4 tips to get the absolute most out of your strength training workout

You have a million and one things to do with your time…these 4 tips will make sure that you get the most bang for your buck in the time you dedicate to strength training.

When you devote your time (any of it), to working out, you want to know that you are making the most of it. Here’s how:

Stay present.

Before, during and after your workout, stay present.

Before you even get to the gym, start to get in the workout mindset. For me, that means I let go of whatever I’m stressing about, I turn up the music and get pumped up.

That also means having a plan. To make the most of your time (i.e. spend less time wandering around the gym floor and drifting towards whatever machine is available), write down what you want to accomplish before you get started.

In the middle of a grueling set, what your brain wants to do is wander somewhere else (a beach in Hawaii, your desk at work, anywhere but where the muscle is working), until you bang out that last rep. Don’t.

Stay focused. Pay attention to your form. Steady your breathing by taking long inhalations in through your knows and slowly letting the air out through your mouth. Narrow your focus to the muscle that is supposed to be doing the work. Especially as your body gets tired, make sure that you are mentally connecting your movement to your muscles.

Warm up (activate)

If you want to make the most of your strength training workout, move through the full range of motion for each exercise and stay purposeful in your lifting.

K, #fitness nerd, what’s that mean?

That means warm up…every single time. Increase your mobility and range of motion – this will push you past plateaus, decrease your risk of injury and give you the most bang for your buck from every rep.

Range of motion? Let me give you an example.

Let’s say Laura squats every single day, but she never stretches or works on increasing her range of motion. So she squats but she never breaks parallel. Laura’s quads are doing most of the work and she feels so sore for the next 3-4 days that she avoids working her legs at all during that time.

Katrina squats too, but she also actively works on improving her flexibility and range of motion by stretching, foam rolling and doing a bit of yoga at home. Katrina is comfortable going *ss to grass in her squats (going as low as her butt can go), even with some weight on her back. Not only is Katrina engaging her glutes a LOT more, she’s never as sore as Laura…which means within a couple of days, she’s back under the bar working her legs.

Fuel

Want to build lean, well-defined muscle? Want to get stronger? Stop working out under fueled. If you are trying to get the most out of your strength training workout, your body needs fuel.

You need energy to lift at your maximum potential – important when your goal is to challenge your body enough each workout to see results. You also need energy to rebuild after your workout.

Track it

To make the most of your workout, you need to know that you aren’t wasting your own time.

If you lift the same weights the same number of times day after day, workout after workout, you’re not challenging your body enough to get stronger or build muscle. You have to constantly push your own boundaries to see results.

Tracking your workouts gives you a clear picture of how you are progressing and how you should shape your workout, and the next workout, and the next.

Your time is valuable. If you want to see results, these tips can help you ramp it up!