Is your goal to burn fat or build muscle? Do you want to get the most out of your workouts? If so, it’s time to revamp your training and diet. How you train and eat greatly affects your results. Sometimes, it’s beneficial to step back and reflect on how you train and what you are training for.
Here are seven proven ways to maximize your workout and help you achieve your goals:
1. Set Realistic Goals
The first step to improving your results is to determine what you actually want from your training. Do you want to lose weight, build muscle, or just stay in shape? If your goal is to lose weight, decide exactly how many kilos you want to lose and set a timeframe. This makes it much easier to stay focused.
Make sure your goals are realistic, achievable, and time-bound. Write down what you want to achieve, create a schedule, and stick to your plan. Be ambitious but realistic. Setting concrete goals will increase your motivation and chances of success.
2. Have a Plan
You also need to decide how you will achieve your goals. Develop a realistic training program that fits your lifestyle. If you have a busy schedule, you might not have time to hit the gym six times a week, but you can probably manage three or four effective sessions.
Depending on your preferences, you can either train one or two muscle groups per session or opt for "full-body workouts." Most athletes and gym-goers choose to train a few muscle groups at a time, like back and biceps, chest and triceps, shoulders and arms, or legs and abs. You can also split your sessions into upper and lower body workouts followed by HIIT. Before heading to the gym, ensure you know which exercises, sets, and reps you want to do and which muscles you want to work. Keeping a workout log can be very helpful here.
3. Train Smart
Whether you want to lose weight or gain muscle, focus on core exercises that use multiple joints. Fundamental exercises like bench presses, deadlifts, squats, military presses, and push-ups activate nearly all the muscles in your body and boost your metabolism. Ideally, core exercises should make up at least 70% of your workout routine. If you’re not already in top shape, there’s no need to focus on isolation exercises. Build a solid foundation first, which is the best investment of your time.
Core exercises help you get in shape in more ways than one. They not only boost your metabolism but also strengthen your core and increase hormone production. This makes it easier to burn fat and build muscle. Additionally, they consistently make you stronger and improve your functional fitness.
4. Lift Heavy
Contrary to popular belief, lifting heavy weights won’t make you overly muscular overnight. If it were that easy to build muscle, many more people would look like professional bodybuilders. The truth is, it takes a long time of dieting and hard training to build muscle. Strength training with heavy weights is the best way to shape your muscles, burn fat, and improve body composition.If you stick to low weights, you will plateau and stop making progress. To get results, you must constantly challenge your body by lifting heavier weights, doing new exercises, or increasing the number of reps and sets. In fitness, this is called progressive overload, which means placing increased demands on the body to continually make progress. Start with low weights and add more as you go. Also, monitor your performance to prevent injuries and get the most out of your training.
5. Replace Cardio with HIIT
HIIT is much more time-efficient than regular cardio when you want to burn fat. Also known as high-intensity interval training, HIIT alternates short, intense training sessions with periods of rest or low-intensity exercise. It burns more calories than any other form of exercise while sparing your muscles. Steady-state cardio, on the other hand, burns both fat and muscle. It also tires you out more, slows down your metabolism, and affects your results.
With high-intensity interval training, you get better results in less time. HIIT improves cardiovascular fitness, burns your glycogen stores, and keeps your body in an anabolic state that promotes fat burning and muscle growth.
By using HIIT, you will burn calories both during and after your workout. All you need is three sessions per week of 10-20 minutes. If you are overweight, you can add another 10-15 minute session to maximize fat burning. If you want to read more about HIIT, we have written an article with 5 benefits of HIIT, which you can read here.
6. Eat for Your Goals
Your eating habits have a direct impact on your training and overall results. If you eat too little, you will lose muscle and lack the necessary energy for intense workouts. If you eat too much, you will gain weight. Eat right for your goals and focus on macronutrients when shopping – protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Avoid foods that contain empty calories.
Fill your plate with lean protein such as chicken, beef, eggs, and cottage cheese. Get your fats mainly from salmon, tuna, avocados, sardines, mackerel, and unrefined vegetable oils. Load up on good carbs before and after workouts. These include whole grains, dark green leafy vegetables, and low-sugar fruits. To lose weight, reduce your daily calories and eat more protein and fewer carbs. To build muscle, increase your protein and carbohydrate intake and consume more calories than you burn.
7. Use Supplements
Supplements can be a great way to speed up your results and bring you closer to your goal. Everyone who trains benefits from protein supplements, providing the extra protein you need when working out – the easy way. If you want to lose weight, you can use meal replacements, which can be a good way to keep your calorie intake down.Remember, the best workout is the one that actually gets done. Stick to your plan and train hard; this will give you the results you want!