Training should be hard, but physical activity can be enjoyable

Balancing progress and adherence in your fitness strategy

Striking the right balance of training and physical activity is often overlooked when developing a fitness strategy. While all training is physical activity, not all physical activity is training.

Training is physical activity with the intent of developing strength, fitness, mobility or some other functional capacity.

Physical activity is the act of moving, which often includes training but also extends to other activities such as mowing the lawn or walking around the office.

An example to differentiate them is parking your car further away from the office to increase your walk. This is physical activity and not training for most people unless you continue to overload by parking further from the office, walking faster or doing the walk more often.

Simple training examples are running, cycling, swimming or any other activity with the intent of increased duration, intensity or frequency.

Any activity can be training or physical activity. You could golf faster, for longer or with heavier clubs to turn it into training, if you really wanted to. Likewise, many keep running at the same distance and speed, or lift the same…