Daily Workout Routines Vs Training – What is the Difference?

Working Out But Not Seeing Results

Is there a difference between having daily workout routines and training? Or put another way, is there a difference between training and working out? Are you working out but not seeing results?

There is a big difference between training and working out. For many years, I have had daily workout routines. For example, my main cardio had been the elliptical and/or taking a walk for about an hour.

For several years, I took a walk through the park in the photo above for about an hour, but I never saw any changes in weight loss or fitness. You also might have a similar routine of walking around your neighborhood or running on the treadmill or doing elliptical several times a week.

I realized though that I was not making much progress. I still could not run, not even on a treadmill. I had been wary of running since I tore my medial meniscus fifteen years ago, and I was convinced that I’d never run again.

So, I still did elliptical for 3 to 3.5 mph for 30 or 45 min.  I was working out but not seeing results.

If you have been working out for years doing the same or a similar routine, and your body has not changed much, then you are facing the same question.

Why are your daily workout routines not having much of an impact? The answer is because you are ‘working out’, but not ‘training’,

S.A.I.D

SAID stands for Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. And that is the difference between daily workout routines and training.

A daily workout is not necessarily imposing new demands on your body. In fact, that is the amount of exercise your body expects.

As a result, your body adapts to that level of exercise and if you do not increase the demand, your body will just stay where it is.

Training on the other hand keeps adding new demands to your body to reach new goals. Training will impose new demands on your physical conditioning and your body will respond.

That is the difference between training towards a goal and having the same daily workout routines that you have been doing for years.

Once you make this shift, you will feel and see results and know that this is not just about semantics.

The Evolution of Daily Workout Routines to Training

So, how does your workouts evolve to training? You have to incorporate an aspect of exercise that is commonly left out of ‘working out’. That aspect is intensity.

Without more intensity, you will not be making additional demands for your body to change and adapt. Up the intensity and watch what happens.

How do you increase intensity? There are many variables that you can increase, sets, weight, time, distance, but for cardio, the first variable you can focus on is your target heart rate.

Start with a target of 50 to 65 percent and build up from there.

You can calculate your target heart rate here.

For more details on various types of cardio training (as opposed to daily workout routines), please check out these 5 cardio workouts to shred fat in just 12 weeks.

Have you been working out and not seeing results? Do you think that your daily workout routines need some extra intensity? Please join the conversation!