Blog

Your most important reps happen 90 minutes before you even enter the gym when you lift your fork to your lips. Proper nutrition and supplementation are paramount to optimal results, so 90 minutes out, take 3 to 5 grams of a nitric oxide (NO) booster supplement to improve nutrient delivery to working muscles. Thirty to 60 minutes before your workout, drink a whey protein shake consisting of 20 grams of protein mixed with water or juice and eat 20 grams of a slow-digesting carbohydrate such as steel-cut oatmeal to give you the energy needed to sustain your session. You should also take 5 grams of glutamine mixed in water for joint and connective tissue health and 5 grams of branched-chain amino acids for tissue repair.

Power your workout with a playlist: Costas Karageorghis, Ph.D., a world authority on music and exercise, observes that “music is like a legal drug for athletes.” This professor at London’s Brunel University School of Sport and Education adds that his 20 years of study show that music “can reduce the perception of effort significantly and increase endurance by as much as 15 percent.”

↓

Hard-chargers in the gym (and in life) may have a tendency to use negative self-talk when trying to push through a tough set and often refuse to cut themselves much slack when they fall short of a lofty goal. That’s a mistake, according to our expert.

“A lot of people have a very critical voice, so I always ask athletes what they would say to a teammate in the same situation,” says licensed psychologist Trent Petrie, Ph.D., a professor, and director of the Center for Sports Psychology at the University of North Texas (Denton). “Most of the time people come up with very positive things to say — ‘You can do it,’ or ‘We’ll get through this.’” You rarely hear them talk to another person in the menial, pejorative way that we talk to ourselves.”

Take-home message: Be your own best coach, and be mindful of your self-talk throughout a workout. It may sound “new-age,” but positivity breeds success.

 ↓

You’re short on time and tempted to jump right into the workout. But cold muscles and joints put you at risk for injury and mean reduced results. “Dynamic stretching prior to a workout increases heat in the muscles,” says Anthony Carey, CEO of Function First, a health club and training studio in San Diego, California. “That decreases stiffness, moves lubricating fluid to the joints and increases the excitability of the nervous system so that muscle contractions become better synchronized.”

Try this dynamic warm-up, designed by Carey, which hits the three areas that are most commonly tight: the hips, back, and chest.

↓

• 3-D hip flexor: Stand with left foot on a bench, the other leg straight. Lean forward until you feel a stretch in the groin, then reach both hands overhead. Lower your arms to shoulder level and twist away from your right leg. Return to the front, lifting right arm overhead. Lean left. Repeat 5x.
• Thoracic spine rotation: Stand facing a wall, feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent. Hinge forward with a flat back until it’s parallel to the floor. Place your left hand on the wall, shift your weight into your left hip and reach underneath you with your right arm, palm upward. Repeat 10x on each side.
• Dog to Cobra: Get into down dog pose (legs straight, hips lifted, head dropped between your arms shoulder width apart). Reach one hand to your opposite foot 10 times, alternating sides. Lower your hips, raise your head and lift your chest into a cobra. Hold and breathe. Repeat sequence 5 to 10 times.   KATY LOREN- SEP 23, 2017