Giving your best during a workout and managing it properly can be tough. We are living a busy lifestyle due to which, maintaining a balance between work, home, and social life could be very challenging.

But whenever you find time to squeeze in the workout and hit the gym, you always try to make sure that you put your blood and sweat into the workout.

Even if you are motivated for giving your peak performance at the gym, things don’t always go as planned. 

But don’t stress out because here we will discuss how you can boost your gym performance and make your workouts incredibly productive.

What is Gym Performance?

On some days you might be lifting heavy weight on the bench press and doing cardio sessions for long hours.  And, on others, you won’t be having the strength and stamina to even do simple bodyweight exercises.

This can be known as gym performance. It can be categorized differently such as the amount of weight you can lift for a compound exercise like squats for up to 1 rep.

And, the maximum reps you can give while doing pushups. Or, the maximum distance achieved on cardio equipment in a limited time such as cycling.

In scientific terms, this can also be defined as motor performance fitness. This is the ability of a neuromuscular system to perform exercises or simple tasks.

It is depended on certain physical and psychological factors. They include diet, recovery,  self-confidence, motivation, stress control, and a lot more.

Achieving a number on the scale or getting big arms doesn’t evaluate your gym performance, gym performance is the measure of what you are doing with your time inside the gym.

Importance of Good Performance

Want to attain your perfect summer body or cut down some extra inches from your waist, you can only achieve it through effective gym performance.

If you are not putting your best when you hit the gym, then you would never be able to achieve your goals in a limited time.

Even you are motivated enough to give your best and try to push yourself harder, you still can’t help it due to low-performance levels.

So, let’s have a look at how you can boost your gym performance and achieve your fitness goals in less time.

Don’t Work out on an Empty Stomach

If you think that working out while you are starving would be more effective and you could burn more fat, then you are wrong.

When you work out on an empty stomach, you don’t have the energy to put in for exercise. You will end up burning the energy in your body soon leading to a drop in stamina.

Another negative impact is that your blood sugar levels will drop tremendously, and you will get nauseous.

The Reality of Fasted Cardio

You might have heard that you can burn more fat while doing cardio on an empty stomach. This is because your body starts burning fat to get energy for performing the exercise.

This is not true for everyone, the hype about fasted cardio has mixed evidence. Researchers have also found out that when your body burns fat to provide energy, it gets used to it and ends up storing more fat than before.

You can also lose muscle mass from working out on an empty stomach. This is because the body starts breaking muscles to provide you with fuel for workouts.

What to Eat Before a Workout?

It’s recommended to fuel yourself with carbs, fats, and protein before a workout. Some the good pre-workout foods are:

• Bananas: They are known as the best natural pre-workout food. They are enriched with carbs and potassium that helps in nerve and muscle function.

• Dry Fruits: Dried berries, pineapple, and apricots can be good pre-workout food.

• Whole Grain Bread: Have one slice with chicken or boiled eggs and you are ready to hit the gym.

• Fruit and Greek Yogurt: Greek yogurt is enriched with protein and has low fat, add some fruits for the carbs to be used as fuel for a workout.

 Warmup and stretching

Warming up before starting a workout is important to get your muscles ready for lifting heavy weights and tolerating the impact.

Not doing warmup and stretching properly is a sure-fire way to pick up an injury and not being able to give your best.

When you warm up, it raises your body temperature by heating the muscles. This boosts your metabolism and rushes blood and oxygen into your muscles.

Through stretching, your muscle resistance is decreased, this results in contraction and relaxation of muscle at a faster rate thus increase your performance.

Focus on Form

Perfecting your form will give a boost to your performance. Through a good exercising form, you can increase your workout efficiency.

While working out, you should always focus on quality rather than quantity. The way you perform an exercise can impact your muscle building effectively.

So why you work hard when you can work smart at gym? Squatting 100kg with the wrong form will not be any good for your muscles.

If you lift light weights but with a perfect form then there is no doubt that you can have better results in less time.

An improper form will just target unintended muscle groups. Good form will automatically reduce the likelihood of injury as well.

Setting Goals

You should have long and short-term training goals. Training without having goals will not take you anywhere.

If you wish to gain some muscle mass then you should set a goal of 6-7 months for achieving it.

In bodybuilding, you will have different seasons for shredding and bulking. If you continue working out without a goal of being ripped for a season or gaining weight, then you have to set goals.

These long-term goals can only be achieved by short-term goals for each workout session.

Having short-term goals increase your focus when exercising and boosts your performance. You should plan workouts that match your goals.

Recording Workouts

Ever heard of the fact that your gains are plateaued after some time of working out? The only way for making progress is by gradually increasing the intensity and volume of workouts.

Doing the same volume workout will not cause muscle hypertrophy, to continue the progress it’s important to keep surprising your muscles with different workouts.

You can’t remember what workouts you performed last week for a specific muscle. So, keeping records makes it easier for you.

Whatever you did last time, try to beat it in the next workout.

Varying Your Workouts

When you keep a record of your workouts, it would be easier to try some other workouts the next time you train.

