The whole notion of getting fit and healthy has been totally skewed in the light of over-exposure on social media. We all believe that if we want to become fit and strong, we just need to hit the gym as many times as humanly possible. But the fact is it isn’t always about quantity. Everybody is different, and this is why you might want to change your approach to getting fit by bearing some of the following things in mind.
You Can’t Outrun a Bad Diet
People constantly talk about the importance of diet and supplementation in fitness, but the fact is that if you are consuming a terrible diet, you are not giving yourself the right nutrients in order to build back up properly. The same goes for supplementation. There are plenty of great supplements that work well in achieving peak physical form, but it’s important to remember that diet and supplementation need to work well together. When you get the diet right, this makes recovery far easier.
Find the Minimum Effective Dose
Having an understanding of what it takes for our body to get the signal that we need to build back bigger and stronger is more important than actually hitting the gym constantly. When you find what it takes to send that message, the trick is in reinforcing it. Many people make the mistake of training every spare minute they have, but this is where the risk of overtraining becomes a reality. If you find you cannot sleep properly at night, even though you’ve been exercising a lot, this is one sign that you could be overtraining. When you find the minimum effective dose this is that sweet spot that will ensure that you are growing effectively without succumbing to all of the problems that stem from overtraining.
Understand Why You Want To Get Stronger
The reasons we have can be aesthetically based. But the fact is that if you define long-term reasons for getting fitter and healthier, for example wanting to be able to lift up your children or your grandchildren in two or three decades’ time, you’ve got a real measurable solution that you can start to create a workout routine around it.
Exercise Doesn’t Have To Be Lengthy To Be Effective
The notion of feeling the burn is supposedly a sign that we are doing something right, but delayed onset muscle soreness is not a key marker that you have done well in the gym; it just means that you’ve deleted all of your glycogen stores from your muscles and are potentially going to walk lopsided for the next few days! Strength training protocols like isometrics are focused on being fresh and have shown that many people have gained a lot more strength from doing isometrics rather than typical workouts. If you want to build bigger muscles, hypertrophy, where you are putting your body under major tension, is the way to do it but while it will build back strength it may take longer to achieve it.
When it comes to exercise, you may wonder if you have the time to fit it in, but this is why changing your approach could make all the difference.
