How to Be Efficient with Your Training
We all have a finite amount of time available to us, and we are all faced with the dilemma that maintaining and improving our physical and mental health requires investing both time and energy in physical activity. Time we are increasingly short on as we get older and our responsibilities increase.
It is important that we use the time we have to dedicate to be efficient with our training so we can do the most for ourselves and our loved ones in the least amount of time. If we aren’t doing enough good work in the time we have, we are wasting our time by simply not getting the results we are after at all in exchange for the time we spend at the gym. If we are getting great results but spending so many hours doing it that we are taking ourselves away from our loved ones too much and we aren’t able to give our jobs or businesses the time they need to grow, we are shortchanging the other equally important areas of our lives. There needs to be a balance, and you need to spend your time on yourself and your health wisely to achieve.
Here are five key ideas about training to help you do exactly that:
You’re on The Clock, Train Like It
Don’t waste time doing bad reps, or lazy sets, or half-hearted workouts. The best you can do on the day with the most focus you can bring is the only acceptable option if you want to make progress. Full range of motion every rep, controlled eccentrics every rep, be in the moment every rep, every set, every workout.
Track Your Performance
Log everything. Sets, reps, weights, RPE, notes on technical performance. Without targets to beat every day you train, you’re just spinning your wheels.
Eat According To Your Goals
If your goal is to lose weight and you’re in a calorie surplus, the work you’re doing in the gym is being wasted. The same is true if you’re trying to gain weight and not eating enough. Eat according to your goals, or you’ll be headed away from them.
Super Sets, Tri-Sets, Giant Sets
Your body doesn’t care if you only have an hour to train today. It only responds to sufficient stimulus. To get the work in, supersets, tri-sets, and giant sets are a must the days you are short on time. If getting all the work you need to do done means jumping immediately from one exercise to the next to the next, then that’s what you have to do. No ifs, no buts. Suck it up buttercup.
Love what you’re doing, or do something else
The most perfect training plan ever devised is utter garbage if you don’t want to do it. Find a form of exercise that you love, and commit to excelling as best you can at that. You have to love what you’re doing to give 100%, and you’ll only stick with things you enjoy. You get one life. Don’t waste it doing things you hate, enhance it with physical activity that makes you happier.
