5 Ways to Optimize your Workouts Today
- Sep 3, 2015
- 3 min read
Today, so many things can distract us from truly giving our 100% inside the gym. Whether you are training to improve your power, strength, agility, strength, size or even health, so many small co-factors can decrease our performance inside the gym and render our full potential that we originally came into the gym to work on. Apply these 5 quick easy fixes to increase the performance output of your workouts and improve the quality of your lifts.
1. – Hydration. You’ve heard it before and you will hear it again. No matter your goals, fat loss, increase muscle size, increase lifting capacity etc, if you are not properly hydrated it can dramatically cost you big. By the time you are thirsty you are already affecting your performance. The main reasons dehydration has an adverse effect on exercise performance can be summarized as follows:
• Reduction in blood volume
• Decreased skin blood flow
• Decreased sweat rate
• Decreased heat dissipation
• Increased core temperature
• Increased rate of muscle glycogen use 1
So the message here is the following, keep drinking water, not soda or juice more throughout your day and increase the amount before, during and after your training for optimal performance and recovery.
2. – Put that phone down. Too often we find ourselves checking our social media in between sets and exercises and get completely unfocused on what we originally came to do. Leave the outside world outside and focus on what you came to the gym to do. The only time I personally check my phone is to change a song as I use my phone as a radio source or to watch some motivational YouTube clips. But besides those two reasons I leave my phone in my pocket or inside my gym back and never check it. Texts from your boyfriend or girlfriend or even work can side track your mindset and make you lose motivation during a time of full concentration. Are you trying to outperform your last workout? Then leave that phone down and pump yourself to break some iron
3. – It’s not social club hour – Just like your phone is a distraction so are other people. Way too many people go into a gym like it’s happy hour at their local pub or bar. The gym should be a place for you to focus on yourself and your body. Your mind will focus on what you want to do the most to focus that 1hr you have a day into improve your muscles not your talking skills. Leave that time for before or after the gym but not during the middle of your workout.
4. Strategize your plan of attack – Just like in battle you want to know what you will be doing that day. Too often, people walk into a gym and don’t know what they will do that day and randomly select a body part or body group and randomize the machines and equipment they will use. Have a plan of attack. Know exactly what you will train that day, what your weaknesses and strengths are and start from there. Being your workout with a weakness you have; whether its weak legs or small muscles you are trying to get bigger. Are you trying to improve your crossfit movements? Then start with that, don’t leave that for last. Make a plan to which you will know at least 80% of how your workout will be so you can improve the efficiency of the time you are in there and the workout itself. Failing to prepare will lead to failure.
5. Motivate yourself – Motivation is a personal topic. What motivates you might not motivate me and vice versa. But here’s one thing for sure. Whatever motivates you must be ‘re-charged’ daily. It’s like your cellphone. You use it daily and at night you plug it in for charging right? Same concept with your motivation, you need to motivate yourself in different ways constantly to want to push and drive yourself. How do we do that? Change your playlist at the gym or watch some motivational clips to help you. Watch something that will give you chills down your spine. One of my favorite clips is the one below.
1 Asker Jeukendrup, PhD, and Michael Gleeson, PhD. - http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/dehydration-and-its-effects-on-performance
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