Some of the methods to vary your workouts are:

• Increasing Intensity: By increasing the number of reps or lifting some more weight than before.

• Changing Sequences: If you did bench press in the beginning while training your chest, the next time you can start with a dumbbell press.

• Pause at Top or Bottom: An example is triceps pushdown when you extend the pulley downward, try holding it for some seconds.

• Trying New Exercises: You can add a variety of new exercises that you didn’t perform while training previously.

Adding variety is not only good for your body but also the mind. Following the same routine for a very long makes you bored.

Vary your workouts to boost your gym performance and keeping yourself excited.

Using Forced Reps

On the last reps of an exercise, you can perform forced reps. Have a spotter help you in lifting when you reach failure.

Going for those extra 3-4 reps can have a big impact on your muscle growth. The growth hormone (GH) levels are boosted tremendously when using forced reps.

Using forced reps can help you in building size and strength simultaneously. They are effective because you can do high-density work in less time.

Drop sets

When you hit failure while performing an exercise at a high weight, you don’t need to stop and continue the exercise at a lower weight. It is also known as a drop set. 

Doing drop sets can put more impact on your muscles as you are placing more stress for a longer period.

They are effective because you’ll work on the fast-twitch muscles when lifting heavyweight and also on slow-twitch muscles fibers in just one exercise.

You should never be doing drop sets for every exercise, it is recommended to do two drop sets for only one exercise per muscle group.

Stay Hydrated During Workout

If your body is dehydrated you can’t put energy into workouts. You lose a lot of water in the form of sweat while working out.

Dehydration automatically leads to a drop in your performance, it will make you feel lethargic and you won’t be willing to exercise.

Make sure to drink enough water throughout the day, and carry a water bottle with you in the gym.

According to researchers, a 2% reduction in fluids could lead up to a 20% drop in your gym performance.

When you sweat, you don’t only lose water but, also electrolytes along with that.

 A good option to replenish these electrolytes is through drinking coconut water. It is full of electrolytes that makes it an ideal rehydration drink.

Muscle cramps are an indicator that you are dehydrated, don’t ignore if you feel cramps coming on, take a break, and drink water.

During a workout, it’s recommended to sip in some water after every 20 minutes.

Change Your Workout Gear

Think of yourself looking in a mirror wearing a raggedy old T-Shirt with loose pajamas while working out. Will you be able to confidently put in your best?

Working out in comfortable and athletic workout gear not only boosts your self-confidence but also improves your gym performance.

Your fashion tracksuits and t-shirts are only designed to make you look good, they have nothing to do with exercises like weight training and gym workouts.

Fitness sportswear is designed specifically to help your body and muscles move properly during an exercise.

Workout gear can have a big influence on your gym performance. Sportswear is designed specially to increase blood circulation to those muscles which are being worked.

The right sportswear will protect you from injury and help in recovery between the sets.

Workout with Your Gym Buddy

Motivation can be related to your performance at the gym. When you are working out alone, it’s easy to make excuses that why you could not finish the required reps or why you can’t lift a heavyweight

Having a partner to train with can boost your gym performance effectively. You will be motivated to push yourself harder and give your best.

Your partner could keep an eye on your form. It’s easier to try out new workouts with your gym buddy which would help you in varying the workouts.

According to a study, 95% of those people who started a weight loss journey with their friends completed the program and more than 60% maintained their weight loss in the future.

Whether you are working out with a group of people in a class or just one friend, it can take your workouts up and fitness up a notch.

Listen to a Motivating Workout Playlist

Training while listening to music is not only to relieve boredom. It can be a magic pill to increase your workout performance.

The music that has motivating lyrics and is synchronized according to your workout can enhance your stamina and motivate you to push yourself harder.

Music is a powerful tool for setting your mood for a workout. Most of the gyms just play some generic songs on repeat, it’s better that you make your workout playlist that can switch you to the beast mode.

Put Your Phone on Airplane Mode

When you are working out it’s easy to be distracted when you see a text message popped up on your screen.

If you stop your workout to reply to your friend or check that Snapchat streak, you are more likely to be carried away and use your mobile for another 5-10 mins.

This will cool down the temperature of your muscles resulting in a loss in workout performance. If you wish to give your best then putting your phone on airplane mode is the best option.

Giving Enough Time to Recovery

For performing your best in the gym, the next day, you need to recover from your last workout. The sooner you recover, the better you can perform in the next workout.

For muscle recovery tips after an advanced workout click here.

Foam Rolling

Foam rolling is an effective method for immediate muscle recovery. It can be highly beneficial if you have any leftover muscle tension from a previous workout.

It can help you in improving your range of motion and flexibility. If you feel uncomfortable due to muscular pain from an intense workout, foam rolling can help with relieving muscle tightness, and inflammation.

Takeaway

For being productive with your workouts you need to change your lifestyle inside and outside the gym. It’s not easy to improve your gym performance but these tips will surely help you.

Hitting the gym and not being able to perform your best is something that no athlete would ever want.

If you think that you are giving your best performance at the gym then try out these tips to boost your gym performance and you will be surprised to see the results.