How to Get the Most out of Your Training

When you are getting the most out of your training, you are getting the best results. To get the most out of your training, we want to focus on these 5 things that are completely within our control. It takes time and practice to build habits like these, however the payoff is worth every single step of the way!

 

Training:

Having a great training session each day requires some preparation. Ensuring your efforts are sound in the other categories in this article are some of the best things you can do. There are a handful of other habits that can be of aid though, like being on time, practicing and focusing on form and technique, staying consistent with your training routine, and paying attention to coaches to learn new skills. Another useful habit is to LEAVE YOUR EGO AT THE DOOR! CrossFit is humbling to us all, and sometimes you have to digress in order to progress. Try to focus on having a great workout and getting better at something everyday!

 

Recovery

As the saying goes “Work Hard…Recover Harder”…or something like that. Recovery is simply the time and ability your body needs to take to feel normal after a workout. Recovery is different for everyone and has a lot of factors going in to. Nutrition being the biggest player, so big it has its own section below…and it should have its own book. There are some other things we can do to feel better after a bunch of lunges, front squats, box jumps, and burpees.

 

First, try to keep things moving. Being sedentary or not moving at all after an intense workout can cause all sorts of soreness. We see it a lot with members who work at a computer right after an intense workout. Work is work, but consider looking into a standing desk or setting a reminder to walk around, do some squats every 30 minutes or so.

 

Some other habits like foam rolling, lacrosse ball work, and stretching, can help bring the body back to a state of feeling normal or increase blood flow to help with recovery. Muscle stimulation units like Compex and 10s Units can help with recovery and blood flow as well.

 

The whole goal of recovery is to be able to get back into the gym to train more. The more that you can recover, the more practice and training you can squeeze in and maximize results. We even want to think about our ability to recover while we are training. When training, we are making ourselves WEAKER! The first 10 reps of Grace feels a lot better than the last 10 reps. So we want to consider our efforts and ability to recover from them in mind before we attack them. If you know you are training tomorrow, and going RX today is going to DESTROY you, back off so you can have a good training sessions both days, not just one beat down after another.

 

Nutrition

As mentioned above, this is most critical to recovery and getting the most out of your training. Those who eat clean, whole foods with enough calories to support your activity but not body fat, have the best workouts. They recover faster, they perform better and usually don’t feel sluggish coming into a training session or after. There are a lot of different places to be in your Nutrition journey, but ensuring you are making strides to improve your daily habits with food have huge effects. If you walk into the office everyday, and grab a donut or cookie from the lunch room, will have drastic effects over a long time. Replace that with an apple or healthy shake, that will have drastic positive effects!

 

Whether you look at eating paleo, doing macros or the zone styles of eating; staying consistent and looking at how your training sessions are feeling and how your soreness feels is one of the best ways to get the most out of your training sessions.

 

Don’t know where to start? Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.

 

Supplements play into this section. They can be effective tools like whey protein and creatine to supplement performance and recovery, but should not be the meat and potatoes of your nutrition recovery efforts.  

 

Mindset

There is true power in positivity and focusing on things that are within your control. Ask yourself if you live in a friendly or hostile world and you will know if you have a positive or negative mindset. Hostile worlds are full of “they are out to get me” and friendly worlds are full of abundance. It is a perception. Switch to a positive style of thinking with one thought at a time. Try to catch yourself when negative thoughts pop up and turn them into a positive.

One of the best tools you can use to achieve this is instead of saying you “have to” switch it to you “get to”. You don’t have to workout…you get to. You don’t have to pick up the kids…you get to.

 

Coming into each training session with a positive mindset can be hard, but it has to be a habit that is practiced each time.

Sleep

This is so so so so so important. When you are awake and going about your day, you are draining your bodies battery level, and when you sleep you charge back up! Sleeping less than 7 hours per night is classified as sleep deprivation. Not only are we missing out on grreat cognitive function, our bodies will have the hardest time trying to recover from intense training sessions. This is brushed over time and time again and a lack of sleep is worn like a badge of honor these days. 7-9 hours a night is needed for normal human function, and especially when trying to maximize ones training.

 

The thing is, each one of these factors affect the other. They are intertwined and all 100% connected. Put effort into one category and you will see results in all categories. Put effort into each category, and each category will improve faster and have more drastic effects.

 

Choose 1-2 to start thinking about and take action tomorrow morning!

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