Have you ever had that feeling when you step inside the gym that the workout isn’t going to be productive? You just know instinctively that your motivation is lacking and your workout won’t be effective.
You begin a warm up and you find that already you are taking long breaks and checking your phone. This happens when your focus just isn’t there.
At this point, it is so important to have the ability to flip your mindset and say: ‘Okay let’s just do this. One hour, no distractions, let’s go’.
There are a number of things you can do to help you transform your mindset and enable you to smash your gym session! Let’s go through three of them to help you improve the effectiveness of your workouts.
Imagery!
All professional athletes use exercise imagery! Have you ever noticed how all soccer players, rugby payers etc., have headphones in before a game?
They do this to get in the zone. They block out outside distractions and they listen to their favourite artist.
Listening to their favourite songs pumps them up. It enables them to visualize themselves preforming on the pitch i.e. making that all important pass or play that wins the game.
Anyone can use exercise imagery. You don’t even need to have headphones in!Next time you are on the way to the gym, picture yourself hitting a PB on the Bench Press or smashing your old 1000m row time.
The more you practice using exercise imagery, the more benefit you will get from it. The effectiveness of your workouts will improve. Your productivity in the gym will improve. Your execution of the exercise will improve and your results will improve.
Put your mobile aside.
Apart from taking videos of exercises, you need to put away the phone. In my opinion it is the number one distraction for people in the gym.
Leading on from the first point on exercise imagery. The mobile can break our focus and remove us from that zone! When we exercise we want our full focus on the task at hand which is making the session productive
Have you ever received a text message whilst exercising?
Where was your mind?
Still thinking of the text or conversation?
How was your form during the lift?
Were you fully engaged in the set?
People aren’t good at multitasking. It is very hard to put 100 percent effort into more than one task at once. When using your phone in the gym, your focus is shifted. As a consequence, exercise form may suffer. You may be more prone to injury and the effectiveness of your workouts will suffer.
Next time you enter a gym put away the phone and smash your session.
Have a plan in place.
The one thing you don’t want to happen is to arrive at the gym and spend 20 mins wondering what to train.
Remember this saying: ‘Random training and random nutrition equals to random results’
If you don’t have a set workout plan with a specific goal in mind, it will lead to frustration. With frustration comes unproductive training sessions.
To avoid this, set your overall goal. With an overall goal you can design a program by yourself or with the help of a trainer. That will set out a clear path for you to smash your goal.
For example, if you want to increase muscle mass on your legs, you need to put a set plan in place. On a predetermined plan you know you have to train legs on Monday and Thursday to reach your goal! This takes the guess work out of training and the effectiveness of your workouts will increase. On Mondays and Thursdays, you know exactly what you need to do – Legs.
People function better when they don’t have to think about things too hard. They usually follow the path of least resistance. With a planned workout you don’t need to think of what to do, you can just go and get it done – simple.
Other very important areas to consider to increase the effectiveness of your workouts.
You need to make sure your nutrition is on point. You need to have enough energy in your tank to put full effort into your workouts. More specifically, post workout nutrition is something to consider. When we exercise our bodies are in a catabolic state i.e. breaking down muscle. Post workout nutrition will help switch the body from a catabolic state to an anabolic state along with replenishing glycogen stores which in turn will help you recover from the session, be ready for your next session and in the long run help you build muscle. We can do this by having a protein and carbohydrate based meal after training.
Pay close attention to your recovery from gym sessions. If you fail to recover adequately from strenuous workouts, you run the risk of injury. Not only will future workouts suffer, but you may also lose strength, fitness and as a result become frustrated with yourself.
As we touched on, nutrition plays a major role in recovery. However, there are numerous ways to enhance your recovery from training.
Focus on getting good quality sleep. Everybody knows the feeling you get when you get a good sleep. You feel invincible. Sleep is where your body repairs damaged muscle fibers and grows new muscle. Also, while you sleep your body prepares itself from the coming day. So, make sure and prioritise sleep as it will enable you to increase the effectiveness of your workouts.
Implement stress management systems into your daily routine. For example, a walk is an excellent way to destress after a tough day at work. There are many types of stress e.g. physical and mental, one can experience but chronic stress can lead to fatigue, poor sleep, digestive issues, food cravings, loss of appetite, weight gain, weight loss etc.
A walk, a light run, a light swim or a light cycle can be excellent ways to destress. They are also forms of active recovery. A walk, for instance, will get your blood flowing and increase fresh oxygen delivery to your muscles which will aid with recovery. On top of that, any form of active recovery will help remove any waste products in your body from exercise.
Listen to your body closely. If you feel you need some extra time off from the gym, take some more recovery time. There are 365 days in the year. A couple of days, a week or even a couple of weeks of rest and recovery won’t make the slightest bit of difference to your progress in the long run. In fact, it might improve your performance in the gym.
On a final note, don’t worry if you have a bad day or if your week has been disappointing. Everybody has difficult days and people often go through difficult situations in life. If you are going through a stressful time such as moving house, taking and exam or if you have lost a loved one, dial back your training and listen to your body.
Try not to focus on the outcome in the gym but the process.
