If you want to be fit forever, working out on a daily basis must be a part of your identity, not something you do once in a while. The most intelligent way to use the motivation that brought you to reading this page is to create a plan for building a daily workout routine into your life, rather than looking for ways to ‘get fit fast’. Workout every day, and you’ll be in the best shape of your life in 3 months, and one of the fittest people you know in 6 months.
Cardio training is the easiest approach to daily training, and in my opinion (and the opinion of Men’s Health Cover Model Owen McGibbin), you really need to do an equal amount of both cardio and strength each week.
The best way to increase your cardio is to get yourself to associate more pleasure to working out than pain. I learnt how to do this when I decided to run the London Marathon in 2006. I used the same principle as in ‘how to get back in shape: strength training’ – set a daily minimum and maximum target, and do the minimum every day, no matter what.
For a cardio workout, the minimum for me was to get outside and walk for 5 mins, then jog really lightly for another 5. You might be thinking “that’s not a workout!”, and you’re sort of right. The thing is, the daily minimum is exactly that – the minimum I would let myself get away with. My target was to go for 15-25 mins each day after the 5 min warmup, and logically that should have been my daily minimum. That strategy is fine for the days when you feel like working out. But it’s useless on the days when you really don’t feel like working out, and you’re extremely tempted to skip the session. Those are the days you do the bear minimum – just put your training gear on and get outside.
Why is it so important to have a bear minimum? Because if you don’t workout at all, you are training your mind and body to not work out. When you miss one training session, you’re twice as likely to miss training on the following day. If you do the bare minimum, you’ll still be training your mind to build the daily workout habit, and you’re much more likely to train properly the next day – especially when you feel like you didn’t get a full workout today.
How to do the cardio sessions
When starting out, aim for 5 mins warmup jogging; 10 minutes of slightly faster running; 5 mins warm down jogging. If you’re really out of shape, you can even start with fast walking, and build up to running for a full 20 minutes.
When this becomes easy for you, start interval training.
Do your cardio sessions 3-4 times per week to torch fat, and do the strength training workouts to build muscle. Train daily for 6 months, and you’ll be one of the fittest people you know.
