How to get the most out of your workouts

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 7:00 pm

I am constantly reading and doing research to educate myself. My goal is to be the best personal trainer that I can be and to be able to provide others with quality information that they can use to help get them in shape and be the best that they can be as well.

I often consult with other fitness professionals. I attend a lot of conferences and networking events. I also subscribe to quite a few different email newsletters from other fitness professionals as well.

This morning I was reading a newsletter from Craig Ballantyne, the author of Turbulence Training. He is on of the top fitness professionals and weight loss experts around. I always look forward to reading what he has to say, because he really knows his stuff.

In his newsletter this morning one of the training tips he mentioned was that every time you workout, you should be try to break your own personal record.

Every time you workout try to achieve your personal best for each lift or exercise. It can be your fastest time in a run, the most reps at a certain weight, the most reps in a certain period of time, or your personal best on a lift. It doesn’t matter what it is, just try to be better than the time before.

You should always be trying to do a little better than the workout before if you want to start seeing your body change and to see some serious results.

Use this as motivation to keep you focused on your workouts. Make it a competition and challenge yourself, to get better.

This is where keeping a workout journal becomes so important. By keeping records of your workouts, you can easily look back and see what you did in your previous workout and try and beat your last record.

I have records of my workouts that go back almost 8 years. I can look back and know exactly what weights and how many reps of a certain exercise that I began with 8 years ago. How many people can say that?

This is important, because I switch up my workout programs constantly. Most of my workout programs last for 4weeks, 6 weeks, or 12 weeks at a time. I can easily monitor my progress by tracking the results from my workouts. This allows me to see exactly what is working and what is not working. It also allows me to challenge myself, because I know exactly what numbers I have to beat.

So next time you workout, challenge yourself and establish your own new personal records. If you don’t keep a workout journal, now is the time to start. I promise it will help you get better results.

By Benjamin Petitpas