Whether you’re a first time competitor or a long time competitor, here are a few things to make your prep go a little easier.
- Get Your Sleep – Make sure you’re sticking to a sleep schedule. Your body needs to rest and repair overnight. Lack of sleep can affect your goals. Here’s a link to a great article on Bodybuilding.com: The Importance of Sleep!
- Treat Yourself – Don’t forget the self care rituals. Get a massage, see your chiropractor. We are hard on our bodies and demand they do some amazing things. Reward yourself for your success! Just don’t use food as the reward. Terry Cross over at Climbing.com stated “Without effective recovery, you can experience a drop in performance, an increase in pain, or even worse, injury. The key to quick recovery is flushing out lactic acid and metabolic waste, so you can come back the next day feeling fresh and ready to crush. ” You can check out the article on “Recover Faster: How To Perform A Healing Self-Massage” here.
- Plan Your Workouts – Have a plan before you walk into the gym. Know which days you’re going to work which body part. Keep track of your workouts in your favorite fitness app or a good old fashioned note book. You’ll want to track your progress. Want an app that shows you video’s of your workouts? You can sign up for the Strength & Grace Fitness app that we created for $10/month. Other great ones include Under Armor’s Record app and the every popular MyFitnessPal. You can check them both out here.
- Take Breaks & Rest – Prevent burnouts by stopping what you are doing and do something else. Create a different atmosphere, add some novelties in your daily routine. Try a new gym or a new class, recruit some friends to go running, or schedule a team workout. Vary your routine to shock your body. And don’t forget to rest! Rest = Recovery Time.
- Learn Something New – Learning helps to create new connections in your brain and to come up with new ideas and new opportunities. Plus, it keeps you from thinking about all the foods.
Most of all, have fun with it. This process is a great way to push your body and see what you can achieve. Just remember to also LISTEN to your body and always, ask questions!