Getting Results: Workout with Focus and Intention
Stay focused and present for results!
In my last post I talked about the importance of having goals and a driving purpose behind those goals. Today I want to talk about being focused and present during your workout sessions in order to get the greatest results from your effort.
Day in and day out I see people workout without focus or intention. They’ve been told to do 10 reps so they pound through 10 reps at light speed without thinking about what they are working or trying to achieve. It’s for this reason that most people go to the gym day after day, week after week and rarely if ever see results. It’s sad really, the amount of time, money and energy spent to never see the results they are looking for.
Let’s make sure you don’t fall into that sad, depressing, never see results crowd and get you on the awesome track where results happen!
In order to be focused you first must be present.
This is something yoga is excellent at teaching people. Want to learn how to be more present, get yourself into a yoga class even once a week.
Being present means you have the ability to tune things out around you and deeply focus on the task at hand. During an exercise you aren’t concerned with who’s “liked” your latest Instagram selfie, you don’t care about that guy across the gym who’s looking at your bum and you don’t care that Maury Povich is on and about to reveal if he is indeed the father of that girls baby.
Instead – You are doing a set of barbell squats. All you can focus on is your breathing, that your knees are staying in line with your toes, your back is flat, core is strong and you feel like you can currently squat the world. This is Focus!
If you aren’t present and focused there is a good chance your form will suffer. Your knees will buckle in, your core won’t be engaged and in return the odds of hurting yourself increases. Plus you won’t have properly worked the muscles you were aiming to work and gotten very little from your effort. This is called going through the motions.
Going forward I challenge you to focus on what you are actually doing when you move your body. Don’t just go through the motions.
If you are doing a leg exercise check in with yourself…are you feeling the muscles in the legs? If not why? Maybe the weight is too easy, maybe you aren’t squatting deep enough or maybe you are just moving to quickly. You may have to try a few tricks to get your focus back. Try reducing the weight, closing your eyes to concentrate on where you are feeling the movement or slow things down to feel what’s really going on. Once you’ve gotten your focus back you can work on going heavier and quicker if needed.
There is also a possibility your lack of focus is due to being bored with your current exercise routine. In this case I’d recommend meeting with a trainer to get them to create something fun for you to do when you are on your own. They’ll make sure you are doing the exercises correctly, give you some fun new exercises and make sure you are moving at the right pace and intensity for results. A new workout routine is great for sparking results and focus!
Maybe you can get on a schedule where you meet with your trainer once every 1-2 months to get a new and motivating workout routine you can do on your own. I do this with a bunch of clients. It helps keep their costs down as opposed to training with me each week and I know they are staying focused when I’m not with them.
