Some people will say they exercise, others will refer to their training.  Are they talking about the same thing? Technically, no.

The words ‘exercise’ and ‘training’ are not really interchangeable because there are key differences between them in regard to the goals, approaches and consistency each one requires.

Here are the definitions of exercise and training and those significant differences.

Exercise
Exercise is really anything you do in a day that would enhance or maintain physical fitness and overall health and wellness.

Training
Training is the physical activity you choose to do with the sole purpose of achieving some type of measurable performance goal.

Three key differences

Goals

  • Exercise: The fundamental goal of exercise is to be healthy. It could take the form of enjoying a brisk walk after dinner, going for a bike ride, lifting weights or participating in a fitness or yoga class.
  • Training: The fundamental goal of training is to reach a performance goal.

While some people assume the word is for professional athletes, that’s not the case. A person could train for a marathon or a weight-lifting competition. The goal could also be a physical task such as climbing a particular set of stairs without losing breath, dropping a specific amount of weight or changing a part of the body.

For example, in the case of someone wanting to decrease their percentage of body fat or lose 25 pounds, they have to decide what the measurable goal looks like, what's the plan to get there and when they’re going to get thereby.

Approaches

The difference in the approaches to exercise and training is what really sets the two apart.

  • Exercise: This is done in a far less structured way than training. If a person is working on their overall health and wellness and skips a walk after dinner, missing it hasn’t impacted their ability to get their desired result because the person isn’t looking to achieve something by a specific time.
  • Training: This has a systematic approach so a performance goal is reached in a specific time frame. If a training session is missed, that’s detrimental to achieving the goal because the person is progressing toward their end goal using a periodized plan.

In sport, that goal might be a certain time, speed or height to hit. For someone who’s training for a weight-lifting competition, their periodized plan is geared to peaking at certain times.

The distinction is the person is training toward a measurable goal within defined parameters.

Consistency

  • Exercise: This is more flexible than training. A person can change the activity they’re doing and it won’t really affect the results of becoming healthy.

Maybe they go to the gym and take fitness classes during the winter, but when the weather turns nice, they decide to go for hikes or bike rides. If their schedule at work is busy one week, they might only go to a class one day and then try to get a quick run in on another day.

Those scenarios are OK because there isn’t a goal they’re trying to reach in a specific timeline.

  • Training: This requires a person to follow specific programming that gets them to a certain goal so it’s important to stick with it and be consistent. The programming can be re-evaluated and changed, but the same principle continues–maintaining a routine to reach a results-based goal.

Training is also usually more intense and focused than exercise.

What should a person do?
Training is not better than exercise or vice versa. It really comes down to what your goals are and how you like to operate.

If your priority is to maintain your health, then exercising will generally be sufficient and you can choose whatever activities you like the best.

If you want to get leaner or be stronger or faster, you need to be training.

It’s known that the best exercise or training is the one you’ll stick with.

If you need a plan that helps you with your discipline, then set a goal for a specific task you want to achieve within a certain time frame and build a plan to train for that goal.

However, if you thrive when you hear about a new yoga studio opening or you love hiking on the weekends, then your execution is more about setting time aside to get in enough exercise each day.

What’s best for you really comes down to what approach you’re going to do. Look at your own motivations and your discipline in order to reach that.