7 easy-to-implement strategies to improve your training, nutrition and mindset

If you don’t want to have to re-read my last fourteen blog posts, that’s fair enough – it would be time consuming!

Here’s a quick summary of seven actionable items that you can take from them and easily implement into your health and fitness routine.

If there’s a specific strategy you want a deeper dive into, I have attached the relevant blog post.

Training

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1. To overcome plateaus, try:

• Incorporating a greater range of motion when you’re training (eg. simply ensuring you’re taking a movement as far as your body allows it rather than stopping short).

• Varying the speed at which you perform the movement (eg. 2 seconds down, 1 second pause, 2 seconds up).

• Loading the movement slightly differently (eg. When squatting, instead of having the bar sit on your shoulders you could cradle it in your elbows).

• A different rep/set scheme (eg. If you always perform your squats for 3 sets of 10, you could instead try doing one set of 3-5 heavy, the second set 5-10 moderate, and the last set as many as you can with a light weight!)

(Exercises feeling stagnant? Here are a few ways to kick off further progress!)

2. To make your exercises feel better, try:

• A different foot or hand position (eg. Wider or narrower stance when squatting or a neutral grip when pulling or pressing – there’s no perfect way to perform a movement, do what feels best).

• Performing the movement at a different angle (eg. For a more vertical press, instead of pressing directly overhead you could use a ‘landmine press’ or perform an ‘incline press’).

• Preparing your joints to exercise by performing a few isometric holds for troublesome joints (eg. Knee feeling funny? Perform an ‘isometric lunge’ for 45s a couple of times).

(Strategies For Strength Training Movements That Feel Better)

3. To make your aerobic training less boring (and more beneficial):

• Achieve it through physical games or hobbies, hikes out in nature or through light strength training circuits if you prefer being in the gym!

• To make sure you’re at the appropriate intensity, utilise a heart rate monitor (120-150bpm) or the talk test (should still be able to hold a conversation but there should also be a little bit of challenge or difficulty) and perform the activity for 30 minutes+.

(Four Ways To Make Aerobic Training (Cardio) Less Boring)

Nutrition

4. To improve your overall health and the effectiveness of your training (and therefore your results), try incorporating more polyphenols and nitrates into your diet:

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• Accumulate a high nitrate intake by incorporating nitrate-rich vegetables like rocket, kale, spinach and beetroot throughout your diet. You’ll knock out a few more reps when you’re strength training, experience a quicker recovery and delay fatigue! There’s also the additional heart health benefits.

• Including many polyphenol-rich foods/drinks/condiments is a simple way to get the powerful health, recovery and training performance benefits of the compound. Consuming teas, dark berries, nuts and seeds, citrus fruits, onions, olives, coffee, olive oil, and seasoning/spicing up your meals with lots of herbs/spices is a great way to leverage this impressive compound for your benefit.

5. Raw honey contains polyphenols too, but it’s also a tasty food to include if you’ve got a sweet tooth, have been training hard and want some additional health benefits:

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• Raw honey is a good carbohydrate source to help your recovery and energy (useful to have around your training sessions), it has a number of health-enhancing effects (antioxidant, digestive health, immune system etc.), you’re less likely to experience a sugar crash and it doesn’t damage your oral health (may even improve it) in contrast to other ‘sugar sources’.

More on pre-workout foods (nitrates) and behaviours for better performance: Try These Prior To Exercise For Improved Performance

More on Polyphenols: Good Health and Improved Exercise Recovery: The Power Of Polyphenols

More on Honey (and carbs): How Carbs Can Help (Featuring Honey)

Mindset

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6. Finding motivation and ensuring consistency with your training:

• To find the initial motivation to act, there needs to be a big enough potential reward (whether it is overcoming a pain point or receiving a big reward/good feeling) – find this! From there, make a concrete plan and begin engaging in the behaviour. To keep reinforcing your motivational response, use nudging and framing strategies like behaviour contracts with your friend or coach, reminders, social support (being asked by someone how your progress is going) and frame your pursuits in a positive light (eg. “I’d love to exercise more to feel energetic, sleep better, feel great after the session).

• Staying consistent with your training can be challenging if you view it as an ‘all-or-nothing’ pursuit. By approaching your training with the attitude that you can dial it up and down depending on what else is going on in your life then you can create your dial and ensure you’re always doing something to progress your health and fitness pursuits regardless of outside circumstances and responsibilities.

More on finding motivation: How To Find The Motivation

More on creating your training dial: Always Stopping And Starting Your Training? Here’s A Solution

Sleep

7. You’re always being told the importance of sleep, but what can actually help? Try a few of the following:

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• A nightly ritual (eg. relaxing activity before bed each night)

• Exercise

• Well-balanced diet and sleep-promoting foods like kiwi fruits, tart cherry juice, fatty fish, milk, chicken, turkey.

• Good light exposure (see: How to Feel Great From a Light Adjustment)

• Warm bath 1-2hrs before bed, wear warm socks to bed, keep room cool and your bed nest warm.

• Magnesium, glycine and theanine are supplements that may help.

• Write a detailed ‘to-do’ list prior to bed.

For a deeper Dive: Nine Tips For Better Sleep

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Improve on one of these areas and you’ll often see improvement in the other related areas! Hopefully one (or a few) of these strategies can help. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, feel free to send me an email (top right corner).

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