7 Great Gym Habits Everybody Should Have

Habits are the precursors to success. Have these 7 in order to maximize your time in the gym.

Working out can be a great time especially given the right environment and people. It can help to improve everything from your health to your mood, and doesn’t have to be a complicated undertaking. Here are 7 tips and tricks to help improve your results and the experience for both you, and everyone else at the gym:

  1. Have a program: There are thousands of programs available on the web for all different goals. Pick your goal or what you want your workouts to focus on, and select a program from there. If you want your program to be more individualized so that you can be sure that you’re getting the best results possible, consider hiring a local trainer for a couple sessions so that they can custom write you a routine.
  2. Put away any equipment that you use: Ever been wandering around the gym and looking for a particular set of weights, only to find them after 5 minutes in a corner in the back of the gym? Make sure you aren’t part of this frustrating problem and re-rack your weights, wipe down any equipment you use, and generally just make sure the gym looks either the same or better than when you came in the first place. It will really help to improve the overall gym experience.
  3. Have a workout partner: There are many benefits to having somebody to work out with. Most notably: someone to keep you accountable and on track, a good source of encouragement, an extra set of eyes to see the things that you can’t feel (your back might round on a squat, for example), and having someone to spot you so you don’t miss weights and hurt yourself. If you don’t already have someone you work out with or don’t have any friends willing to commit, consider a site such as meetup.com to find people in your area with similar workout goals.
  4. Don’t be afraid to ask: With so much information readily available on the web nowadays, it’s easy to get confused with what workout program to follow or when to eat for fat loss. If you’re unsure about a certain topic, don’t be afraid to ask someone you find to be more knowledgeable than you such as a personal trainer, the regulars at the gym, or even read some of the great articles we have here on the SYPT website! Learning more is never going to be a bad thing! Especially when it comes to your vitality
  5. Eat around your workouts: food is a valuable energy source that will fuel your workouts and help you recover from them. As such, aim to eat a light protein and carb based meal within a few hours before AND after exercising. Make sure that this still fits into your daily food intake so that you don’t end up ingesting extra food than usual (unless your goal is to gain weight).
  6. Take care of your body: While resistance and cardio training can be extremely beneficial to one’s body by building strength, increasing bone density, and reducing the risk of many lifestyle-related diseases, it can take a toll on your body. Make sure to incorporate some restorative techniques into your routine as well. Activities such as foam rolling, massage, breathing drills, targeted stretching, stability drills and chiropractic are all excellent options for this. A quick note for hypermobile (“double-jointed”) individuals: you should avoid stretching for the most part and focus more on controlling the available ranges of motion you have. A lot of the tightness that you might feel is your nervous system trying to tighten everything up from being so lax – stretching isn’t always the answer!
  7. Always strive to get better: track your workouts in a spreadsheet or diary so that you can measure your progress. One of the biggest mistakes I see all too often is people working out arbitrarily and never really getting much bigger, more toned, leaner, faster, or stronger. This defeats the whole purpose of strength training as the goal is to progress and get you closer to your goals over time. Plus, who doesn’t love feeling strong?

Give these simple tips a try next time you’re in the gym, or try implementing them one at a time and seeing which ones you notice the biggest difference with. Send us an email letting us know which are your favorites.

PS – Here’s 3 ways I can help you get stronger:

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It takes less than 60 seconds to apply HERE in order to find out more information and see if you’d be a good fit.