Most people go to the gym for one reason, to look/feel better. If you’re going to spend your precious time hitting the gym, you’ll want to make the most out of your time there. You don’t want to be the person who’s been going to the gym for a year and hasn’t really improved all that much. Below are 3 simple tips you can use to become more efficient and effective at getting a better looking physique.
#1 – It Starts in the Kitchen
You can workout for hours in the gym every day but if you have a bad diet, you’re pretty much wasting your time.
If you want a better body, you must make diet your number one priority. When I say diet, I don’t mean starving yourself. Diet is just whatever you’re eating on a daily basis. Get enough protein from lean meats, enough healthy fats and carbs, control your calorie intake and you’ll be ahead of most people.
Eating healthy will not only help you perform better while you’re at the gym, it’ll also help give your body what it needs to build muscle and burn fat as well.
#2 – Don’t Skip the Big Exercises
Not all exercises are worth doing. You have a limited amount of energy and time at the gym so you’ll want to primarily stick with exercises that work more than one muscle (compound movements)
Here are a few exercises that you should consider adding to your routine if you haven’t already.
– Squats
– Deadlifts
– Bench Press
– Military Press
– Chin ups / Pull ups
If you had to choose just a few exercises to do at the gym in order to build muscle and lose fat while saving time, these are the ones you should stick to. You can do any other exercise you want but do these ones first, not all in the same day of course.
The most important thing when doing these exercises is to focus on your form. Look up videos on Youtube to learn how to perform these movements if you don’t already know. Don’t ever sacrifice form for heavy weights; that’s an injury waiting to happen.
#3 – Chart Your Progress
It’s hard to remember what you lifted 3 weeks ago if you don’t write what you do down. Take the scientific approach and measure your results. That way, you can see where you need to improve as well as track your improvements.
(random example chart)
Write down the exercises you’re doing, the weight, the number of sets and reps. You could use a simple notebook. When you have stuff written down, you’ll be able to go to the gym, know exactly what to do based on what you did the previous session, and get what you need to do done so you can go home and do other things.
There you have it. Eat smart and lift smart. There’s more to life then spending your precious time in the gym doing pointless, non-efficient things.
Get in, get it done, and get out!
