Maintaining a regular gym routine takes time and effort, so it makes sense to get the most out of each session. To get the biggest benefits from working out, the team at Dynamic Health & Fitness with 3 gyms in South Carolina, shares their top 5 tips for success.
1. Get a Good Night’s Rest – Sleep is Vital
Preparing for a good work out session actually starts the night before as good quality sleep is essential for getting the most out of time at the gym. Poor sleep impacts performance and the number of calories that are burnt during your workout and it also prevents the body from recovering adequately from exercise. The ideal number of hours is between seven and nine every night depending on the individual. This needs to be done every night of the week to get the best results.
2. Eat Right to Maximize Performance
Eating carbohydrates before a workout gives the body fuel for high-intensity activities. If your body has the fuel that is needed to workout, it will work harder and get better results in terms of the number of calories burnt, as well as the impact on muscle growth and recovery.
The night before a gym session, it is important to have protein. The ideal choice is food that is rich in casein (such as Greek yogurt or cottage cheese). Casein is a protein that digests slowly and keeps muscle protein synthesis and amino acid levels raised throughout the night.
3. Drink Water Before, During and After a Workout
It’s essential to maintain the right level of fluids in the body as even just a 2% loss of fluids in the body can adversely affect exercise performance and impact the body’s ability to recover post-workout. In many cases, people who neglect to hydrate sufficiently before beginning a workout often can do more harm than good and are not able to get the optimum benefits from their workout.
4. Workouts Begin with the Warmup
Warm up with movements that mimic the exercise that you’re about to do, but with small gentle movements. These increase the blow flow and improve the body’s range of motion without impacting on the body’s ability to perform the exercise. This might means starting with between 5 and 10 minutes of lunges, keen raises and leg swings before starting with cardio on the treadmill.
5. Incorporate Weight Training, Preferably Free Weights
If you’re doing your own workout and not joining a class, it can be tempting to stick to machines that focus on cardio. But this actually has a negative impact on metabolism, which makes it more difficult to lose weight. By comparison, resistance training builds muscle which helps to reduce weight gain.
While weight machines have their place, especially for new gym goers who need to learn about posture and form, free weights will give the best results. Free weights include kettlebells and dumbells, and working out with free weights like these has a greater hormonal response than similar exercises that are conducted on exercise machines. This is because they use a wider range of muscles as the machine is not there to guide and support.
6. Interval Training to Take Gym Workouts to the Next Level
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts with low-intensity breaks are correlated with greater cardiovascular and fat-loss benefits. Interval training usually follows a schedule of 20 seconds performing as many reps of the chosen exercise as possible, followed by a 10 second rest. This is then repeated seven more times for a total of four minutes and followed by a break of a minute before beginning again (repeated 5 times in total). HIIT workouts are an excellent fat burning exercise as your body will continue to burn calories and fat even up to 36 hours after you complete your workout.
Dynamic Health & Fitness team in Charter Oak, Lexington, NC have the inside track when it comes to helping their clients reach their health and fitness goals. They’re backed by state of the art equipment and a range of facilities that allow them to deliver the best results for their clients.
