Six Great Ways To Improve Your Workouts 

Introduction

It’s no secret that working out regularly can provide many health benefits. For one, adding regular exercise to your lifestyle can improve your mental wellness as it can keep stress at bay and make you happier. Exercise can also aid in weight management and improve heart health.

Any type of exercise, as long as done regularly, can do wonders for your mind and body. But, did you know that there are still many ways for you to improve your workouts?  Looking for and implementing techniques that can improve your workouts is actually important to ensure that you’re getting the most and best results from your efforts.

For you to achieve your fitness goals fast, improve your workouts by doing the following: 

Experiment With Different Supplements

Your body will require vitamins and nutrients before, during, and after working out. It’ll be challenging for you to start working out if you don’t have energy, or stick to a workout regime if your body lacks vitamins for your muscles to recover.

Using supplements is a great way to improve your workouts. Pre-workout supplements can improve your athletic performance as they contain ingredients that improve endurance, reduce fatigue, and promote better nerve functioning. Some pre-workout supplements can also improve muscle size and body composition.

Post-workout supplements, on the other hand, can increase muscle growth and lower cortisol levels. Post-workout CBD supplements are also known to effectively minimize muscle pain, making it easier and faster for your body to recover from working out.  

Pay Attention To The Foods You Consume Before Working Out

Nutrition fuels your mind and body when working out. Eating the wrong types of foods or not eating at all before working out will prevent your body from performing at its best and increase your risks of injuries.

Another way to improve your workouts is to pay attention to the foods you consume hours before your sessions. Certain foods are packed with essential vitamins and minerals, and consuming them hours before you work out will boost your mental and physical capacity.

Some of the best foods to eat before working out are:

• • Slow-digesting carbs: Eating more slow-digesting carbs, such as oatmeal and brown rice, hours before working out helps the body burn more fats during the day.
  • Green salads: Aside from being easy to prepare, green salads should be part of your pre-workout nutrition plan because they contain healthy fats that provide energy to your body. Green salads also contain vitamin K that can promote healthy and strong bones.
  • Caffeine: Drinking about 200-400 mg of caffeine two hours before your workout can increase your body’s fat-burning capacity and endurance. Caffeine can also minimize muscle pain, allowing you to do more reps.

Listen To Music

It’s common for people to pack their bags with bottled water, towels, and a set of newly-washed clothes before working out. But, if you want to improve your workouts, you shouldn’t stop there; you should also bring your music player and headphones.

Listening to music can actually improve your workout performance in many different ways. For one, listening to music can help you bike longer and run farther than usual, without even realizing it. Music is also a ‘good’ distraction because it makes you less aware of your exertion, pain, and fatigue.

When setting up your playlist, add songs that belong to heavy metal, hip-hop, and big band genres as these produce rhythms that can keep you going and help you push past those mental barriers.  

Turn Off Your Phone Or Put It On Airplane Mode

Although beneficial, there’ll be times when you need to put down your phone or even turn it off. Spending too much time in front of digital screens can have drawbacks, and one of these is your inability to focus on your workouts.

If you want to improve your workouts moving forward, discipline yourself to turn off your phone or put it on airplane mode the moment you start to exercise. Hearing and seeing notifications on your phone can be very distracting to the point where you’ll spend more time checking your social media profile than working out at the gym.

If you need your phone to listen to music, make sure to set it to airplane mode. If you have another music player, like an iPod, opt to leave your phone in the locker room. You’ll be surprised how productive your workout session will be if you’re not too busy tinkering with your phone.  

Lift Weights

One of the biggest misconceptions people have is that lifting weights is only for bulking up muscles. Women, in particular, often fear lifting weights, thinking that gaining bigger muscles can impact their femininity. However, this isn’t true because lifting weights is actually crucial if you want to improve your workouts.

Lifting weights can provide many health benefits, such as improving posture, gaining bone density, and boosting metabolism. Adding weightlifting routines to your workout regimen also helps you sleep better, so damaged muscle fibers and tissues easily recover.

To start your weightlifting journey, start by lifting an appropriate amount of weight. Ideally, you should start with weights that you can easily lift about 12 to 15 times. It’s also important to use proper form for you to get better results and avoid injuries.  

Try High-Intensity Interval Training

If you’ve been working out for months, doing the same routines or using the same equipment can eventually get boring. Familiarity can eventually become the reason why you’ll lose the interest to continue working out. Fortunately, you can prevent this from happening when you try out high-intensity interval training or HIIT.

As the name suggests, HIIT refers to periods of intense exercise with less intense recovery periods. The work periods of HIIT usually run for 90 seconds, but during this time, you’re expected to give your all, whether it’s doing nonstop burpees or sprinting on an inclined treadmill.

High-intensity interval training can drain your energy, but will be worth it as this allows you to burn more calories in a shorter period of time, increase your metabolic rate hours after exercising, and help you lose fats.

Conclusion

Improving your workouts is essential to attain optimal health, but keep in mind that your body might react differently to these changes.

To avoid any health risks, consult your doctor before making any drastic changes to your workout routine. This is especially important if the workouts you’re following had been approved by your doctor in the past.

But all in all, following the tips in this guide are a safe way to help you improve your workouts, and an improved workout means you’ll achieve your fitness goals much faster.

Have you tried any of the tips in this guide? What worked and didn’t work for you? Let us know in the comments below…

About Theresa Duncan

Originally from Detroit, MI, Theresa has been offering health and fitness advice for the last 30 years while working as an engineer. She decided to turn her passion into a profession, and finds nothing more satisfying than helping others reach their health and fitness goals.