5 Tips for Maximising Fitness Results
5 Tips for Maximising Fitness Results
If you’re reading this then the chances are that you want to improve yourself in body, in mind and in life. I truly hope that I can help you do so in some way.
With this in mind, today I’m going to go through my top 5 tips for maximising your results at the gym. A few small and easy changes that you can make which could make all of the difference to your success.
1 – Educate yourself
The human body is an amazing and complex thing, it’s resilient, resistant, delicate, strong, beautiful and way too smart. It adapts to whatever we throw at it very quickly. In order to maximize your results its important to stimulate the body in multiple ways which will cause it to adapt and evolve. The levels of stimulation needed to grow or change vary dependent on your genetics, lifestyle, nutrition and training age. If you aren’t lucky enough to be able to afford a one to one personal trainer who can ensure that your body is subject to sufficient and varied methods of stimulation, then my advice to you is this: EDUCATE yourself on your anatomy and physiology. Your body is just a series of levers and pulleys, in order to maximize stimulation you have to be able to manipulate these levers in many ways. By learning where your muscles are, what they do and how they work you will be able to improve your lifts, strength and ability to create tension in amazing ways. Then you will see your results skyrocket. Plus it’ll impress the shit out of your friends when you start talking about mechanical drop sets and set fire to their triceps demonstrating your new skills.
2 – Train with an open mind
Never stop learning or asking questions. There is always something that someone can teach you, no matter how much you think that you already know. To be truly strong it’s important that you are flexible, powerful, injury free, can endure and resist fatigue. This can only come from varying your training approach as much as possible. Yoga will help you lift, lifting will help your yoga. Pilates will improve your squats etc. We are all part of an amazing global fitness community who are all here to help each other become better. Make the most of the resources around you and try something new this week.
3 – Leave your ego at home.
Guys this one is aimed at you, lifting too heavy is going to get you nowhere. I have been lucky enough to train some amazing clients, both men and women. However, in my years in various gyms when it comes to training smarter, girls have guys completely beaten. In my experience, women train for a purpose and to feel what they’re working. If it doesn’t burn, they want to know why, because of this they’re not afraid to go lighter in order to feel it. Guys, we all go as heavy as we can possibly lift regardless of form or safety in a lot of cases. STOP IT.
Now don’t get me wrong, this theory is sometimes off. I often see too many women not lifting heavy enough in fear that they will “get big”. Please don’t be afraid of going heavy girls, it will only create an amazing physique that you can be proud of. On the other hand I see a number of guys who have convinced themselves that bicep curling 4kg dumbbells for 8 reps is going to do them some good because they’re “maximizing tension”. Don’t be a pussy! The art for both sexes is to be able to create a relationship where the load is sufficient and the tension maximized in order to stimulate a small amount of damage and a necessity to repair.
4 – Train hard and smart
- Do 1 more rep
Every time you’re in the gym, commit to making a tiny improvement. One more rep, every single time. One rep doesn’t sound like much, but one rep every workout starts to add up.150 extra reps a year will represent many tons of additional weight lifted. An extra 100 meters run each workout will add up to many total miles. Make the commitment to be better—every single session.Sometimes you’re having a rough day. Do one more rep. Sometimes it hurts. Do one more rep. Sometimes you’re in a rush. Do one more rep.It’s going to add up over time and you will be pleased with the results!
- Use visualization to perfect the movements
Do the same thing, but do it using visualization techniques, you can contract the target muscles harder, perform the movement smoother and maintain a more consistent stride length. To do this: before the set, close your eyes and imagine yourself going through the movement in your head, from setup right through to completion. Visualize in as much detail as possible how you will perform it, include your breathing rate, contracting the right muscle at the perfect time, feel the feeling of the weight in your hands as you do it.The more real you make the visualization, the more effective it will be. This is a skill that can be practiced and learned over time. It’s going to lead to better execution of the movements, and with it, better outcomes.
5 – You can’t out train a bad diet.
This one is really simple. Eat for your goals, for long-term satisfaction and not short-term. Moderation is nothing, if you want results, you have to eat like it. No cheating, no drinking, no messing about. Every nutritional decision you make has a consequence to your body, try to make the right choices, stay strong, believe that it will come and above all be CONSISTENT.
Everyone is different, if one diet hasn’t worked it doesn’t mean you should resign yourself to a life of watching TV and eating crispy creams. Every individual will respond to different foods in different ways, experimentation is key to finding out what works for you. Once you’ve found it, follow it consistently and you will get your results. A few things i will say which should serve as a good place to start;
- Look after your digestive health
- Don’t binge
- Control carbs
- Eat plenty of green vegetables
- Eat protein at each feeding opportunity
- Drink plenty of water
- Stay away from all of these Juice/shake/meal replacement diets. I can’t stress this one enough, DO NOT DO IT.
- Eat real food, if a trainer/Herbalife salesman tells you otherwise. Slap them.
Do you want to get into the best shape of your life and improve your health? Find out more about my online personal training service.
