Tag: focus

  • How to always have your best possible workout

    How to always have your best possible workout

    Focus will always be the true foundation of your workouts. Anyone can do a workout, but how much you mentally investment is what separates a great session from a mediocre one.

    Now, you’re probably wondering… How do you even rate or gauge something like focus?

    It’s all about putting a system in place, finding your flow, then working hard not to break that flow.

    The following will help get you honed in.

    1. Accept your plan

    Before you even put your gym clothes on or even start a warm up set, you’d better have your workout for the day at the ready. You know exactly what exercises you’re doing, how much rest you’re taking, how much weight you’re using, etc. Walking into the gym and training based on instinct is only for the highly-advanced, and even then, it needs to be done carefully. After accepting your plan, follow it through in it’s entirety, do not deviate unless you feel pain or are unwell.

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    2. Silence the noise

    Headphones, no headphones, the choice is yours. But, it’s important to be aware that small talk, text messages, checking email, taking photos, etc. all eats away at your rest periods and it takes your head out of the game. This doesn’t mean you need to be an anti-social weirdo in the gym, but if developing and understanding your body is something super-high on your priority list, it’s suggested that you lean to give 100% of your mental and physical energy to this.

    Don’t forget to check out this story: how selfies in the gym could be killing your workouts.

    3. Flex your meditation muscles

    We’re going to take some of the elements of meditation and carry it over into training.

    The first step will be deep concentration on an object or spot in during your rest periods in between sets. Find an object or spot do not move away from it. As you’re doing this, the second strategy will come into play. Without taking your eye off the object or spot, begin taking a series of 5 deep conscious breaths. Slow, deep inhales from the nose and completely filling the lungs to where you’re feeling them expand. Exhale. Repeat 4 more times. Do this every single rest period between every single set. You may breathe normally after the 5 deep inhale-exhales, but continue to focus on the object or spot.

    The third strategy will be deep concentration during every inch of movement for every rep you do of an exercise. It’s easy to toss weights up, let them fall back, toss them back up again, and repeat. The goal is stop “going through the motions” and to start heavily concentrating on feeling the tension between your muscles and the force of resistance. Controlling resistance is something you should be practicing already, but this will force you to be even more consciously aware of it. If it means slowing down, slow down. If it means dropping the weight, drop the weight. You’re far better off engaged than disengaged. If you’re running or riding a bike, feel for the transfer of energy and engagement of different muscles as you move.

    In executing these techniques, you should find yourself more deeply engaged with your body, muscles, and how you’re reacting to the workout.

    4. Use your emotions as energy

    We’re human, we’re always thinking about stuff. Good stuff, bad stuff. We’re always thinking. Add some pre-workout supplements on that and it’s an everything bagel of emotions. Now, the breathing and concentration techniques are used to prevent a wandering mind, but sometimes stuff sneaks in. Whenever this happens, the mission is to take that thought, identify it as a positive or a negative and see if you can use it to power your next set of repetitions. Get burned by someone? You can transfer that directly into a set of deadlifts, no doubt.

    Here’s to always having your best possible workout. Now, walk out your next session feeling like you’re unstoppable.

     

  • I can’t take a selfie, but my workouts are 20x better now

    I can’t take a selfie, but my workouts are 20x better now

    I broke one of my own rules.

    My phone was to always remain in the car. Always. No exceptions. For 1-2 hours, I was to be completely disconnected from everything with the exception of the environment of the gym. Sometime over the last 5 or so years, I broke that rule and it has impacted my training. At first, it wasn’t obvious, but over time, I think it started to add up. Let me explain: say I trained at an intensity of “10” my whole gym-going career, now I was training at an intensity of “8” because of little distractions through my sessions. Weeks, months, and years go by of reduced intensity and focus… that’s not how I go my conditioning to where it is.

    The No Phone Test

    This thought came into mind after a few weeks of feeling sluggish and at a plateau. I decided to conduct an experiment on myself. I went back to my no phone rule for a couple days. I explicitly remember doing it during an upper body workout and a lower body workout. It was a Monday and a Wednesday. I loaded up my iPod shuffle. Yes, an iPod shuffle. The phone stayed in the car. Not even in the locker or the bag, the car. That way I wouldn’t be tempted to check an email. I started off with some warmups and was already feeling way more in zone. On to bench presses on the upper body day and squats after hip swings on lower body day. Every rep, every set was just as good as the next. Focus and intensity were on point. I was also much more consciously aware of my rest periods, 30 seconds meant 30 seconds, not 35, not 45… 30 seconds. At the end of the week of workouts I had experienced pumps in the muscles that I hadn’t felt in a while and that post-workout endorphin “high” that I had almost forget even happened after a solid session.

    After a week or so of the “no phone in the gym rule” I went back to bringing my phone in as I had been. Back to checking emails and responding to text messages in between sets. And as expected, I was much more disconnected. The focus just wasn’t there. The intensity wasn’t there, and rest periods were slipping a little longer. That damn phone became a distraction again.

    The No Phone Test Takeaway

    Your mind can’t be in multiple places at once, well, it can be in multiple places, but quickly jumbling back and forth—there’s no way you can focus on the main job at hand. That job is to work out and work out hard. No different than if you’re doing something at work (or driving a car!)

    Early in my fitness career I conditioned myself to eliminate distractions then somewhere down the road I reconditioned myself to think using the phone in the gym wasn’t a big deal when, in fact, it was.

    I’m obviously not breaking anything revolutionary here, but it might be worth trying for yourself, especially if you’re a beginner or someone who’s progress has come to a halt.

    Beginners need to find a real connection

    If you’re new to working out, you don’t have the experience under your belt to know your body, understand what it responds to and doesn’t respond to. You haven’t developed a system that works for you yet. For you, distractions need to be kept at a minimal, building that mind-muscle connection needs to happen. The mind-muscle connection is not some mumbo-jumbo—it’s a very real thing. Just as though anyone gets better at anything with practice, it’s no different with working out and understanding how to develop your body.

    Others might need to get reconnected

    If you’re not a beginner, but you’re still not happy with where you are: the same goes for you. Maybe you’re not focused enough. I mean, your diet could be God awful, but don’t think that lazy workouts don’t hurt either.

    If you think it’s ridiculous to sign on to the no phone in the gym rule, maybe airplane mode is a happy compromise. Remember, it’s only an hour. Make it count.

    Morale of the story: fewer gym selfies = more gains.