Criterion Fitness Lifestyle

1. Stay Hydrated

To perform well in the gym, to get-in a good session and to achieve the goals you’ve set yourself one needs to nourish their body with the things that will ensure it is able to meet the demands of training. Hydration is an important factor and should be observed within one’s diet generally, inside the gym and when out in the world.

Did you know…

Hydration regulates your body temperature, what we drink helps us to sweat which is necessary to our bodily nervous system and overall functional health. Staying hydrated also lubricates your joints, reducing friction and joint pain.

2. Warm-up and cool down

The more you warm-up and cool down on a regular basis with stretching and light cardio work to warm up the body and loosen muscles, the less chance one will have of encountering an injury that will extend the time needed to achieve one’s goals in their fitness block. One’s recovery from a training session is improved with this way of tuning the body and readying it for training, cooling down and post-training stretching also help in this.

3. Simple Workouts

Starting out training can be daunting for anyone, the new environment and learning how to train with good form will take time so keeping training sessions simple in the beginning rather than exploring complicated and advanced exercises is the way to go. Once your foundation in training is set with a year or so of training under your belt you’ll be aware of many more techniques and how to employ them with proper form. Keep it simple to start with; cardio on the treadmill, rowing machine, cycling. These are core pieces of equipment that shouldn’t be missing from any training programme because of their benefits to the whole body, heart, upper and lower body.

4. Don’t slack on Recovery

When you’re at rest, that’s the time when your body is recovering from your training session. Overtraining comes about due to a lack of sufficient rest in most cases so you don’t want to scrimp on sleep. It’s important to maximize the benefits of training by getting adequate rest which allows muscles to repair and grow and it also gives you mental rest.  

Did you know…

It’s recommended to allow 24-48 hours before working a muscle group again, especially during heavy training sessions. DOMS are reduced and recovered from sooner with suitable rest.

5. Personal Trainer

Working with a PT, whether you’re a gym newbie or gym veteran can help you propel your training like you wouldn’t have imagined. When holding yourself to account for getting to the gym falters having a PT that you’ve paid to assist you in achieving your goals will be of benefit, not only because they will coach you and check in regularly, not only because they have the knowledge of fitness to ensure safe training that cuts the fluff out of your training experience and not only due to the solid friendship you’ll have but because they can motivate and inspire you in those hard moments to stay on track.

My name is Hanif of Be The Criterion; helping you be the balance and bring the balance into your life, fitness training and nutrition the keys to cool. I coach sessions online and from Pure Gym (keep tuned for more on that). If you have weight-loss goals, mass gain, strength building, endurance maximising goals, need accountability to achieve more, get in-touch with me and we will get you training like the winner that you are.

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