Exercise is an activity that requires intense concentration and focuses. Unless you’re doing an exciting activity, such as hiking or cross-country biking, it’s hard to keep yourself focused on your exercise. A few sets can feel like it takes hours to achieve, and performing the same exercise routine over and over can make it feel dull and boring. While you can exercise without really putting much thought into it, it can be counteractive to what you want to achieve in the first place.
Without a focused mind, you can easily break your form and end up not doing anything significant (thereby wasting your time exercising) or even injuring yourself. Staying focused and concentrated is hard, but it’s an important aspect of training. Exercise is not as demanding as surgery or a dental implant, but it still requires your attention for it to be effective. How can you stay focused during workout sessions? Here are a few tips to help you out.
Train One at a Time
Compound exercises are exercises that train a group of muscles at the same time, versus isolation exercises with focuses on one muscle part at a time. A bicep curl is an isolation exercise for the bicep, and a burpee is a compound exercise that trains the legs, core, and chest. While effective, it’s not smart to create a routine solely relying on compound exercise.
To truly make full use of compound movements, one needs to be familiar with how each muscle feels when engaged- this is something that can be trained using isolation exercises. If you find yourself losing focus during workouts, perhaps it’s because you’re focusing on too many muscle groups at a time. Try limiting your exercises to one muscle at a time, or at least two main muscle groups. This will allow you to ‘feel’ them better and know when they’re properly engaged.
Listen to the Beat
Everyone likes exercising with music. It helps them focus, and it’s motivating to exercise with energetic music playing in the background. However, certain types of music can actually help you concentrate on your exercise even better. Genres such as heavy metal, rock, even hip-hop, or other genres that bass or drum-line heavy have a consistent beat that you can follow for each repetition of your exercise. Making motions to the beat will allow you to execute the motions better, accomplish proper form with each repetition, and maximize your potential gains.
Train Alone in the Right Environment
Some people find it difficult to train with others, as they find it distracting. If you are one of those types, then it’s better to train alone. However, training alone does pose dangers of its own, as accidents can happen anytime, and training without something keeping watch can result in injuries. When training alone in an isolated location, it’s best to have someone that you can quickly call for emergencies. Alternatively, you can continue training in a gym by yourself- remember to train in a conducive environment.
Train with a Fitness Coach
If you find that you can’t focus on your workouts when alone, try training with a fitness coach. While it may sound unnecessary, having real-time feedback on your form and someone to guide you on the heavier or more dangerous exercises is invaluable. Having someone to remind you of your exercise is also useful- it’s easy to get lost in thought and lose track of what you’re doing. In any case, having a fitness coach can be a very motivating experience, and in moments where you find that training alone isn’t doing well for you, maybe you need a coach.
Get Proper Sleep
There’s a common belief that fitness enthusiasts sleep better at night. After all, they tire their body to the point of exhaustion, making sleep easier to come. However, this is often the case when at the start as the body begins to acclimate to the new workload and old sleeping habits can resurface. This results in exercising when sleep-deprived, which is definitely a danger. Training in a fatigued state can hinder your development, as the body works against itself to keep you going.
Getting better sleep and being well-rested while exercising will help you focus more and have a better gym experience. If you’re dozing in and out while training your body, you should drop it for the day and focus on getting good sleep that night. After all, your body needs as much rest as it can get if you’re serious about fitness.
With these ideas in mind, you can prepare and do well with exercising. You don’t have to worry about doing it wrongly and end up not helping yourself.