7 Tips For A More Effective Workout This Week
Come Monday, it's back to the grind, whether it be work or school. Meaning there might be a little less time for the gym and exercise. Less time means you have to maximize your efforts. We recently found these tips on Huffington post article called "7 Ways To have A Better Workout This Week".
All of these are pretty much "Golden Rules", and are great things to remember if your goal is to get results this week. And P.S. we have #8 right here- make sure you grab some new music from our site right here. Nothing inspires us more than some fresh mixes by some world class DJs.
1. Work Out at Least Four Times
If you want to see results, you have to put in the work. I tell my new clients that they'll see the best results if they are working out four-plus times per week. This gives you enough time to hit the weights and target all the major muscle groups and get in a good amount of cardio too.
2. Warm Up Properly
This advice is as old as the hills, but it still surprises me how many people I see throwing weights around before they've warmed up properly. Making sure you prime your body for what's ahead will help you get the most out of your workout and keep you injury-free.
3. Train Hard, Rest Less
Most people I see at the gym are just going through the motions, and not even with much urgency. Low to medium effort = lackluster results. If you're at the gym, you're there to work, remember that. I always ask myself, on a scale of 1 to 10, how hard am I working right now? It had better be in the 8-10 range.
4. Focus on Compound Exercises
Compound exercises utilize multiple joints and usually incorporate multiple muscle groups at the same time. Exercises of this kind are at the heart of power lifting, Olympic lifting and CrossFit. Doing compound exercises will help you burn more calories than a simple isolated single joint movement.
5. Do Something That Sucks
If you think something really sucks, then the chances are it's challenging your body in ways that you're not used to. This is excellent news! I do bikram yoga once or twice a week and about 70 minutes in, I swear I'm never going back! But, I go back. It's rough, I'm not very good at it, but I know I'm getting a good workout.
6. Master Your Form
For me, bad form is terrifying. Bad form means hampered results, inefficient use of energy and most worrying of all, injury. If you're unsure about how to perform a particular exercise then ask. Ask a trainer, ask your friends, ask the Internet. The information you need is out there.
If something feels wrong, the chances are it is wrong. Stop. Take some time out and find out how it's really done. There's no shame in chasing the best version of something.
7. Up the Ante
Your body is an amazing thing. It'll adapt very quickly to whatever you throw at it. So quickly in fact that if you don't keep making it more challenging then your results will start to diminish. If your body is a little better than it was last week, then you need to make your workouts harder this week to keep moving forward.
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Read the full breakdown and descriptions on the Huffington Post.
