For fitness enthusiasts, working out is as important as eating and sleeping. You likely never miss your fitness routines and plan your social life around your workouts. Given the effort and hard work that goes into getting in shape, this level of care is both understandable and necessary.
However, there is a possibility you can get a lot more out of the time and work you are putting lifting weights and exercising. Our tips for enhancing workout gains will help you optimise your performance and help you achieve your goals.
The Different Types of Workouts
Before moving to the tips, let’s quickly look at the different types of workouts that exist and clarify which ones our tips apply to. Here are the common workouts types:
- Endurance – Improve oxygen absorption to boost athletic performance.
- Strength – Build muscle strength and improve balance.
- Flexibility – Enhance your body’s flexibility and reduce rigidity in movements.
- Balance – Improve weight distribution to increase bodily balance and connection.
Each of these workouts focuses on different goals and, therefore, have unique training. Our tips focus more on strength-based workouts since they involve building muscle mass, increasing muscle strength, and building resistance.
Tips for Enhancing Workout Gains
When focusing on strength-based fitness regimes, your exercise regimen likely includes weight lifting, arm curls, push-ups, and breathing exercises. While you have probably seen results from your workouts, the following tips are helpful when enhancing your workout gains and getting those muscles.
- Stop Skipping Breakfast
Remember all those times you skipped breakfast because you didn’t think it was important? You were wrong. Breakfast is a significant meal of the day because it sets the energy base for the entire day.
The best breakfast components are eggs, cheese, fruits, and yogurt. They contain the nutrients you will need for the next few hours on top of the energy you get from snacking.
- Increase Your Healthy Fat Intake
To increase your muscle mass, you need to add more fat to your diet. However, do not take this as an invitation to binge on burgers, pizzas, and ice cream sundaes. Increase your intake of healthy fats, which have lower amounts of saturated fats.
Some of the best healthy fats you can consume are avocados, nuts, cheese, fatty fish, and whole eggs. The lower the trans-fat, the better it is.
- Stay Hydrated
Do not miss out on drinking water properly, and drink a little extra on the days you’re working out. Your body needs water to boost muscle recovery after your strength training exercises, and sweating reduces water levels in your body. Make sure you are drinking enough water to make up for the amount you lose.
- Add Fruits and Vegetables to Every Meal
Fruits and vegetables are a good source of fibres, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. You need all these nutrients to keep your body nutritionally balanced to help you become stronger overall.
Remember that focusing on only training your muscles and neglecting the rest will negatively affect your health and slow down your fitness progress.
- Increase Your Protein Intake
Proteins are vital if you want to increase your muscle mass, so amp up on those steaks and eggs. Red meat, poultry, pork, and fish are all great sources of proteins, and you can also use dairy and eggs to diversify your options.
You can also choose protein powders if eating a lot of protein is difficult for you. There are several brands to select from, and you can find diverse options at powersupps.com.au. If you follow a vegan diet, you can switch out animal-based products with lentils, nuts, and seeds.
Make sure you are distributing your protein intake instead of having it all at once. The body can only absorb 20gms of protein in a single sitting, so ensure you only have that much in one meal.
- Avoid Processed Foods as Much as Possible
Processed foods are full of sugar, trans-fats, nitrates, chemicals, etc. These components are unhealthy for your body, and you will need to cut most of them out if you hope to boost your muscle gains.
Generally, choosing whole foods is the best way to maintain a balanced diet, with the occasional cheat foods to avoid bingeing episodes.
What to Avoid if You Want to Build Muscle Mass
Following the above tips will help you drastically improve your results, and you will like how these changes will affect your body. To further refine the process, here are four things you need to avoid doing to enhance your gains.
- Overtraining
Several fitness enthusiasts enter strength training thinking they will achieve results faster by training more. Unfortunately, that belief is incorrect. Your body needs time to heal after working out, and overtraining prevents it from doing just that.
You only need to train for 3-4 days a week and allow your body to rest. Ignoring this advice will only slow down your progress.
- Incorrect Posture
Lifting weights s tricky, which is why you should always start in the presence of a trainer. Trying to lift weights or squatting with an incorrect posture can put unnecessary pressure on your spine and injure it.
- Alcohol
Alcohol suppresses the release of a growth hormone in your body that aids muscle healing. While you are enhancing workout gains, try reducing the amount of alcohol you consume or cut it out of your diet entirely.
- Excessive Cardio
Cardio burns a lot of calories, and, while it is good for fitness, it also lowers the mass your body will convert into muscle. Therefore, if you want to continue doing more than 20 minutes of intense cardio per workout, make sure you supplement your diet accordingly.
Otherwise, you can consult a trainer and create a plan for cardio that complements your fitness goals.
Wrapping Up
To sum up, eat breakfast, healthy fats, proteins, fruits, vegetables, and whole foods. Drink water, avoid alcohol and ensure you’re giving your body the right balance between training and rest.
We hope you found this article informative and enjoyed reading it. Check out our other articles as well for more information about health and fitness.