Training smarter and not training harder, longer and more often will keep you feeling fresh and reduce your risk of injuries and help keep muscle. Training harder, longer and more often will increase your risk of injury, make you fatigued and limit your gains. Instead here is a list of things to do inside and out of the gym that will have more benefit.

Preparation, activation and mobility: The first thing you should be doing before every session is a proper and adequate warm up. Follow the order of SMR, mobility and activation. Stretching and mobilising body parts that are about to be hit, activating the supporting and major muscles and raising your heart rate, getting you ready to go!

Train with Intent: Giving 120% of your focus and energy to every rep, every set and every exercise (yes, this includes burpees). Focusing on being inside each muscle, feel the stretch and contract, thinking about what you should be doing, what is your form like. Giving 120% will make each rep more valuable and become a key to getting results.

Track your weight: It doesn’t matter what type of training you do, tracking your weights is important. The theory of progressive overload (Look at Tegan’s post last week) suggests that something needs to become hard each workout to continue getting results, the easiest way is to go heavy. Even if it’s a small amount it is still more! So next time push yourself and go heavy, you will be surprised what you can lift.

Rest, Recovery then Repeat: Your results will only move at the same pace as you recover, so recovery is king and SLEEP is king of recovery. Ever heard the saying ‘gains are made while you sleep”? Well its 100% right, sleep is the most important recovery factor. So, try and aim for at least 8 hours sleep and you will be on your way to results!
Injury Rehab: First let’s clear this up, if you’re injured you can still train 99% of the time, so come talk to us for some help. If nursing an injury make sure you take care of it, get it assessed but then actually follow the rehab exercise they suggest. If you need help with strengthening from an injury or you currently having some issues come see us, we are here to help.