Making those runs and workouts count, and then taking them up a notch, to get more gains from them is thankfully not that hard. There are simple ideas for getting more out of your exercise and training, which we look at below.
1. Switch It Up
Variety isn’t just the spice of life, it is also a good method of keeping your running and workouts interesting.
If you do enough of anything over and over it can tend to get a little boring, and you may not stick with it. If you do stick with it, you may not be pushing yourself quite as hard, and you won’t get as much out of the exercise.
Run in a different place, change the distance that you are running. There are a lot of different things you can do.
2. Have Days Where You Take It Easy
You want to keep your toe in every day, but you need to make sure that you aren’t pushing yourself to the limit all the time, and not allowing your body to recover.
Some people know that this is a good way to run their exercise, but they find it hard to ease off for any amount of time.
Those days where you take it easy really do need for you to do just that. It means you are going to get more out of it when you do push yourself hard.
3. Weighted Clothes
If you are looking to build endurance and strength for your muscles, using weighted clothes is a great idea. You can use them in a number of different exercises, and they are going to help you in certain ways.
It helps with both body weight exercises, you can walk and hike with it – you can even ride a bike with it.
As well as building strength it also helps provide variation, and it works out your cardiovascular system as well. You are going to increase both bone mass and muscle mass, and the increase in intensity is going to help burn more fat as well.
4. Running Up That Hill
We’re not suggesting you take the advice of Kate Bush here, but running up hills is actually a great way to take your workouts and run up a notch.
It helps you to improve your balance and power, and you will find yourself able to run more quickly because of the amount of engagement it requires of the body.
There is debate whether it serves as a substitute for weight work, but there is also the suggestion it may help with any biomechanical issues you are experiencing. In any case it is a great action.
5. Change Your Fuel
If you have been on a diet, you may want to consider what the performance enhancing qualities of the food you are eating are.
Getting things that are not overly processed is great. Choosing snacks like wholewheat crackers with nut butter, dried fruit and seeds, and fruit smoothies is a great idea, because they give you that energy that you need.
Avoid sugar because that ramp up your cortisol levels and you aren’t going to recover as quickly.
Conclusion
As you can see, some of the things that you can do to enhance the work that you’re already doing, is not hard to implement. You will start to feel the benefits, and because they all work in ways that are easy to maintain, you can just continue to build.