Making Your Workout “Feel” Easier
The Key is to work to improve yourself, avoid comparing yourself and your progress to others.
1. Add Music: The intense nature of HIIT (high-intensity interval training) makes it one of the most disliked forms of workout exercise for some people.
When exercisers were able to listen to their favorite songs during a session of sprint interval training, however, their perceived enjoyment increased and was consistently higher than those performing the interval training without music.
Researchers concluded: “Listening to music during intense interval exercise may be an effective strategy for facilitating participation in, and adherence to, this form of training.”
Past research has also shown that music can significantly boost your exertion level during a workout.
While your body may be simply responding to the beat on a more or less subconscious level, the type and tempo of the music you choose may also influence your conscious motivation.
Together, the synchronization of moving to the beat along with being motivated by the music itself allows it to do its magic.
2. Get a Buddy or Join a Group Class: Exercising with a friend or enrolling in a group class can significantly boost your workout results. An Oxford University study on members of a rowing team found those who exercised together could tolerate twice as much pain as those who exercised alone.3
The researchers believe the effect is due to a heightened endorphin surge that occurs when working together as a group.
They noted: “This heightened effect from synchronized activity may explain the sense of euphoria experienced during other social activities (such as laughter, music-making and dancing) that are involved in social bonding in humans and possibly other vertebrates.”
3. Keep Your Eyes on the Prize: Literally, keeping your eyes focused on a target in the distance while walking makes you walk faster and makes the distance seem shorter, according to research published in Motivation and Emotion.
Study author Emily Balcetis, PhD, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at New York University, said, “People are less interested in exercise if physical activity seems daunting, which can happen when distances to be walked appear quite long …
These findings indicate that narrowly focusing visual attention on a specific target, like a building a few blocks ahead, rather than looking around your surroundings, makes that distance appear shorter, helps you walk faster, and also makes exercising seem easier.”
4. Drink a Cup of Organic Black Coffee Without Sugar: Athletes who consumed caffeine prior to a workout burned 15% more calories in the 3 hours following their workout, compared to those who consumed a placebo.
Other functional benefits of a pre-workout cup of Organic black Coffee include improved microcirculation, pain reduction, improved endurance, muscle preservation, and improved memory.
When used before exercise, Coffee will give you a good boost, and will work to optimize the benefits of exercise, including stimulating energy production and fat burning.
Make sure the Coffee you drink is black and Organic.
5. Change Your Mindset About Pain: Instead of focusing on muscle fatigue and thinking, “this hurts!” try altering your mindset and view it as a sign that your muscles are growing strong and changing for the better.
6. Look in the Mirror: The simple act of watching yourself exercise in a mirror will make your workout more efficient.
Study author Daniel L. Eaves, PhD, senior lecturer in Motor Behavior and Sport Psychology at Teesside University in the UK, told MORE: “People have a tendency to synchronize their actions with the actions of people around them; for instance, they may adopt the same step pattern as their friends when walking together …
In this case, being in sync with the visual image of themselves caused the study participants to unconsciously stabilize their movement pattern, which helped them run more efficiently.”
7. Try Beet Juice: Those who drank Beet Juice prior to exercise were able to exercise for up to 16% longer. The benefit is thought to also be related to nitrates turning into nitric oxide, which may reduce the oxygen cost of low-intensity exercise, as well as enhance tolerance to high-intensity exercise.
8. Drink Ice-Cold Water: Drinking a glass of ice-cold water prior to a workout helps exercisers to exercise longer, even in hot temperatures.
9. Get Bright-Light Exposure: Light has a stimulating effect on physical performance if exposure occurs at the appropriate times during your 24-hr circadian rhythm. Exposure to bright light prior to exercise has been found to increase exercise performance.
10. Exercise When It Feels Right to You: There is no rule that says morning, afternoon or evening exercise is best. The “best” time to exercise is when it feels right to your body and also when you can fit it in, practically speaking. Exercising in the morning and afternoon have also been shown to be especially beneficial for fat burning and regulating your circadian rhythm, respectively, while some night owls enjoy late-night exercise.
While most experts generally discourage vigorous exercise close to bedtime, a study published in Y 2011 found that when people exercised vigorously for 35 mins right before bed, they slept just as well as on nights when they did not exercise.
11. Take a Hot Bath After Your Workout: Taking a hot bath after each daily workout for 6 days may help your body acclimate to heat and subsequently improve your exercise performance in hot weather.
Researchers explained: “Hot water immersion after exercise on 6 days presents a simple, practical, and effective heat acclimation strategy to improve endurance performance in the heat.”
12. Get Restful Sleep: Exercise can help you to sleep better but the opposite is also true: better sleep leads to a better workout.
Eat healthy, Be healthy, Live lively
HeffX-LTN
Paul Ebeling
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