You’re serious about living a healthy lifestyle, and you know that exercising regularly is an important part of that. You’ve made time in your busy schedule and curated the perfect workout playlist. You change into your favorite workout clothes and give yourself a mental pep talk. Now it’s time to get your sweat on!
We all have our own goals when it comes to exercise, and those goals often determine what it is that you want out of your workout sessions. Some people exercise in order to improve or maintain their physical or mental health while others are looking to enhance their athletic performance by building strength or endurance. No matter what your specific goals are, we can all agree on one thing–it’s important to make every second count.
No matter what your workout goals are, there are a few simple strategies you can implement to help maximize your results. And don’t worry, we aren’t talking about spending hours at the gym or increasing your time on the treadmill.
Before Your Workout
Maximizing your workout results is about a lot more than the workout itself – it starts with what you do before your workout even begins. If you are looking to get more out of each sweat sesh, here are a few things to try before your workout even begins.
Curate a Playlist
Chances are, you already have a workout playlist on your phone, but if not, you may want to reconsider. Not only can music make your workouts more exciting, but it can also help to increase your motivation and empower you to push harder than you would otherwise. In fact, research has shown that fast-paced music can not only make your workout more pleasurable, but it can also help you improve your athletic performance. So before you lace up your shoes for your next workout, take some time to curate a playlist full of your favorite upbeat and empowering songs. Better yet, avoid the monotony of listening to the same few songs all the time by creating multiple playlists that you can rotate through during the week.
Have a Consistent Plan
We all know that consistency is important when it comes to reaching your fitness goals. But It’s often far too easy to skip a workout today and tell yourself “oh, I’ll just do it tomorrow.” And then before you know it the weekend is here and you haven’t exercised at all. We’ve all been there, and we know it can be a hard cycle to break. Thankfully, creating a concrete workout plan can help.
Sit down with your calendar and see where you can carve out time each day to get in 30 minutes of movement. Can you set aside time before or after work? What about right before dinner or on your lunch break? Whatever time works for you, help yourself stick to it by writing it down or even blocking out the time on your calendar.
Fuel Your Body
To maximize your results, it’s important to fuel your body with the right nutrients. When choosing your pre-workout fuel, skip the energy bars and sports drinks and instead choose healthier, whole foods like fruit smoothies or whole-grain pancakes. Not only do these healthier foods contain all the carbs, proteins, and other nutrients that your body needs, but they also won’t weigh you down with extra calories, unnecessary sugars, or artificial ingredients.
You may also consider adding a natural, whole food supplement to your pre-workout routine to give your body an extra nutritional boost.
During Your Workout
Most of us don’t have a whole lot of time during the day to get our workout in. Thankfully, 20-30 minutes can be plenty of time if you know how to make the most of it.
Pick Activities You Enjoy and Mix It Up
Not everyone likes to do burpees, lunges, or lift weights. Some of us like to walk, jog, run, hike or swim. Instead of trying to force yourself to do a workout you dislike, picking activities that you enjoy will help increase your motivation and make you more likely to stick to your fitness plan.
However, there is a catch–doing the same workouts every day can be monotonous. To avoid this, make sure you mix things up. If you go to the gym, dedicate a day to legs, a day to cardio, a day to arms, and so on. If you are exercising at home, this may look like a HIIT workout one day and going for a walk or doing some yoga the following day. Not only will mixing up your workouts like this help keep things interesting, but it will also help you avoid overworking certain muscles while underworking other ones.
Increase The Intensity
If you are just starting out on your fitness journey, you’ll want to keep things light for a while to avoid straining your body. However, as you go along you’ll want to start increasing the intensity. By doing so, you will be able to continue to improve your performance and endurance without having to increase your workout time. Depending on the workouts you choose to do this may look like running faster, lifting heavier, or reducing the rest time between exercises.
Track Your Progress
Wherever you are on your fitness journey, it’s never too late to start tracking your progress. Take a second to think about your fitness goals and what you can track that would show when you are making progress. If your goal is to lose weight or burn belly fat, your body measurements may be the best indicator of progress. If you want to increase your strength you may want to keep track of how much weight you are lifting. Tracking the number of reps you can do or the distance you can run are both great ways to measure improvements in endurance.
Whatever you are going to track, write them down in a dedicated notebook or put them into a fitness app on your phone. This way, you have a way to visually see the progress you’ve made, which will help keep you motivated to stay on track.
After Your Workout
Your workout may be over, but that doesn’t mean you’re done. Once you’ve toweled off and rehydrated, it’s time to take steps to help your body recover.
Re-fuel Properly
Similar to your pre-workout routine, you’ll want to make sure your post-workout routine includes fueling your body with the proper nutrients. In particular, there are two types of nutrients that your body needs to help with the recovery process – proteins and carbs. Proteins are important to include in a post-workout meal because they provide your body with the amino acids it needs to build and repair muscle tissue. Meanwhile, carbs help replenish your body’s glycogen stores, which are what is used to provide you with energy. During your workout, glycogen is used as fuel for your exercise; however, the energy from these stores is also needed to help your muscles recover afterward. By adding carbs to your post-workout meal, you are replenishing your glycogen stores so your muscles have what they need to recover.
Just like with your pre-workout meal, it’s important to skip the processed foods that are full of trans fats and sugars. Instead, stock up on whole foods that will provide your body with plenty of protein, carbs, and other important nutrients. Some of our favorite post-workout foods include oatmeal, whole grain bread, eggs, Greek yogurt, avocados, bananas, nut butter, and natural post-workout supplements.
Get Some Sleep
Sleep is more important to your workout routine than you realize. Research shows that you need to give your body time to rest and recover before the next session. Without an adequate amount of sleep, your athletic performance may begin to decline, and you’ll be more likely to experience increased muscle soreness or a decrease in motivation. To avoid this, try to get about 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night.
Give Yourself An Edge
No matter what your fitness goals are, finding ways to maximize your workout time can help you achieve the best results possible. Here at New Earth, we understand that nutrition plays a big role in this. That’s why we created products like Flex, Drive, and Focus, our all-natural supplements designed to fuel your body with high-quality nutrients that will help you get the most out of your workouts.
The best part? You can put any of them to the test risk-free with our 60-day money-back guarantee.