01
May 2019
How to reach your goals faster!
By: Coach Chris
We all want to be fit, and we all want it yesterday!
It’s easy to get into the mindset of “if I just show up to the gym daily, I can easily reach all of my fitness goals in a timely manner”. I wish I could tell you it’s that easy, but the truth of the matter is we all need to set our focus on much more than the one hour of fitness we engage in while at the gym. Below are the practices followed daily by the most successful people in fitness. Follow them and you are almost guaranteed a fast track to reaching and exceeding your fitness goals in the most efficient way possible…
Practice #1 Eat with a purpose – Eating isn’t just to fulfill hunger. Every time you eat, ask yourself, what purpose is this meal serving me? Is it aiding in your recovery, repleting the fuels you used up in the gym? Does it have the nutritional content to allow for the growth of lean muscle tissue? Is it providing your bodies daily requirements of key vitamins and minerals? What we eat is the most important. Food that is…well exactly that – real food. You’ll know if it is because there won’t be an ingredient label on it. Next is how much. We can’t just eat endless amounts of food, even if it is real whole food sources. Like putting to much gas in our car, if there isn’t a need, it needs to go somewhere (yes, those fat cells are waiting patiently)! After we are eating real food in the right amounts, we need to focus on timing. When we eat the right foods, and at the right times, we tend to make the most use of it (more on this in a later article).
Practice #2 Get more restful sleep – Do you just go to sleep when you feel tired only to wake to an alarm that seems to sound off before any meaningful recovery has taken place? As crazy as it sounds, sleep is probably the most important practice of them all. We burn the most fast when we are asleep. When we are asleep, we recover both mentally and physically more than any other time of the day. A simple rule of thumb to follow is to create good sleep patterns. Going to bed at the same time every night, and rising at the same time every morning is the best way to ensure you are getting enough sleep, while also allowing your circadian clock to adjust properly. But it’s not just about getting enough sleep, you need to ensure the time you are spending horizontal is meaningful and well spent. For a more sound sleep, stay away from electronics 30-60 minutes before bed, and try using blue light blocking glasses after 8:00pm while looking at any illuminated screens. Place your phone on airplane mode, ensure your room is blacked out, the temperature is as cool as you can handle it, and for good measure, try some soft ear plugs and an eye mask.
Practice #3 Listen to your body – We all have good days, and bad days. Usually on the bad days we are lacking energy, our bodies are sore, and our motivation is low. This is your body saying – REST! On these days, we skip the gym, we eat and hydrate as best as we can, and go to bed early. Training through this state usually has the opposite effect, so plan for a rest day instead and be ready to hit it hard the following day when you are feeling strong and recovered.
Practice #4 Track your progress – If you are trying to make progress in anything, the first step is to know where your starting point is, also known as your baseline. This way we can diligently track our production (or lack thereof) throughout our efforts to get better and make the necessary changes to our lifestyle to dial things in, especially if we aren’t seeing any positive changes, or worse, heading in the wrong direction. The two tools I use religiously are the InBody Body Composition Analyzer to track my body composition (fat mass, skeletal muscle tissue, total body water, and imbalances between my limbs), and a blood panel to test my nutrient, stress, and hormone production levels. These two key pieces of information give me all that I need to both track my progress and tell me what is I am lacking or in abundance of. Without this information, it is just a guessing game!
Practice #5 Play the long game – As I stated earlier, we all want to be fit, and we want it yesterday! This is true for most everyone, except the best advice I can give you is to apply the preceding 4 practices and play the long game. Like I tell those who seek out nutritional advice – There is no finish line in this race! Those who are the most consistent in their efforts, over the longest amount of time, tend to be the healthiest individuals. Put another way, most people I have encountered who try to get it fast, and at all cost, usually end up dealing with the most negative effects (overtrained, injured, and near poisoned by all the “fad supplements” that promise to transform you in 4 weeks or less). If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!
So there you have it! Although not an exhaustive list, if you make an effort to dial in each of the 5 practices above, you’ll surely be on your way to smashing PR’s, and wearing that bathing suit you hung up long long ago!
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