Results are why you come to the gym. You come to the gym looking to achieve a certain outcome. It could be anything from weight loss, muscle gain, strength, to mental or physical health and wellbeing. 

Of course, that begs the question of what’s the most optimal way to achieve your results in the gym? And what areas should you focus on to speed up the process? 

Three practical ways to improve your fitness results

1. Training Frequency

How often are you currently training? Is it at an optimal level to get you the best results possible? Increasing your overall frequency can be an easy and simple variable to get better results. 

The best way to demonstrate this, is through a simple example of 4 different training frequencies.

Imagine the following four people.  To keep it simple, let’s assume each person completes 100 reps at 20kg, at every session.  This equates to a lifting volume of 2000kg per session.

• Person A does 1 Session per week = 52 sessions a year = 104,000kg of volume

• Person B does 2 Sessions per week = 104 sessions a year = 208,000kg of volume

• Person C does 3 Sessions per week = 156 sessions a year = 312,000kg of volume

• Person D does 4 Sessions per week = 208 sessions a year = 416,000kg of volume

Out of Persons A – D, who do you think will get the biggest improvement in their results? 

Chances are Person D, who has the most exposure to training (greater frequency of attendance), will develop the quickest in achieving results. And on the other hand, Person A doing only 1 session per week would rightfully expect their progress to be much slower process.

Consistency, frequency, and overall volume are key factors in achieving fitness results. E.g., if someone is looking to improve their strength, then doing another training session will give them twice as much exposure, increasing the outcome of fitness success.

2. Nutrition

The adage is you can’t out train a bad diet. And it is 100% CORRECT!

It may not be what you want to hear, and you may be thinking if I just exercise a bit more, I don’t need to address my nutrition.

Truth Bomb… nutrition ABSOLUTELY matters when it comes to getting results in the gym. Improvements in composition, strength and recovery are maximised when focus is placed on nutrition and nutritional habits. 

Focusing on exercise and neglecting one’s nutrition, is the equivalent of trying to put out a house fire with a garden hose. It will take you a long time and be limited in its effectiveness in delivering the desired outcome.

However, if you dial in your nutrition and focus on (to achieve what you want) developing healthy nutritional habits that support your goals, you WILL see significant improvements in your body composition, strength and overall health and wellbeing. 

 

3. Rest and sleep

Rest is the yin to the yang of training. Training breaks down the body through the addition of good stress to the body and rest is the recovery and development of what training adaptations you are working towards (fat loss, muscle growth, strength etc.) 

Training hard, but only getting 5 hours of sleep a night is not optimal for achieving fitness results.

Not providing your body with sufficient recovery through sleep and adequate nutrition, will impede your desired results. Your outcomes will be sub optimal.

We suggest you aim to get 8 hours of quality sleep a night and try maintaining a low stress environment. We understand that this can be very challenging especially with the addition of work, family, and life stress in general!

Create some “me” down time before going to bed. Allow yourself time to wind down, remove yourself from the temptation of screen time, and create good bed hygiene practice before going to sleep

 

Next steps

So, we’ve identified 3 crucial elements that impact on your workout results, but what do you do with this information?

A great practical thing to do, is to rank your current performance in each of these 3 areas – you need to be 100% honest with yourself if you are serious about achieving your desired results.  

Take each area (Training Frequency, Nutrition and Rest) and rank yourself on a scale of 1-10 in the context of what you are practicing currently.

1 = I’m not doing great here. Need some serious help with this area.

10 = I’m doing great! 100% optimised, no further room for improvement. 

 

Once you have identified how you are performing in each area, chances are, that focusing on your lowest ranked area, will have the biggest impact on improving your results.

If you are happy with your current fitness performance, that is great, and we applaud you.

If you are not getting the outcomes that you set out to achieve, chances are that you need to address either of/ or all of your training frequency, nutrition, and overall rest.

At Healthy Fit we practice a holistic approach to getting fitness results and believe that attending to each of these areas coupled with intelligent programming and training; will deliver you results every time.