If you’re going to bother with putting all that hard-earned time and energy into your workouts, you want to make sure that you’ve tailored your exercise regimen to guarantee results. It’s deceptively easy to fall into a workout routine that can end up being detrimental to the kinds of gains you’re striving to make. Working out for results isn’t as easy as just pounding the pavement or pumping the iron as hard as you can. There’s a science to fitness routines. So, let’s take a look at five keys to getting real fitness results.
1. Fuel your body.
This is essential. When you hit the gym or head for a run outside, you’re putting your body into a high-stress environment, where you’ll likely be pushing yourself to breakthrough new walls and come out the other side stronger than before. In order to do this, you’ve got to fuel your body up with the essential nutrients in one of the protein powders and nutritional supplements made by protein powder manufacturers. There are a wealth of options out there — whey protein, soy and hemp protein, vanilla flavor, with sweeteners and without — you name it. Any store worth its weight in protein powders is going to have a specialized employee on hand to help you find what protein powder or nutritional supplement best covers your needs. With the right kind of fuel, you’ll feel more able to achieve your goal, and you’ll also have a sense of peace by knowing you’ve got that supplement to help push you through the grind.
2. Get your mind in the right place.
So much of what goes into a workout is the mental game. If you’re out there in a long run, maybe in the middle of nowhere, with nobody around to tell you to keep going, you’ve found yourself in a profound competition with yourself. The most formidable and clever adversary of them all is your own mind. You’ll find thoughts racing through your mind that consist of terribly convincing arguments on why you don’t need to keep on pushing. The trick is to work on catching these thoughts from a place of pure awareness as they come in. This is very similar to that of what you’re instructed to do during meditation. Naturally, it would then make sense to introduce some kind of meditation routine into your regimen. Meditation can be game-changing when it comes to summoning willpower you didn’t know you had.
3. Intensify your strength training
Our bodies are remarkably adaptive. Introduce a surprising number of stressful things to the body, and as long as it’s coming from a decently healthy place, it will make quick work of adapting and then even thriving. With that being said, shaking up your workout routine and introducing more strength training can break down and rebuild muscles you might not have been hitting before. To accomplish this, you can experiment with resistance band training as well as upping the weights on your dumbbell exercises, instead of just relying on cardio-based and bodyweight workouts. You might be sore at first, but give it some time, and your body will have adapted to the new routine. Not only that, but you’ll see newfound definition and curves like you’d never imagined. You’ll be looking for an excuse to rock that fresh pair of leggings or yoga pants, with new muscles showing off through the spandex outfit. Once you start achieving your goals, treat yourself to a new pair of leggings or other athletic wear — you deserve it!
4. Establish a community
It’s incredibly hard to go at it alone when it comes to working out. Sometimes, we just need the extra boost of motivation from someone outside of ourselves. You can seek that out from a consistent workout buddy or even join a class, as long as that class is practicing safe social distancing guidelines!
5. Get enough sleep
Sufficient sleep is a recurring star when it comes to identifying what particular practice brings on the most beneficial results. At its core, stacking up your nights of restful sleep keeps your immune system in check, reduces fatigue, and ultimately leaves you with more energy in your reserve tank to get the day’s tasks done. If you’ve ever tried to work out after a night of restless sleep, you’ll appreciate how important it is to get some rest.
