Are you not seeing results? Some of my top tips to help you stay on track

You’re not seeing results? Making up excuses not to work-out? Then when you do hit the gym you are constantly looking at the clock and then find an excuse to leave early.

Does this sound a bit like you? 

Here are some tips to help you stay motivated and on track towards your health and fitness goals.

Cross Train- Variety is the key

This will keep your body and mind guessing. With a new and different workout from your typical safe go-to work-out, you will work different muscles groups, this will boost your fitness levels reduce the risk of injury and avoid boredom and it will prevent you from plateauing. Whether it is trying a yoga class, CrossFit, spin or a boxing class put the fun back into your fitness routine by trying something different. You could even sign up to a race or join a local football or netball team in your area, this will keep you motivated and also keep things challenging.

Exercise more efficiently

You could do this by performing compound exercises. What are compound exercises?

Compound exercises are exercises that work multiple muscle groups at the same time. A squat is a perfect example, a squat works the quadriceps, glutes and calves. A good idea to make your workouts more efficient would be combining two exercises into one, this will target more muscles and get that extra burn in your workout.

For example, add a shoulder press after your squat, or a reverse lunge with a bicep curl. By adding compound exercises to your work-out you will burn more calories, improve your strength, plus adding compound exercises you work more muscles, and it will be an efficient and effective way to maximize your time at the gym or at home.

Try and mix up the exercises you do every few weeks and add new exercises for variety.

Track your fitness

Like a food diary keep a fitness diary so you can keep track of your physical activity and progress. You can record everything you did in your workout, what you did, the weight you lifted how far you ran ect.

We lend hectic and busy lives and it’s easy to lose track of where you are and where you want to be regarding your health and fitness. Your fitness diary makes it black and white and it shows you whether you are doing your workouts or not. If you don’t measure or track it, you can’t improvement it.

By tracking and recording your workouts you will be able to see how much exercise you have done each week and it will help you stay on track and committed to your set goals. Tracking your fitness has many other benefits, it can be very motivating and reinforcing to help remind you why you are training hard and what goal you want to achieve. Tracking your workouts can also help you plan on how to meet your goal for the following week it also shows you where you are improving and what area needs to be improved.

Push yourself out of your comfort zone 

Doing the same thing over and over will ultimately limit how far you can go before you will stop improving and stop seeing results. You might want to do the same safe routine each week- and that’s fine. But if you want results, you need to vary your workouts and you need to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Increasing the intensity of your training will increase your heart rate, so you will burn more calories build strength and muscle and shed fat.

Ditch the gym and head outside 

It is called the great outdoors for many reasons. The fresh air, the scenery and health benefits for training outside is unreal. Training outside will boost your energy your mood and self-esteem and make you feel revitalized. Just remember if it is hot outside train in the shade under some trees and drink plenty of water to stay hydrated.

Workout with a Personal Trainer

Training with a certified personal trainer could be the best investment you’ll make in your health and well-being. A trainer will provide you with the encouragement motivation and energy you need to turbocharge your health and fitness routine. A PT can help you set realistic goals, and create a plan to achieve them. A good personal trainer (like me) should make exercise both effective and fun, they will also make sure your technique is correct and your performing the exercises correctly and efficiently to maximise your results.

Also, by hiring a PT they hold you accountable, it is a lot harder to skip a workout when you know your trainer is waiting for you.

Now go and put these tips to use, I hope they help.

If you live or work in Clapham South London get in touch and book in a training session with me!

Best Wishes

Amy Knipe