1. Discover Your Workout Ritual:
Starting out your workout might be the toughest part of exercising. We’ve all been there; lack of motivation, no energy, and a million things to do. Sometimes you quit before you even start. Repeat that enough & starting your workout will be 10 times as difficult. Sometimes it’s as simple as just driving to the gym or changing into your shorts. But for the other times, you might want to start looking at pre-workout supplements. The essentials are caffeine, beta-alanine, & creatine but there are far more variations with far-reaching effects that can help things like focus & increased endurance. These might give you the extra boost you need to get your feet moving. Research extensively & consult with your Doctor or a licensed Dietician before you start taking any supplement.
2. Meet A Workout Buddy:
Some people are their own best motivators. For the majority of us, it’s hard to do anything for ourselves by ourselves. A workout buddy might just be the missing little encouragement you need to get more success out of hitting the gym & exercising. Ask your friends or co-workers if they’d like to work-out with you or at least drive to the gym with you. Don’t pick someone who doesn’t want to exercise or who will complain the whole time. Find someone positive; having a workout buddy is only as good as the buddy. If you’re having trouble finding a friend to workout with, try out Group Fitness. Group Fitness is designed to be more about community growing than about results. Usually, you’ll find it’s a 30-60 minute workout centered on a single style like Yoga or HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). You won’t just have one friend to exercise with but a whole bunch of them ready to sweat alongside you.
3. Educate Yourself:
Many will join a gym or start exercising because they’ve realized the consequences of not being active. They know because they tend to be living those consequences right now. But just stepping onto a treadmill or picking up a free weight won’t bring you guaranteed results. Don’t waste your time & money on setting yourself up for failure. Instead, invest in your success. There are a plethora of different fitness styles & exercises for you to explore. Feeling overwhelmed? Ask your gym or fitness facility for a free consultation with a Personal Trainer or Fitness Expert. Education will help ensure success. Be open-minded while at the gym & learn how to not just work hard but effectively & efficiently. Before long, you might become the Fitness Expert everyone turns to for help.
4. Drink Plenty of Water:
Drinking water is among the most underrated & oft forgotten part about getting into shape. Water helps replenish our bodies, promotes digestion health, muscle growth, fat lose, curbing cravings, & much more. Think you feel hungry but not sure? Drink some water. Most people don’t drink enough & instead drink sugary drinks like soda or sports drinks. Drinking water is especially important when you’re exercising or dieting. Water will fill you up & help stop things like late night hunger or the afternoon blues. When you exercise, depending on how intense your routine was, you may need to drink even more than the normal recommended amount. You have probably heard you should have eight 8 oz. glasses of water a day. That’s about half a gallon, which may seem like a lot but you should be striving for more. For men, you should drink about a gallon of water a day. For women, it’s about 32 oz. less than men but still close to a gallon. Weigh yourself before & after your workout. For each pound lost, drink that many 8 oz. glasses of water to rehydrate yourself. Also, drink cold water & your metabolism will have to work a little bit harder, burning extra calories along the way.
5. Burnout:
Just finish a killer strength routine? Feel like you’ve expended every ounce of energy or do you feel barely tired? Try a Burnout Exercise to finish things off before you start your cool down. Try to pick an exercise that uses the muscles you’ve just worked out & see how many times you can go before your muscles give out. Depending on the amount of reps you can do, this should be a good indicator as to how hard you worked those muscles. Can barely do any? You should keep at the same weight or even consider dropping it slightly for the next time & replacing with more reps. Did you do 10 or more repetitions for your Burnout? Try raising the weight for the next time. These are especially useful for strength routines & can show you how much progress you’ve been making.
6. Eat More Smaller Meals Throughout The Day:
Dieting can be a recipe for disaster. When you aren’t someone who regularly exercises & doesn’t eat the healthiest, making too many lifestyle changes can shock the system & actually set you up for failure rather than success. Ease into both, especially dieting. Instead of cutting carbs or counting calories, try eating smaller meals throughout the day. I personally aim for six smaller meals throughout the day, whether I’m training or not. By doing this, you help promote digestion health, keeping your metabolism activated throughout the entire day, even when you sleep. This allows you to burn more calories within your normal daily routine. You should never feel hungry nor should you ever feel full.
7. Watch That Diet:
Many will exercise regularly without seeing the immediate results they’re striving for. Sometimes exercise can only do so much. The answer may lie in what you are taking in rather than what you are putting out. If you are looking to grow lean muscle while losing weight or burning fat, exercise alone may not get you there. A proper diet will give you that extra push to living a healthier, fitter life. Try eating more Protein with fewer Carbohydrates. Substitute water for other drinks & find other healthy substitutions that deliver the same flavors you love. Try getting the healthier alternative when you go out to eat or try without sauces or extras. Look at sweet potatoes, Greek yogurt, egg whites, multi-grain, chicken, fish, unsalted almonds, & yes, even salads (just watch the dressing). Ask your Doctor or a Nationally Certified Dietician to see what changes you can make to get the most out of your diet.
8. Stretch:
Flexibility is crucial to preventing injury & to helping with the little things like getting upstairs or out of your car. It helps with muscle recovery & helps push lactic acid out of your muscles. Stretch at the end of every routine to help lower your heart rate safely & help promote healthy muscle recovery. It’s also great to do in the morning & helps with Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (or DOMS). Be mindful of the muscles that hurt or the ones you’ve exercised especially hard & research how to properly stretch out those areas. This will help guarantee fitness success & success in life.
9. Schedule Your Workout Into Your Daily Routine:
Do you feel like you can never make time to exercise? Set aside a half-hour to an hour every couple days as a “Date with Yourself”. Try to schedule it in the morning but don’t fret if you can’t. The morning is best because you can get your exercising out of the way before you even start your day. It might be annoying but it will keep you honest & is especially important in the early stages of exercising, as it helps create & maintain the habit of working out. Once you can view exercise as not just a chore but a part of your complete daily schedule & maybe even something to look forward to, the results will come & so will success.
10. Do It For Yourself:
What motivates you differs from person to person. Some people exercise because it helps with stress. Others do it to lose weight & feel more confident. Whatever your reason is, remember that not doing it only hurts you in the end. Part of exercising is about keeping yourself honest. Don’t worry about how it didn’t work the time before or how you forgot to workout yesterday. Give yourself a break and focus on today & focus on yourself. Be mindful of how you feel & challenge yourself to do something that intimidates you. Education & willpower will help overcome those obstacles. Don’t let the fear of failure creep into your consciousness. And if it does, just tell yourself, “I WILL NOT FAIL”. If you can work hard now, you can play hard tomorrow. Have some fun!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ryan Manning is the General Manager of MyGym Fitness Center. Ryan has been with the company since 2013 and is passionate about providing the best gym experience possible. Want to learn a little bit more about Ryan? Stop in to MYGYM Fitness Center and say "Hi!"