Goal: Improve Workout

8 Tips For Increasing Workout Performance

No matter what goal you have, improving workout performance is always going to be important.

If you’re trying to build muscle, you’re ability to recover is important to help you hit the gym hard and heavy multiple times during the week.

If you’re trying to lose fat – the better you’re performing in the gym, the more calories you’ll burn during the day.

And if you’re trying to get stronger, you need to know how to properly focus and fuel your workouts to put up bigger numbers.

With these 8 tips, we got all of you covered.

1. Eat a Preworkout Meal

There’s really no point in training fasted, ever. Especially if you’re trying to maximize your performance during your workout.

Instead, you should consume a complete meal (plentiful in carbohydrates and protein) 1-2 hours before training.

Doing so will provide fuel directly to your muscle tissue and improve muscular growth over time1,2,3.

2. Listen to Music

It’s extremely difficult to get in the zone if you don’t have music playing in the background during your workouts. Especially if you lack any sort of cardiovascular conditioning and are gasping for air after your first set.

Even worse is being at the gym with generic music lightly playing over a speaker yards away from where you’re working out. And if you forget your headphones, you’re opening yourself up to interruptions by all the “chatty-Kathys” who work out at your gym.

Do yourself a favor and download, create or favorite a playlist with music that motivates you prior to going to the gym. And make sure you don’t forget your headphones!

3. Drink Caffeine

If you really want to increase your energy levels, focus, and training capacity, you should drink some caffeine prior to hitting the gym.

Caffeine has been scientifically proven to increase power output and aerobic capacity.4,5 So, by consuming caffeine you’ll be able to push heavier weights for longer.

However, the body does tend to adapt to caffeine dosages and you will begin to build a tolerance. It won’t take long before you require larger doses to feel the similar effects you once felt at smaller doses.

Instead of continually increasing your caffeine intake, it might be a better strategy to cycle the substances – with a focus of using it when you’re in a muscle building stage.

4. Consume Carbs Intra-Workout

We’ve already mentioned that a preworkout meal with carbohydrates is crucial for improved workout performance. Now we’ll discuss intra-workout carbs.

Carbohydrates/glucose is your body’s favorite form of energy. And your body tends to burn through your glycogen storage the more and longer you work out. So, having a steady intake of carbohydrates around training times is worthwhile.

If you find you spend hours in the gym during your workouts, it might be worth considering an intra-workout carbohydrate supplement. Doing so can improve muscle glycogen resynthesis and blunt cortisol responses during training.6,7

5. Consider a Creatine Supplement

Creatine should be the number one supplement on your supplement stack list if you’re trying to increase your workout performance inside the gym.

It is one of the most studied and proven supplements on the market with the vast majority of the research supporting its increases in exercise capacity8.

Those who supplement with creatine (and who aren’t non-responders) can expect to see anywhere between a 5-15% increase in strength and performance.

6. Visualize Your Workouts

Sports psychologists have been encouraging their teams to visualize competitive matches for years. Putting yourself in the exact environment of your competition prior to actually competing can help you develop the confidence needed to improve your performance.

Weight training is no different. Weight lifting is a constant competition against yourself. So, if you’re looking to improve your current performance, begin by visualizing your lifts.

If there’s a lift you struggle with, start there. Think about the mechanics of the movement, the range of motion of the lift, the weight you typically use, and the muscles you should feel working during the movement.

As you get used to visualizing, begin to visualize your entire workout prior to actually doing it. And during prolonged rest periods of bigger heavy lifts – visualize the set you’ll be performing once your rest is up.

7. Keep a Journal

It’s impossible to improve week after week if you don’t know how much weight you lifted the week before or how you felt while lifting it.

If you’re serious about improving your workout importance, you should know what it will take to improve.

It’s fairly easy to do. Simply grab a notebook. Jot down the date, your lifts, the reps and sets performed, the weight used, the rest period in between sets, and how your workout felt that day. If you felt good after your workout and think you can progress the following week, whether that means increasing the weight, sets, or reps, do it.

8. Recover After Each Workout

Lastly, and most importantly, ensure you recover after each training session.

If you’re not recovering – you’re not going to improve your workout performance.

Do all the right things: Perform mobility work, eat an adequate diet for your goals, sleep, perform some light active-recovery on rest days, take deload weeks, etc.

If you’re not taking time off from the gym and recovering from your workouts, and instead are adding additional training days in an attempt to improve performance, you’ll be spinning your wheels for years and may even get injured.

Summary

To improve your workout performance, you should start off by making sure your body is properly fueled for your workouts.

Then you should consider taking research backed creatine, caffeine, and carbohydrate supplements around workout time.

Ensure you take care of the mental aspects as well by having good music, visualizing your workouts, and keeping a journal of where you currently are at.

And finally, make sure you are recovering properly.

* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.