10 Effective Training Tips to Boost Your Workout
No one hits the gym hoping for average results. You go in wanting to get 100% out of every minute, rep, run, and the hard-earned bead of sweat. If you’re planning to lift more, run more, or sweat more, chances are you’re looking to do it as efficiently and effectively as possible. Sure, showing up may be half the battle, but the other half is training not only hard but smart. Make every workout count and get the most out of each one with these 10 game-changing effective training tips that will take your sweat sessions to a whole new level! Even on the days when you’re just not feeling it.
Workout Efficiency: Train Smarter, Not Harder
In this fast-paced world, working out plays second fiddle to a number of daily obligations. Since your time is valuable, you can’t waste a single second on a bad workout - the good ones are tough enough to plan for. Strained reps, poor energy levels, incomplete sets, and shoddy results can leave you feeling like your training efforts are all for nothing. But, there are things you can do before and after you head to the gym to ensure supercharged workouts today, tomorrow, and beyond.
10 Training Tips to Make Your Workout Sessions More Effective
Whether you’re a seasoned gym-goer or new to the fitness tribe, here are 10 incredibly efficient tips and strategies to help you reap the most benefit out of each of your workouts. Inject these insider training tips into your workout routine to supercharge your gym sessions!
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Prepare
Contrary to popular belief, your workout doesn’t start when you walk into the gym — it begins by getting a good night’s rest, and continues throughout the day. So, preparing for an effective training goes beyond just packing your gym bag. It starts with eating the right things at the right times to increase your body’s productivity. In addition to your usual nutritional goals, have in mind that what you’re eating is meant to power you through your workout later on. So, the first training tip of the day - choose wisely and gear up for the battle ahead!
Bonus tip? Take caffeine before your workout. It helps stimulate your central nervous system, so you’ll have a little extra “oomph” in your sweat session. Drink up 30min before you start sweating to give it time to kick in.
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Clear Your Mind and Hype Yourself Up
Heard of the “Healthy mind - healthy body” quote? The first step to an effective workout is getting in the right mindset. If you’re distracted by thinking about your to-do list or the drama of the day, chances are you won’t be focusing on putting in 100%. Once you're feeling focused, remind yourself that you've got this. Not sure you’ve got time for this routine? Think again. Research has indicated that positive self-talk actually leads to improved athletic performance.
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Put on Some Good Music
Positive self-talk isn't the only way to get in the right workout mindset. Making a soundtrack of your favorite jams won’t just put you in a good mood – research shows it may also improve your workout efficiency and performance. Not only can your favorite tunes fire you up for an effective workout, but music also boosts the body’s levels of serotonin and dopamine - hormones known to foster recovery. Get pumped up on your way to the gym and during your workout with songs that make you feel strong, powerful, and like you can do anything. Then, listen to a few relaxing tracks as soon as you finish your workout, to help your blood pressure and heart rate get back to normal. What a combo, right?
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Have a Plan
Having a plan of action before you step foot in the gym can help you avoid wandering around aimlessly while deciding what to do next. This indecisiveness not only adds time to your workout but also makes it less efficient since you’re letting your heart rate drop. A clear training plan is your secret weapon and our insider training tip — knowing what you're doing and why you’re doing it is half the battle.
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Opt for Dynamic Warm-Ups
Don’t stretch in vain. Dynamic bodyweight moves increase blood flow and improve your range of motion without compromising your muscles’ and tendons’ elastic properties, so you can get deeper into each exercise and reap the full benefits of each move. With dynamic stretching, you’ll be moving through different stretches, rather than holding the stretch in place, which gradually raises your body temperature and heart rate and starts to warm up your muscles, priming your body for activity.
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Embrace High-Intensity Interval Training
Strapped for time, but still want to get the max out of your training session? Cut down on your rest intervals. By taking minimal rest, you’re automatically upping the intensity of your workout and keeping your heart rate elevated throughout your training session. This cardio challenge trains your body (and mind) to train efficiently and persevere through fatigue. Minute per minute, high-intensity intervals of exercise—periods of all-out effort interspersed with short, low-intensity “breaks”—come with more training benefits than any other workout.
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Tap the Muscles You’re Using
To get the most out of your workout, you want to make sure the muscles you’re targeting are fully turned on. An easy way to do that? Tap them. Yes, literally. Getting this kind of external feedback helps your nervous system activate in the area. So, whether you want your glutes to fire up in a deadlift or your biceps to engage for a curl, taking a few moments to gently tap the targeted muscle group with your fingers can help get the job done. You can do this before you start an exercise and/or once you’re a few reps in.
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Make Mental Connections
Disassociating from your workout and getting distracted by chatting with your friends is easy. But, if you mindfully focus on contracting the muscle that you're targeting, you can get better results. So, another training tip that will help you make each exercise more effective is to think about the muscles you’re trying to engage, rather than mindlessly going through the motion.
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Take active recovery days
Not doing anything as an effectiveness-boosting training tip? Exactly. When it comes to building muscle and getting the most out of your training sessions, it’s the time you spend outside the gym when the magic really happens. When you work out, you create micro-tears in your muscles. Post-sweat, your body rebuilds those damaged muscle fibers stronger than before. So, your body needs days off to repair, recover, and rest. Without them, you’re missing out on the muscle-making magic and reaping the full effectiveness of your hard work.
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Track Your Progress
Tracking your training sessions is a great way to make sure you’re always challenging yourself and making your workouts truly effective. When you break a sweat, note how many reps and sets you completed for each move, as well as the weight you used for each. The following week, perform the same workout but increase the difficulty by tweaking one or more of the elements. Plus, over time, you’ll get to look back at your progress and see how much you’ve improved. This will get you even more pumped!
Double Your Workout Effectiveness with Our Pro Training Tips
You're entitled to take it easy when you need to. If it turns out you're not feeling your workout for some reason, that’s more than okay. But, if you’re going to schedule your day around the gym, make sure you head in there well-rested, armed with Iron Tribe’s performance-boosting clothing, your strength tank topped off, playlist ready to go, and the following training tips in tow.
The result? A stronger, fitter body. Now, that’s a fitness reality worth reaching for!
