Don’t you wish your body was gaining the same results as the rest of the people in your gym? Do you feel like there’s just something missing out on in your routines?
Well maybe you’re not ‘missing’ anything. Maybe, you’re overlooking them.
When it comes to fitness – it’s not all about putting time and rep into the gym. It’s not JUST about habit, discipline and routine. It’s about filling the blanks. Doing that right things that keeps you motivated. Little tricks and tips that help keep the drive inside fresh and running. Make every movement count and enable your body to reap the benefits of training.
Keep the body lubed and hydrated:
Drinking fluids is imperative for well-being. Imagine a rusty machine or a dry desert. Nothing grows, nothing moves – if there’s any activity at all, it seems unpleasant and sort of painful. The body is a temple, a machine, an Island.
If not kept cool, lubricated and hydrated, the body doesn’t just affect you physically but mentally too. A hydrated body delivers optimum energy, improved stamina and alertness. It encourages weight loss and general well-being keeping your body temperature in check. Avoid fizzy drinks though as simple sugars are stored as fat in the body and is a nightmare to burn off.
Eat right to Live right!
As the stoics say: “man I feel like a cheeseburger”. While cheese burgers might taste great (provided there’s some cheesecake for dessert) and give you that cheesy melted pleasure, the truth is – they are terrible for you. Eating healthy is a good 50% of your fitness. So important in fact, that if you were to eat well and not exercise, you would still be keeping fit. Complex carbs, fibres, lean meats, fruits and veggies – these are your best damn friends. MEMORIZE THEIR NAMES, because as life progresses these are friends you’ll need the most!
Good eating habits maintains your sustenance level, keeping you energetic and fit through the day. DO NOT DIET BY NOT EATING – I REPEAT – DO NOT! Eat throughout the day if you have to. Just make sure it’s small size helpings and healthy. Simple.
MIX IT UP!
Sometimes people tend to repeat the same exercises every time they hit the gym. Just because a certain exercise may give results it doesn’t necessarily mean those results will grow with the same exercise. The muscles tend to build memory to help your body consolidate certain repetitive tasks to ease the mechanics of daily muscle use. This is known as muscle memory. While this has its benefits, it also has its draw backs. Meaning the same exercise on the same muscle at some point – will stop working. Well, good thing there’s a bunch of different exercises for every specific muscle that helps strengthen it in various ways! So mix up your work-out to keep things interesting and challenging.
Stretch. Stretch. Stretch.
Stretching is very important to keep the body limber and smooth. Some parts of the body just cannot be ‘worked out’. Tendons and ligaments do not have the same muscular functions as the rest of the body because you have no command over them – they just hold your body parts and organs in place.
While you can’t ‘work them out’, you can definitely ‘make them stronger’, by making them ‘limber’. As you grow older, flexibility and rigidness in the joints will bother you so it’s always good to get a half an hour stretch done every morning or before your exercises. This way your body can avoid extended wear and tear – and if you’re flexible, that just means you’re ‘able to do more’.
Catch the ZzZz train
Sleep is EXTREMELY Important. I cannot stress enough on how imperative rest is. Sleep is when the body recovers from mental and physical fatigue. Your body builds the fix and builds the muscle it has broken during the day.
Rest also helps with battling depression or demotivation because a tired brain sends signals to the rest of the body, making you ‘feel’ tired, without actually BEING tired.
Finding enough time to work out can be an issue. Interval training is based on higher intensity work for shorter periods of time. This method is far more time friendly and can offer better results than steady workouts done at one particular speed.
