Do you find yourself mindlessly going through the motions while you’re working out? Do you feel like you’re losing steam to stay true to your fitness goals? Add these simple tips to your regimen and you’ll find renewed energy, inspiration and start …

How to Have a Better Workout

You go to the gym determined to have a great workout. You have a vision in your mind of hitting the weights, jumping on the treadmill, and getting a good sweat session in. The workout begins, and your energy levels start to drop, and you're losing stamina with every passing rep.

Maybe you're slowly walking across the gym parking lot, dreading every second you'll spend on your workout. All you want to do is go in there and get it over with. But at least you can say you did it and got it over with.

You begin your workout, and you find yourself staring at the TV, watching others workout, you start scrolling through your phone, or you're rushing through the workout so you can get on with your day. All of us have been guilty of all of this, and it's very easy to lose your focus before or during your workout. There are many ups and downs when you're on a workout regimen. Your excitement will waiver at times, so let's focus and breakdown a few ways to get you back on track and get you to have better workouts again. Reworking the way you go about your routine will reignite your fire and have you burning calories and building muscles at a rapid pace. These tips will keep you on track and have you smashing all of your goals.

WHAT'S YOUR NUTRITION LIKE?

There is no cookie-cutter way to eat for every fit person. The simple truth is, it's all dependent on what works for you. You'll read where you should consume carbs BEFORE a workout, or you'll hear others say you should only workout on an empty stomach. I can tell you, try it both ways, and you might be surprised by how differently you feel when you pay attention to how you feel after you experiment with this.

I'll use myself as an example. I am a creature of habit. I don't like change, and I function only on repetition. Anything pops up, I get frustrated. I'm one who eats the same food for years on end. Routine is where I shine. Take me out of my daily regimen, and things go awry.

I was dead set on eating BEFORE my workout. I did it for years. Eight years to be exact. I bought into the opinion that you have to fuel your body with carbs before a workout. I absolutely would NOT do an exercise before I had eaten a bowl of oatmeal and five scrambled egg whites. I also guzzled unsweetened iced tea (I do not like coffee, so this is my go-to caffeine source.) When I tell you I wouldn't work out before I ate this, I literally wouldn't even attempt a workout. I was confident that I'd feel nauseated and would probably pass out during my warmup. Are you like this? Do you have to eat even before thinking about working out? If so, stay with me.

After eight years of fueling up before hitting the gym, my schedule changed. The morning carpool for getting my girls to school every morning had changed, and this left me driving more frequently. This meant I would no longer have the time to stop and get breakfast before I headed to my gym. I had clients to train, and I prefer to workout in the morning as my evenings are jammed pack with my girls' activities. I had to rush back to do a workout before I started training my clients for the day.

The first day, I rushed into the gym to get a workout in, utterly sure that this workout was going to be awful. Who can work out on an empty stomach? I was sure I was going to fail miserably. I began my workout and quickly realized that I felt fine. As the workout went on, not only did I feel fine, I felt great. My energy level was high, my strength was there, and I felt lighter.

With each workout, I felt better, and I was thrilled with how well I was doing my workouts. It was also a lot of pressure off of me to always worry about how and where I'd eat my breakfast before I headed to my gym. With my girls long commute to school every morning, my stress level is always on high. This alleviated that from my daily to-do list.

After my workout, I didn't feel the need to eat immediately afterward so it was simple for me to mix up a quick protein shake shortly after I finished my routine then I could go on with my day.

I'm sharing this with you so you can see where you need to be open to switching things around that work better for you, not being so rigid because of your beliefs about something someone told you is better or believing a study that you read that states you MUST do it this way. For everything you've heard or read, there's always an argument for the polar opposite.

Here's what I want you to take away from this. Had I stuck with my thought process of having to eat BEFORE a workout, I would've fallen off my fitness journey because life unexpectedly threw me a curveball. I would've gotten frustrated, been grumpy with my kids in the morning, and screwed up my entire workout plan. Things don't have to be perfect, but you do need to find ways to stick with your workouts. Life will try to derail you, especially when you're trying to get and stay fit. You have to be willing to try different things. You might be glad you did. I sure am!

If you’re just going through the motions of your workout, dig into this article to see how to get more of every workout. Learn how to stay motivated and focused so you can see your body transform right before your eyes.

Let’s Flip Flop It

Now, let's go the other way. Do you workout on an empty stomach and you find yourself lacking energy and you're not focused during the workout? Do you wish you could lift heavier or stay on the treadmill a bit longer? Do you hate the thought of eating before a workout? Ok, you have two options, so try both and see what works best for you.

To fuel up your workouts in the morning, prepare the night before. Eat a complex carb before bed, and the body will use it as fuel in the morning. I like to eat oatmeal at night because it has melatonin and vitamin B, which stimulates serotonin secretion and aids in a night of better, deep sleep. Eating more carbs at night might be the key to getting you more energized for your morning workouts.

If you workout at night and you wait until afterward to eat your dinner, place more of your carbs at lunchtime or add a higher carb snack a few hours before your workout. I'll add some Pb2 to a piece of wheat bread before I do an evening workout to give me a bit more energy for my workout.

Your other option is to do something light BEFORE your workout. I know you like the feeling of an empty stomach when you're working out, but to have a better workout, this might do the trick without you feeling heavy or bloated. There are days that I'm incredibly exhausted, lacking motivation, and I'm super hungry. On these days, I cook three whole eggs, over easy on the skillet. I add some sea salt and drink my tea. The fats from the egg yolks make me feel full without feeling heavy. The egg whites will only aid in my muscle recovery after I finish my workout. Not having carbs keeps the bloat away, and I feel refocused to getting a great workout in.

