BLOG - You’re wasting your time at the Gym!!
You’re wasting your time at the gym!!
Wait what!? Well, maybe “wasting” is a bit extreme, however we certainly aren’t maximizing the benefits of our efforts. We work hard when we train. Really hard. Yet we neglect many areas of our overall health and fitness that are easier to change and would significantly improve our results, whether they be strength gains, weight loss, or other. Here, we highlight three easy opportunities to improve the results of your efforts at the gym.
There are two aspects to consider here - changes that can improve your performance while exercising and changes to improve your body’s ability to recover, repair and improve itself when outside the gym. The three areas we often neglect, or certainly don’t optimize, that shortchange the results from our efforts at the gym are:
- Nutrition
- Hydration
- Sleep
Nutrition. A lot can be (and has been) said about nutrition. This isn’t to debate the best nutrition program or breakdown of macros. This is simply to remind us that the right nutrition can set us up to perform better when we workout as well as nourish our body to heal itself and improve post workout. Regardless of the diet program you do or don’t follow, chances are you aren’t getting enough protein to assist with muscle recovery.
Hydration. This is huge and the easiest to address. Most of us walk around dehydrated and don’t realize it. A well hydrated athlete can see up to 19% improvement in strength performance vs. being dehydrated and I promise you, most of you are dehydrated. Something as simple as making sure you drink enough water regularly throughout the day can have a dramatic impact on your performance. This does not mean guzzle a litre of water before working out. Hydration is a long term play. Those days you struggle to eke out a 2% improvement in a PR or more commonly those days you don’t seem to have the strength or be “on”…there’s a good chance it’s because of this.
Sleep. Quality, deep sleep it critical. It improves everything from focus and performance to testosterone production and muscle recovery.
It’s silly to think about how hard we push ourselves in our workouts to “get results”, yet don’t think about, or make other changes, that make such a huge impact. Let’s try not to let those butt busting workouts be in vein and make a few easy adjustments to make the most of our efforts.
Asking Coaches for help
As Coaches we want to see you all succeed. Be sure to ask questions if you need help with specific movements, nutrition, mobility etc. We want to see you achieve your goals!.