Make Sure You’re Not Undoing All The Hard Work Of Your Workout

Your Workout man on bar working out

Pic by Kateryna Trysh

It’s a feeling that is all too common to many people who are getting into a fitness regime. You’re feeling good progress, you’re marking down the numbers and they’re going in a good direction. Then they just stop. You don’t see any more muscle growth and you feel like you’ve hit a brick wall. Even though you might feel like you’re giving it your all, you’re seeing little benefit for the trade-off of more pain. It’s not likely you’ve hit peak physical condition just yet, so what could be the problem?

Stay supplemented

There’s no doubt that diet is a big part of your fitness plans. If not, it should be. Not just how much you shove in your mouth, but what exactly it is. Many of the vitamins and minerals in whole ingredients keep your body healthy and help you get the gains you should from exercise. The less processed foods you eat, the better. But it can be difficult to get it all from food alone, especially if you’re using a calorie controlled diet. That’s where supplements from places like Vitaxe.com come in handy. Make sure that they’re safe to use by checking to see if they have any interactions with any medication you’re on or conditions you have. If they don’t, they can make sure your body isn’t slowing down because of deficiencies.

The perils of repetition

You might have some exercises you keep returning to again and again. Perhaps they show the most visual signs of progress. Perhaps they just feel the best for you. We all know how effective a good squat can be for a lot of different parts of the body. But if you keep doing the same exercises again and again, they get less effective. Just like muscle memory helps you perform dexterous tasks, it also helps your muscles manage strain. They get less of a workout, even if you are piling on the stress. A basic rule is to hit all the different muscle groups, varying between exercises that have you pushing and those that have you pulling. It’s a better idea to follow a specific guide for varying your workout, however.

See also  Stumbles and Falls: How to Deal with Fitness Setbacks

Get your rest

You shouldn’t have gotten to the point of hitting that brick wall without getting your proper rest. Just as your workout needs variation, so does the whole program. Your body needs a day off from time to time. Otherwise, your body isn’t fully repairing the muscle fibers you tear during your workout. Which is the whole point of muscle training in the first place. More than negating the effect, it can cause real injury. As Fitbit.com suggests, don’t worry about it affecting your performance, as it takes two weeks to start seeing any noticeable decreases in the progress you’ve made. Schedule and take your rest days. Don’t be stubborn about it.

Both inside and outside the gym, you need to make sure that your fitness program is varied. The right food, the right exercise, and the right rest. That’s the cure for most problems when you get down to it.