5 Ways to Improve your Training
Below are some tips to up your training game, and while some may be obvious, you may find others more unconventional.
Stop focusing on how many calories you burned: Rather than obsessing over the biggest calorie burn, ask yourself if you really enjoy that movement in the first place; most of the time those fancy watches we wear don’t even accurately calculate calories anyway. If you don’t enjoy it, move on and find something better that you’ll be more likely to stick with.
Learn what true failure feels like: While we shouldn’t always be pushing to failure, especially if new to the gym, you should eventually know what it feels like to hit true muscular fatigue and lift maximum weight. If you don’t, odds are pretty good you’ll never progress and learn what your body is truly capable of accomplishing. Embrace the burn, the shakes, and scrunched up, tomato face!
Follow a program: Oftentimes the people who stay stuck in #2 aren’t working with a trainer/following a program. Consider programs your map to training–without it, you’re lost. A good program should have you repeating the same exercises for 4-12 weeks and get progressively harder by adding load, volume, or both. Some programs can be found online for free, some for a small fee, and some trainers even design individualized programs catered to your needs (like me!).
Don’t compare yourself to others: It’s not uncommon to admire another’s physique, lifts, and/or performance and berate ourselves for being subpar (No? Just me?). While that maybe doesn’t directly affect our training, it probably doesn’t make training very fun if we always think we’re trash. Remember everyone has different genetics and body structures, and even if two people followed the exact same training regime and diet, they’d still look different and that’s the beauty of diversity.
Have pre & post workout meal: If you want to see me roll my eyes, come into training and tell me you haven’t eaten anything in 4-5 hours. In fact, you don’t even have to tell me because it’s easy to spot: you’re sluggish, not hitting your usual weights, lightheaded, and probably hangry. Please have a meal (carbs and protein are a must) two hours before training or a snack one hour before training. Bonus recovery points if you have another meal or snack 1-2 hours after training too!