When we think of health and wellbeing, many of our minds jump to one thing: exercise. Of course, we need to exercise to maintain a fit and healthy lifestyle. It’s recommended that the average adult gets one hundred and fifty minutes of moderate aerobic exercise every week, or seventy five minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise each week – and for good reason. Maintaining this level of activity will help you to keep in shape, lose any excess weight, build up muscle, improve balance, maximise flexibility and even help your mental health and emotional wellbeing. But when you’re exercising, you’re going to want to make sure that you’re always getting the most you can from each workout you carry out. There’s no point spending time, money and effort on your exercise routine if you’re not doing it properly – and there are plenty of tips and tricks that can help you to really reap the benefits from each and every kind of exercise you might engage with. Here are a few different steps that can help and that you should really consider working into your routine.
Giving Your Body the Right Fuel
The first step that you need to take to get the most from your workout is to make sure you’re giving your body the right fuel to exercise. When you workout, you will be using a whole lot of energy and you need to be eating the right foods to provide your body with this energy that it needs when it need it. All too many people fail to take their diet into consideration when creating their workout plans and will fail to eat or drink the right things before, during and after their workouts. Food can have a profoundly positive or negative impact on your workout and its results, depending on whether you’re eating the right or wrong things. Before you work out, it’s a good idea to eat foods that will give your body a whole lot of energy during your training session. Good foods to eat pre workout include rice and vegetables, oats, whole grain bread, bananas, or another snack like slices of apple dipped in peanut butter. While you’re working out, it’s best to avoid eating. Instead, focus on staying hydrated and make sure to drink plenty of water. Sure, energy drinks may advertise themselves as ideal for drinking during your workout, but when it comes down to it, water is best. Once you’ve finished your workout, you need to make sure that you eat foods that will help you to recover and build muscle. This means meals that contain protein and carbohydrates. Remember that supplements like a BCAA Supplement can help too!
Making Sure You Can Focus
A lot of people fail to get much from their exercise routine because they don’t focus during their workout session. The most common reason for this? Chances are the person isn’t enjoying the exercise they’re doing and they’re consequently avoiding working as hard as they should, or are being absent minded during the workout itself, consequently not putting in much effort. This is why choosing a form of exercise you enjoy can be much more beneficial for you. You’re likely to focus more on it while you’re doing it because you want to be doing it. So remember that there are more ways to exercise than heading to the gym and running on the treadmill for half an hour. Find a form of exercise that you like. This could be a team sport like football, basketball, rugby, lacrosse, hockey or anything else. It could be a form of individual exercise like ballet, cycling, jogging or running. It could be something alternative like fencing. Whatever takes your fancy, give it a try. You could really enjoy it and you’ll find it much easier to focus and commit to your routine.
Hire the Help and Guidance of a Personal Trainer
If you’re still struggling to practice the self discipline necessary to push yourself as much as you should during your workouts, you could look into hiring a personal trainer. A personal trainer will come up with a workout on your behalf and will make sure that you complete it with energy during your session. They will maximise the input and outcomes in each session, helping you to reach your goals sooner.
Of course, these are just a few different ways that you can maximise your workouts. Hopefully, some of the steps will prove useful to you and you’ll be able to see your results in the near future!
