When you’re setting or pursuing goals for your training program, make sure that they are your goals and don’t let what you hear about other people’s workouts serve as a distraction. Always keep in mind what it is that you are trying to accomplish and don’t compare yourself to others.

There are tons of different ways that you can get into shape and equally as many activities that you can engage in that can help you to meet your goal.  You may want to be a “Jack of all Trades”, spending time in the gym, being comfortable in a pool and on the track even though you have no intentions of becoming a tri-athlete.    

As long as your program is addressing basic physical needs, there is nothing wrong with choosing to be very specific with the activities that you choose to emphasize.  If you enjoy weight training much more than cardiovascular training, there is nothing wrong with skewing your workouts to include more lifting.

Remember that you have to make sure to include the basic amount of cardio required to maintain your aerobic fitness.  But that being said, if you want to concentrate on power lifting, then go all out to reach your goals and have fun along the way.   

Too often I have had a client tell me that they added a running program to their existing workload, because a friend of theirs was a runner.  This added activity actually detracts from the client’s overall performance because the new workload was too demanding, and incompatible, with their existing program.  And to make matters worse, many times the client doesn’t even enjoy running, they just do it because they think they have to.

When it comes to exercising people have a habit of looking at the different activities that other people engage in with envy, rather than realize that “other people” aren’t doing what they’re doing either.  It’s a weird syndrome, but I’ve seen it happen time and time again.

If your goal is to build strength and add some muscle you must not spend too much of your time and energy doing aerobic work; you have to find a comfortable balance where your strength doesn’t suffer and you have sufficient recovery time between training sessions while meeting your cardiovascular needs.

Conversely, runners can improve their performance by including weight training into their regimen, but need to strike a balance taking into consideration the energy required to run and to weight train, as well as the time needed to recover between workouts.

The point of my rant is to remind you that in order to meet your training goals you need to focus to keep balance in your workouts.  Always keep in mind that what’s important is what you want to accomplish.

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