of your workout. The trick is adjusting your intensity to maintain your target heart rate. To calculate what that is, follow the formula:
Max HR = 208 - (age x 0.7)
Three-quarters of your maximum heart rate is your target. Using this formula, a typical 30-year-old’s maximum heart rate would generally be about 187, making the target heart rate about 140 beats per minute.
Bonus tip: check your pulse the morning AFTER a workout. If your resting heart rate is higher than normal, you haven’t fully recovered. It could mean you’re overtraining—tone down the intensity!
While heart rate is objective, keeping tabs on your rate of perceived exertion (or RPE) is entirely subjective. Put simply, it’s how hard you think you’re working out, so be honest! The simplest scales used by professionals go from zero to 10—the higher you rate your workout, the harder you feel you’re working. A video that pushes your workout to an eight or nine on the scale will leave you feeling stronger and better afterward.
Consider rating your exertion by using the talk test. If you can hold a conversation or sing a song, it’s time to ramp up your effort and intensity! If it's difficult to get out more than a sentence, you're working at a challenging level. If you're gasping for air and can't utter a word, it's time to pull back some of that intensity.
Most fitness tip lists tend to focus on the intense intervals in your workouts as calorie burners. Don’t discredit the importance of low-intensity periods of your video workout! How quickly your heart rate recovers during these periods says a lot about the effectiveness of your training. If your heart rate drops within a minute or so during a rest period, you’re on the right track to a healthy workout without overexerting yourself.
A workout like PILOXING Barre utilizes low-intensity intervals to their full potential. Using a ballet barre for stability and resistance, your muscles feel the burn through lengthening Pilates-influenced exercises. Then, just when those muscles want a break, they get it with a shift to a cardiovascular boxing push. These shifts make for a well rounded, low impact, interval training program.
Fitness trainers have said that exercise gives you more energy for years, but feeling better after a workout is more than just a rush of endorphins! Your productivity, focus, and clarity should also improve after an effective workout.
When it comes time to turn in for the night, an effective workout also positively impacts your sleep quality. If you are waking up feeling more refreshed, its likely the result of the effort you are putting in! On the other hand, if you think you’re killing it when you pop in a DVD but still can’t get restful sleep, you’re probably either over or under training.
Exactly how effective your DVD/video workouts are is hard to say, because it is entirely dependent on your own level of willingness and dedication. In order to achieve sustainable weight loss and fitness goals, your fitness workout should combine cardio and strength training, working in intervals to utilize different muscle groups.
Whether you’re using a physical DVD or streaming, keep an eye on intensity level! Your video workout should match your fitness level. Too easy and you won’t see any results. Too difficult and you’ll lose motivation to come back for the next workout. To see results, follow the old adage: Go hard or go home. Train insane or remain the same.