Tips to Take Your Workout to the Next Level

Firstly congratulate yourself for making exercise a routine and trying to hit the next level of fitness.

As you have already trained your body to move and are following a workout routine, now it’s time to set new fitness goals.

This article includes –

• How to set realistic targets to improve your fitness levels.
• Tips to increase the intensity of workout.
• Precautions to follow while taking your workout to the next level.
• Diet modifications to be careful about.

How to set realistic goals to improve your fitness levels:

• To start with, always choose less complicated goals over intense workout plans.
• Focus on what your body can do rather than how your body looks.
• Staying committed to your goals is the first step in achieving your new goals. Follow the fitness routine for at least 4 to 5 weeks to habituate you for a thorough and ordered body training program.
• Follow an order and intelligent fitness routine.
• Write your schedule on a sheet and check how many hours a week you can devote for workout?

Tips to increase the intensity of workout:

As your body is already used to an exercise routine, continue to do the same workout but extend the period. Let’s say, if you are swimming for 30min a day extend it to 45mins a day. Pushing your body to next level will give you enormous results.

1. If you are walking, try to jog.
2. If you are jogging, try to run.
3. Try to walk or run on a hilly road.
4. Increase the grade on treadmill.
5. Increase the resistance on cyclic machine.

Resistance training:

Resistance training means carrying a load or weight lifting. It helps in building muscle, maintaining the muscle strength, improves endurance, speed, flexibility and balance. Dumbbells, exercise bands, dead lifts, vertical pulls are the examples of resistance training.

Resistance exercises include leg adduction, planks, side planks, wall slides, straight leg raises, wall shin raises, heel step downs, arm raises and rotations.

This is for informative purpose only. Resistance training should be done under the guidance of a fitness trainer.

Cross training:

Cross training is a training routine which includes different types of exercises. This helps in training and strengthening different muscle groups. It reduces stress to specific muscle groups. It also reduces exercise boredom.

Example: Trying different cardio workouts like running, swimming, cycling, stair climbing, rope jumping etc.

Interval training:

Interval training is different from cross training. This is a kind of training which includes high intensity exercises with intermittent relaxation periods. Interval training is used by athletes which combines high intensity short bursts of speed with slow resting or recovery intervals during one session.

Benefits of interval training are improved performance, endurance and speed. It allows an athlete to avoid overtraining.

Remember:

• If you are working out with less intensity, you have to do longer sessions to achieve the same fitness results. To improve your fitness-

1. Increase the frequency of your exercise. ( No of days in a week)
2. Increase the length of each session.
3. Finally increase the intensity.

• Doing it in a right way: It’s the form of exercise that’s important than no of reps you can do. If you are doing it incorrectly, there will not be any benefit from your workout. To do the workout in right way, you need a personal trainer.

Precautions to follow while taking your workout to the next level:

• While choosing a workout plan, assess your health condition and if needed consult your doctor.
• It is good to plan any workout routines under the guidance of a certified fitness trainer.
• Warm up before starting any workout is important.
• Start the workout sessions slowly and then pace up.
• Maintain a steady pace throughout the session.

Diet modifications along with improving your workout:

• Do not skip a meal:Eating too little or skipping a meal is not good for weight management. Proper intervals should be maintained in between meals. Include protein rich foods, vegetables, healthy fats and oils.
• Do not start your exercise on empty stomach. This may lead to drop in your blood sugar levels. High carbohydrate foods like banana, apple etc before your workout will help.
• If you are planning to work out longer than an hour, consuming water alone is not sufficient. Isotonic drinks with sugar and salt in right proportions should be consumed. Drink plenty of fluids.
• Post work out, protein is very crucial in repairing the muscles. Protein rich foods like eggs, tuna, soy, dairy, grains, nuts and beans should be included in your diet. Apart from the natural sources of nutrition protein supplements like Protinex can help to add up some extra boost to your muscle health.

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• Lastly, it’s crucial to get good sleep while following a fitness regime. Take small naps of 20-30 mins whenever possible in your busy daily routine.