How to get the most out of your workouts?
Follow these 10 simple rules to improve your performance once and for all.
They could seem so simple but they are so efficient and crucial. Implement them on your training sessions and you will feel the difference in no time.
1.- Train the way you want your body to change.
It is the most important rule!
Your body will adapt to the training’s stress on its specific way. The best way to improve your sporty or fitness skills is practising that sport or activity in particular.
Find your goal, target or sport and prepare your sessions around it to master it. Then, your body will change on the way that you want to. You could do some endurance, strength and flexibility sessions to improve your performance. Although, the better improvement will come practicing the specific sport or activity. After that, add to your training sessions some of those exercises to optimise your performance.
2.- Keep a balance and a healthy diet.
The diet should fuel you with the correct calories intake to cover your energy needs and keep your weight under control.
3.- Real targets, not impossible goals.
Set a reachable goal, have a workout program which help you to achieve it and when you have done it. Then, you need to re-evaluate your program and set a new further goal.
Our performance improves little by little, so when you feel that your body has adapted to a workout, it’s important to add new exercises to it to keep your body evolving and adapting. If you keep the same intensity training, same weights, etc. Your body will not improve.
4.- Workout the whole year.
It’s important to have a backup plan when something come up like: holidays, days off, a trip, etc. Some easy workouts that you could do at home, at the hotel room, at the nearest park, etc. It is hard to keep this up but, the most you do it the most you get used to it.
Don’t forget that the time you expend on this, is for YOU, just for you and your wellbeing.
5.- Get fit gradually.
Get fit or in shape, I’m afraid but.. doesn’t happen Overnight! It is a gradual process. The workout is like a stress signal to our bodies, which our bodies react to it adapting and evolving. So then, we need to give our bodies a bit of time to do this process and becoming fitter by time.
To get that we need to REST, that is crucial because it is when your muscles have time to recover and grow. Your resting day is like another day of training, think of it like that. Write down into your calendar!
6.- Don’t workout feeling sick.
I know it sounds obvious but sometimes we push ourselves to suit our timetable that we forget about our health. You should NOT train if you have any fever at all.
And if you are recovering from an injury you must answer YES to these question before going back training:
- Can you move the injured area?
- Are you energy levels back to normal?
- Have you recovered your range of movement?
- Do you feel any pain?
If any of those are NO, I’m afraid you are not ready to go back. So, take it easy and rest.
7.- Listen to your body.
An effective workout happens when your body adapts to the stress suffered during the session and evolve as an answer to that stress. To improve your performance, you need to start listening to your body. If one day you feel tired and exhausted, don’t worry about it, just rest. It doesn’t mean that you have failed your planning. It just mean that your body need a bit of more time to recover from the previous stress.
- 80% Nutrition.
- 15% Training.
- 5% REST.
8.- Mix up your training sessions.
You need to make sure that your weekly trainings are being balance. Combine some high intensity trainings with moderate ones, have low intensity walk or even take a rest day between them to give your muscles time to recover and repare.
Same theory is applied to HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), Tabata or other type of intervals training. They work at your 70% – 100% heart rate so you need to give yourself a day or two between them.
Do NOT overtraining, that will cause you a fall back and you are under a high risk of get injured.
9.- Plan your sessions ahead.
To achieve your goal, the key is having a Well Schedule Workout planning including your sessions, exercise, series, repetitions, muscle’s group, etc. Have also a workout diary to take notes of your progress, sessions, training loads, weights, etc. That will help you to track your progress in a more visual way.
You will have a plan to follow, which will guide you to your final goal faster.
10.- Warm up and cold down.
It is known that our muscles work better when they are a bit warm up. It increases muscle temperature, blood is flowing from the heart to the muscles, joints are lubricated, etc. So it is essential to do a full body warm up.
The cold down helps to gradually recover normal levels of blood flow at rest. So do not forget to perform a stretch session after your workout.
Write down these 10 rules and follow them next time you hit the gym. You definitely will see an improvement on your sessions.
Remember!
Train your body the way you want it to change, incorporate some healthy habits on your diet, mix up the intensity of your sessions, take notes of your daily progress and achievements, listen to your body and don’t forget to warm up and cold down after your workout. And don’t overtraining or don’t bite off more than you can chew 🙂
M.
