By Working out at the gym, outdoors or within your own comfortable setting, is very important if you want to lead a healthy and active life. I do believe that any form of exercise is better than no exercise. Seeing as I’m a gym rat, I’m going to focus my tips from a training perspective, as it’s inline with my experience and specialty. These tips are essential, no matter what kind of training you are doing.
There are quite a number of things that are important for a workout regarding, weight loss, muscle building and general health, in order to successfully achieve your goals.
6 simple strategies that guarantee success in achieving your workout goals.
- Diet. This has to be the most important part of a healthy workout strategy. As I always point out, we cannot our train a bad diet. Perhaps you May have a slight chance as a child, but as adults, no. This is not just for aesthetic purposes, it’s also a health and longevity. Continually eating processed and artificial foods will not serve you in any of these. It’s important to cut out these nutrient void foods, focusing instead on whole foods such as high grade sources of protein and vegetables. Your meals should consist of mainly vegetables with moderate amounts of protein, limiting carbohydrates.
- Hydration. A lot of people embark on a workout and healthy eating plan, forgetting that hydration plays a major role in optimising our bodies potential. Drinking fluids is necessary for replacing any lost during sweating. Dehydration increases heart stress and decreases performance. You will not be able to perform optimally during your training session when dehydrated.
One trick I use is to drink at least 1 litre of water before training, and one during your session. This ensures any lost fluids are replaced, and your efforts can be maintained thought – making it a more effective workout. This also diminishes any headaches and muscular aches that can occur due to dehydration. - Sleep quality. If you don’t allocate enough time for sleep, and quality sleep, you leave yourself susceptible to injury when training. Sleep deprivation also diminishes your efforts during training. One important factor to also note is that excessive exercise can have bring on the same symptoms. This leads to anger, tension, stress, depression and confusion. Sleep deprivation also leaves us open to making negative decisions about our food choices. This is not good news when you are on a healthy eating plan.
Sleep is needed for recovery and rejuvenation, not only for athlete’s, but for the population as a whole. Too many of us are staying up late at night, watching too much TV and attached to our screens constantly. Allow yourself the gift of sleep, and discover how it can change your quality of life. - Getting right into the workout zone by ignoring everything. I think it’s so important to structure your workout as time just for you, no one else. Have this time, be it 30 minutes or an hour, just for you to zone out of your everyday life, and focus on training – really being present. If you block everything else out around you, your workout and goals will be achieved a lot easier and faster.
Working out is also a stress relief, or as I deem “therapy” and it’s a major priority in my life. What will working out do for you mentally, as well as physically? Find out what is important for you, and really tap into that as a motivating factor, pushing you even further along towards achieving your goals. - Always have great music on hand. I don’t know about your gym, but mine has a dreadful playlist that’s on repeat! I find that my favourite music, motivates and energises me to work out even harder. Pick a playlist that resonates with you. It should be something very uplifting and help you to forget the world around you for that short amount of time. Music can also beat boredom that sometimes comes with monotonous training like marathon running, or even push your efforts beyond what you thought possible when lifting weights or circuit training. Always have your headphones and music ready before you hit the gym. I can’t train without mine.
- Strength training. I have saved the best till last! Strength training is above and beyond important, and is essential in building strength, enhancing your metabolisms capacity, and increasing your bone density. Your body will change immensely when you learn how to lift weights properly. Conditioning, reshaping and an athletic look are at your finger tips when you lift weights regularly. Not only do you change physically, but the mental strength that builds as a result, when you push through your limitations and boundaries, is not to be dismissed. Build your confidence in your body and your inner being by lifting weights regularly.
I do hope these tips and tricks have helped you.
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