Having and maintaining success when it comes to your workout routine depends greatly on how you manage and track your progress. You need to establish a starting point where you will begin from, where you can steadily improve.
This sounds simple in concept but can be difficult if you do not know how to properly gauge yourself. Choosing to do so with compound exercises like pushups, pullups, situps, deadlifts, squats etc will give you a pretty good idea of how strong you are, and what ability you have.
This is because compound exercises utilize more than one muscle group to perform the exercise in question, giving us a better overall view of our strength and can also show us where we are lacking. Holding a wall squat or a plank for example will give us a good starting point to jump from.
Prevent Down Time, Stretch Frequently
One of the most important things people forget to do when it comes to exercise, is stretching. Most people are either just too focused on their exercise routine itself or are in just too much of a hurry to stretch to do so. Unfortunately many of these people who forget or consciously choose to avoid stretching end up being injured as a result.
If you are beginning and exercise routine, in particular doing so to get in shape before the summer starts it makes it even that much more important to remember to stretch before you start. Taking the extra 5-10 minutes to do so before and after each routine is well worth the time investment. Injuring yourself because you don’t do so is just lazy and would be a horrible reason why you would have to cut your program short and not meet your goals as a result.
This is hard to remember for some people because they probably don’t remember stretching as much when they were a kid before sports, so getting in to a habit is difficult. Just keep in mind that as we age the elasticity of our muscles, ligaments and tendons decrease which makes injury that much easier.
Start Your Workout with a Kick
If you are new to exercise or if you are just having difficulty getting motivated to go to the gym, having a cup of coffee, glass of tea or shot of espresso before your routine may give you the extra boost you need.
Caffeine is an effective tool in that it can stimulate the body giving it the extra energy it needs which can help you in your routine. Once you get the hang of it you can precisely time your consumption of the drink to coincide with your workout, allowing you the extra energy you need to complete that one particular exercise or routine.
Ditch the Distractions
When it comes to the fitness world, there seems to be a new gadget or piece of technology developed every day which claims that it can improve your results. While many of these gadgets are not only claim to do what they advertise but are also very effective, they really aren’t necessary for the average person.
These gadgets are more trouble than what they are worth because there are just so many of them that can be used simultaneously and are a huge distraction. On top of this, because people can actually see their progress quantified through this gadget, it has been shown that they are more prone to rewarding themselves by over eating afterwards as a result.
All in all, stay away from the gadgets in general. They are another unnecessary distraction that we can avoid, and one that usually comes at a great financial cost as well.
If you are using these gadgets as a gauge to when to stop exercise, you can just listen to your body’s natural signals instead.
Spice it Up with Capsaicin.
Most people know about the effects of caffeine and how it can give you an energy boost, but most are unaware of the power of spicy food. Spicy food can help to boost your metabolism via a compound found within spicy foods known as capsaicin.
Next time you make eggs, have hash browns or tacos, throw in some hot sauce for that extra boost to your metabolism!
