By: Jessica Armijo, Regional Personal Training Manager

Spring is traditionally a time for growth and renewal, and now is a great time to apply that spirit to your fitness, health, and nutrition. This is the perfect opportunity to examine your exercise routine, set goals for the summer, and level up your habits to supercharge your progress. Whether your goals are to hike to high summits, look your best at the pool, enjoy your local sports leagues with friends, or compete in your favorite endurance events, your spring training defines your summer performance. Here’s how to make the most of spring to have your best summer yet, at any age!

Gradually Increase Training Load

As the weather gets better and the sunsets get later, it’s tempting to ramp up your training hours and intensity all at once. This is a mistake because increasing training workload too quickly can lead to injuries. Although the idea of limiting training increases to 10% per week has been around for a long time, it’s sometimes difficult to define what that 10% increase means. The concept (i.e., don’t add too much work too quickly) is more important than the percentage. To apply this simply to your training, consider the following guidelines:

• Don’t increase duration and intensity at the same time: If you’re going to make your runs longer, don’t make them faster, too. If you’re going to increase the number of days per week you’re strength training, don’t also increase the weight you’re moving. Increasing volume (e.g., training time and frequency) or intensity (e.g., pace or resistance) will increase total training load. To reduce injury risk, only increase one at a time, not both.
• Small increases in cardio add up to big gains: Increasing the length of your cardio sessions by 10 minutes and completing 3 sessions per week leads to an increase of 30 minutes per week. That’s up to two additional hours of cardio per month, depending on your work/rest schedule. In addition to the extra caloric expenditure, that’s two more hours of endurance training that builds your aerobic system! Adding time in small increments (e.g., 10 minutes per session) adds up to big gains but can be safer than adding an extra day of endurance training (reduces recovery time between sessions) or going super long on individual sessions.
• Add intensity if you can’t add hours: If you don’t have time to increase your training hours, adding intensity increases workload and creates more progress from the same amount of training time. To add intensity to cardio, consider adding intervals to your time on a treadmill, elliptical, stairclimber, or bike. Or join a group training class! To increase the intensity of strength training, you’ll want to increase the resistance for various exercises. Although you can do this on your own, the safest way to adjust your strength training routine is to work with a personal trainer.
• Increase caloric intake and recovery time: Any time you ramp up your training workload, you must also increase energy intake to support your elevated energy output – even if weight loss is one of your goals. Without sufficient total energy intake, your post-workout recovery suffers. Instead of making progress, you’ll just get tired and hungry. Similarly, increased training workload must be offset by an increased focus on recovery, meaning good sleep habits and scheduling at least one day of complete rest (no training!) per week.

Build activity-specific fitness

If you’ve been following the same exercise routine since the beginning of the year, or perhaps since the end of last summer, the spring can be a great time to change the focus of your training so you’re prepared for summertime activities.

Now is a good time to consider the demands of the summer outdoor activities you want to participate in, and make sure your training addresses weaknesses that could otherwise limit your summer fun. This is especially important for people who maintain a base of general fitness year round. You’re generally in good shape, but you’re not necessarily prepared for the specific activities you want to pursue in the summer.

If hiking to mountain summits is your summer passion, you may want to spend time this spring focused on leg strength (including some eccentric exercises to handle the downhills better), along with core strength if you’re going to be carrying a pack. If you have big endurance race goals this summer, now is the time to start narrowing your focus from generalized aerobic training to more event-specific training.

Leverage community to stay engaged

With Spring Break, prom and graduation season, spring weddings and holidays, some people struggle to stay consistent with exercise through this time of year. This is when building community can help the most. Set goals with an “accountability buddy”, a training partner who is pursuing a similar goal or training schedule to yours. This could mean attending the same group training classes or meeting each other to train together on specific days of the week. It can also mean signing up for personal training so your trainer is your accountability buddy!

Create a DIY Spring Training Camp

Many professional sports teams bring players together for focused Spring Training Camps as they prepare for competitions later in the year. There are some obvious benefits to training camps for team sports, but you can also benefit from a DIY Spring Training Camp as an individual – without leaving home!

The best way to think about a Do It Yourself Spring Training Camp is that it’s a short period of time (a long weekend or a single week) when you prioritize three things more than usual:

• Training: The training goal of a DIY camp is to get more work done in a short period of time. For endurance athletes, that typically means a long weekend of back-to-back days of aerobic training so the weekly mileage or training hours are greater than normal. If you’re training for a skill-based activity like golf or racquet sports, this can mean practicing or playing on back-to-back days so you’re getting more training reps (e.g., more swings, more serves, etc.) than normal.
• Eating: DIY training camps are an opportunity to focus on fueling your activity and eating mindfully throughout the day. The increased energy expenditure makes fueling more important, exposes weaknesses in your eating habits (like underconsuming calories or failing to hydrate enough), and provides opportunities to test out new fueling ideas (like eating more carbohydrate during endurance exercise or trying out new sports drinks).
• Recovering: The success of a DIY training camp depends on taking recovery seriously between training sessions. That means eating a post-workout meal within an hour after training, going to bed early enough to get at least 8 hours of high-quality sleep, and skipping labor-intensive and/or mentally stressful activities for these few days.

Anyone who has a family and/or career will immediately realize that a DIY Spring Training Camp requires some negotiation and buy-in from others. You’re asking your family to give you the space to train more, rest more, and do a bit less around the house. You might be taking a day off from work to create a long weekend focused on training. But just as Spring Break has a rejuvenating effect on students and Spring Training Camp gives professional athletes a headstart towards championships, a DIY Spring Training Camp can jumpstart your fitness and help elevate your summertime performances to new heights.