So stay open to switching up your nutrition to keep your workouts on point. There's no right or wrong way as long as you're staying within your calorie allowance. Play around with your food and pay close attention to how your body reacts. This will be vital to staying on track and getting a better workout in, every time.

PLAN AND PREPARE

If you feel like you're just going through the motions during your workout, you need to add fun tools in to get you back in the zone. Create a playlist with heart-thumping music or download your favorite podcast that inspires you! Be sure to write down your workout plan and keep track of your weight amounts. This will keep you pushing to the next level.

Change up your routine to keep things fresh and challenging and set DAILY goals for yourself. Instead of doing three sets, go for four sets. Instead of 25lbs, shoot for 30lbs. If you do 30 minutes of cardio, push for 35 minutes. These small milestones will keep you inspired and motivated to keep you moving forward, and they'll always lead you to have a better workout. You'll see real results from these small tweaks. You may surprise yourself.

If your fitness regimen is starting to feel blah, dig into this article and get yourself refocused and energized to get that body burning more fat today! You don’t need to change everything, you just need to tweak a few things to get yourself back o…

WHEN YOU START HITTING A WALL

Don't you hate when it's about time too, and you start yawning? Before long, you feel like you hit a wall and you begin talking yourself out of working out. You'd much rather take a nap. Your motivation drains from you. This can become a daily occurrence that will ultimately cost you your ability to reach any of your goals.

Here's a little trick, chug cold water — most of the time, we mistaken dehydration for fatigue. Before you decide you're way too tired to work out, hydrate yourself with water. You'll begin to feel more energized, and the brain fog will subside. Being adequately hydrated before heading to exercise will aid in a better, more energized workout.

Start logging your daily water intake to ensure you're getting enough water and you may be shocked by how little water you're getting. The health benefits of water are endless. If you want to feel better throughout the day, water could be just what you need more of.

Small But Game-Changing Tweaks

You already know the importance of sleep. Trying to reach your fitness goals without adequate sleep will only lead you to complete burnout. If you need to increase your amount of sleep, start small. Shoot to go to bed fifteen minutes earlier each night. Allow yourself a few minutes of extra sleep in the morning by preparing everything you can the night before. If your schedule allows, try adding a twenty-minute nap in the afternoon. You'll feel so much better and refueled for your workout.

Your sleep is vital to not only ensuring you have plenty of energy, but your body does a lot of healing and repairing while you sleep. Allow yourself to get quality sleep to work its magic, and it will reflect in your results. Your body will not only thank you, but it will reward you with a beautiful, healthy body.

DISTRACTIONS

Getting a better workout will require you to avoid all distractions. If you go to a busy gym where you know everyone, invest in headphones. Say hi then tell them you're ready to get your workout done, put your headphones in and begin your workout. Being a gym owner, I know the struggles of getting my workout finished without interruptions. You don't need to apologize or feel bad. This is your time, and you have goals.

Turn all the notifications off on your phone. You're working out to get results, not to be there to answer calls, texts, and emails. It's your small window of time to work out, so do the routine and answer your phone once you're finished. The world will not end without you for an hour.

GOAL SETTING

Be sure to have mapped out your SPECIFIC daily goals. Write them out every day, or better yet, the night before. Breaking your goals into small daily goals will keep you focused on exactly what you need to do every day to reach all of your goals. Seeing the goals daily will have you going into your workout with clarity and energy. This will keep you working harder every minute at the gym.

PACK EVERYTHING

The smallest things make the most significant difference when you want to have a better workout. The tiniest things can knock us off of our workout regimen. Sometimes, without realizing it, we subconsciously look for excuses and ways to not exercise. It's essential that you avoid this pitfall by having everything you need to work out, packed and ready to go.

Keep your gym bag stocked with clothes, shoes, headphones, a notebook, a pen, a small snack, and water. Schedule your workouts, so your loved ones know your plan, and they avoid asking you to do something during this time. Again, no need to apologize. You're doing this for yourself, and you have to be consistent.

Having cleared yourself of all landmines, you avoid coming up with last-minute excuses to skip or blunder through your workouts. It's the smallest things that get us.

Being bored during your workout will slow lead to total burnout. Before you lose your motivation to keep your weight loss happening. dig into this article to get back on track and get your body burning fat, immediately.

SLOW DOWN

Without changing a thing to your workout, but guaranteeing a better workout, slow down. Focus on every rep. The mind-body connection is the real deal. Pay attention to your reps. If you're doing a bicep curl, look at your biceps. Slow the movement down. Control the weight and put more emphasis on the negative movement (the way down).

Scientists have found that when you focus on the actual muscle, you're working on, your brain and nervous system create and sharpen connections to muscle fibers that are then made to produce force more frequently. The mental part of a workout outweighs the physical part. So slow down, concentrate, and visualize those muscles. Envision how you want them to look.

Look for ways to focus and fuel, and I promise you'll be well on your way to much better workouts. Applying these small changes will have your shedding fat and speeding to your goals. You don't need to make big changes, but recognizing that you're struggling with your workout or you've hit a plateau at reaching your goals, is half the battle. This allows you to make tweaks to get you moving ahead quickly.

“The mind and the body are like parallel universes. Anything that happens in the mental universe must leave tracks in the physical one. ”

— Deepak Chopra

You have to strive to work out with intention, determination, and focus. Adding some or all of these tools should get you some fantastic results. If you need some fun, simple ways to keep you on track and inspired, please sign up below to be on the inside loop of tricks and tools to fast track you to all of your goals. I'd love to be a guiding light on your path to greatness.

Hugs & Love,

Aimee