Ways to Enhance Your Workouts
Eat, move, sweat, sleep, repeat… that’s how you get results, right? Absolutely! But, if you really want to get the most out of your time in the gym, you need to learn how to train smarter, move smarter, and recover smarter.
Enhance your workouts today
The internet is loaded with fitness advice, but it’s hard to separate what really works from what’s nothing more than a fad.
Whether you are trying to build endurance, lose fat, or gain muscle, there are several things you can do to get there faster. Here are our top five unique ways to enhance your workouts.
1. Keep Your Tank Full
If you’re trying to build muscle, it’s the hours and the days after your workout that really count.
That’s when your body does the work of building new muscle and repairing damaged tissues after a grueling workout. To maximize muscle gain, you’ve got to make sure your body has the raw materials and nutrients it needs to build those muscles.
If you’re into fitness, then you’re probably already eating a clean, high-protein diet, but that might not be enough.
Even if your diet includes plenty of lean protein, leafy green veggies, and complex carbs, you could still be lacking in key vitamins and minerals. It can be very hard to get all the nutrition you need just from food, especially if you’re working out a lot.
Your body burns through a lot more of these necessary raw materials during recovery, so nutritional supplements are especially important for athletes.
But, the one size fits all vitamins you get from the big box store aren’t the best option either. They’re often full of dyes and fillers that aren’t all that great for you. And, they are usually lacking in certain essential nutrients that athletes need while having too much of others.
Check out this list of personalized vitamin companies to get exactly what you need for optimum performance… nothing more, nothing less.
2. Recover Smarter
When you’ve been busting your butt and hitting the gym hard, it can really take a toll on how you feel. Overdoing it can actually slow down your progress, so rest and recovery are essential parts of achieving your fitness goals.
After a tough workout, your energy stores are drained, and your muscles and tissues need time to repair.
If you want to get back in the gym sooner, you need to learn how to recover smarter.
Sure, you could just down a sports drink, gorge on some protein and carbs, and sleep until your body no longer feels like a wet dishrag, but there are faster and more effective ways to help your body recover.
One of the smartest ways to help your muscles recover, rehydrate your body and replenish essential nutrients fast is with IV therapy.
IV therapy formulas for athletes can be customized to provide exactly what your body needs to get back in the game. An IV drip will replenish your fluids and B vitamins immediately, which gets your energy levels back to where they need to be ASAP.
To help your muscles and tissues recover faster, go for an IV drip that includes antioxidants like glutathione and magnesium.
3. Roll Out the Stiffness
How many hours a day do you spend hunched over your phone, a computer, or some other marvel of modern technology? We’re betting it’s a lot! Not only is this bad for your waistline, but it also creates tension in several important muscle groups, like your back, shoulders, and hips.
The traditional way to get rid of tension before a workout is by stretching, and that’s still important for preventing injury.
However, there’s a smarter way to get rid of the stiffness that can slow you down when you start your workout. A six-inch wide, round piece of heavy-duty Styrofoam, called a foam roller, is the secret to eliminating all that tightness.
Before you hit the pavement or grab those weights, try lying or sitting on a foam roller to massage away your tight muscles.
You’ll want to spend a minute or so focusing on each major muscle group to get the most benefit.
Key areas to work on include your calves, lats, hips, back, and quads. Spend some extra time on any muscles that are especially tender.
4. Talk to a Nutritionist
What you eat and when you eat it has a key impact on your endurance and performance during a workout or event.
If you really want to get the most out of your gym time, you can’t just eat whatever you want, whenever you want. Seriously… you really can’t eat junk food if you want phenomenal results.
But, figuring out what you should be eating can be a real pain, not to mention time-consuming. That’s where talking to a sports nutritionist can really help.
They can help you create a meal plan so that you know what to eat and when to eat to enhance your performance and recovery.
Choosing the right meal before and after your workouts can make a huge difference. We all know that carbs provide energy and protein builds muscle, but there’s so much more to it than that.
A nutritionist can teach you how to eat smarter, whether you’re looking to build muscle or cut fat.
5. Combine Cardio with Strength Training
It’s common sense that the more muscles you work, the more you’ll challenge your cardiovascular system. When you want to build endurance, you need a combination of strength training and cardio workouts.
Many people do cardio one day and strength training the next but combining the two on the same day will help you get the most out of your time in the gym.
It’s not hard to get a good cardio and strength session in one workout. For example, at the gym, you could jump rope for a minute, then switch to squats, followed by an overhead press, then do some sit-ups, and finally go back to jumping rope again.
Or, if you prefer to do your workout outdoors, do some push-ups, followed by some sit-ups, run a mile, and repeat. Either way, moving smarter can help you get the most of your workout.
Wrap-Up
Sometimes stepping out of the box and trying something new is the secret to getting an amazing outcome.
If you’ve reached a plateau in your training, or you simply want faster results, try these five unique strategies to help you get more out of your gym time and enhance your workouts.