Getting into shape can be incredibly rewarding. However, it doesn’t come easy. Things that work great when we start out, soon reach their limits pretty quickly. That means, that if we want to move things to the next level, we need to plan things carefully if we are to train intelligently.
In this post, we will look at 5 top tips to improve your results at the gym.
5 Ways To Boost Your Gym Results
Getting into good shape is hard work but, fortunately, it doesn’t have to be complicated.
Here, we outline 5 great ways that are sure to guarantee you get better results from your sessions at the gym:
Know Where You’re Headed
There’s no point going to the gym if you don’t know why you’re doing it. Do you want to lose weight or are you looking to bulk up and build muscle? Or perhaps there a particular part of your body you want to work on? Exercises focusing on building biceps aren’t going to help fight off the appearance of the dreaded man boob, for example!
Whatever it is you want to achieve, look up a plan designed to help you reach your goal. Set a timeframe you want to reach your target in and focus on the exercises and lifestyle routine that is going to maximize your success.Just getting to the gym regularly on its own is a decent achievement. However, if you want to improve your results, setting specific targets is vital to success.
Track Your Progress
As important as knowing where you are going is, knowing where you are now is perhaps even more significant. As we train, what we can achieve changes. What was a struggle at first becomes easier. Whilst that’s a sign of progress, if we keep doing the same thing, we won’t be able to get much further. You may have noticed people with little black books at the gym. Whilst it might be a conquest list, it is more likely a logbook of their progress!
Whether or not you want to keep a logbook, it is important to track your progress from session to session. This means beating the number of reps from your last session, running further or faster, or lifting heavier weights cleanly. Obviously, if your routine has 10-15 exercises in it, a book is going to make tracking this a lot easier. Tracking your progress will also improve motivation and give you a sense of achievement.
Things Don’t Begin And End At The Gym
Some people hit the gym, then think they have free reign to do whatever unhealthy thing they want to afterward. As nice as it would be for that to be true, it’s not how things work. If you want to improve your gym results, this is also definitely the wrong mind-set! Lots of late-night partying and booze might sound like fun, but it is going to prevent you from getting the best gains at the gym.
Not enough sleep, or disturbed sleep from alcohol use, will reduce body recovery time. It will also prevent you from taking on the right sort of nutrition. You also want to be eating the right foods to boost your performance when you’re at the gym. High protein foods are a good way to ensure you have enough energy without having to worry about putting on too much weight.
Support Your Routine With Targeted Supplements
Proper nutrition is vital when it comes to recovery from an intense workout at the gym. Protein can be particularly important when it comes to muscle recovery. Better recovery ensures you are able to perform better the next day. Increased protein intake also helps to ensure depleted energy stores are replenished faster.However, it can be difficult (and expensive) to get enough protein into your diet when training.
Fortunately, supplements make getting the nutrition you need much easier. Indeed, anyone looking to maximize gym results will likely want to get protein supplements into their diet. This is especially important for vegetarians, vegans, or people looking to cut down on their meat consumption generally. Protein supplements are also a great way to help you build muscle mass as well as simply recovering.
Choose The Right Outfit
This tip might surprise you, but it’s true, your outfit matters when doing exercise! There are numerous reasons for this.This includes both physical and psychological benefits. For example, everyone has heard about ‘dressing for success’. Interestingly, studies show this can be just as effective in the gym as it is in the world of work. Indeed, the right clothing can positively influence our mental state, boost confidence, and lead to improved performance.
Putting on a scraggly old t-shirt might seem fine for a session at the gym. However, if we feel more self-conscious when working out our focus is diluted and diverted. Equally, the right clothing can sharpen our focus. With more people working from home at the moment, more people will have given working in their pajamas a try. If you have, you’ll probably have noticed a loss of productivity. This translates to the gym too!
The wrong sort of clothing can also get in your way and be uncomfortable.In addition, when we are at the gym we tend to sweat more. If the material isn’t highly absorbent, this gets uncomfortable and potentially embarrassing fast. If we are uncomfortable or hampered in some way by our clothing, then we will get worse results for our efforts. 100% cotton clothing that is able to handle extreme movements without tearing is the best way to go.
Getting the best results from the gym takes time, effort, and commitment. If you want to improve your gym results, you also need to know what you want to achieve. When you know this, you need to track your progress and set new mini-goals each week. Good work at the gym should be backed up outside of the gym with plenty of sleep and a healthy diet and lifestyle. Supporting this with the right supplements and a suitable outfit for working out in, will also feed into even greater results!