If you go to a gym like ELEVATE, or where there are small group training and/or small group personal training sessions, you’ll have 30-60 minutes to exercise following the gym’s programming system.
You’ve likely committed to your gym because it aligns with what you’re looking for, including but not limited to proven results, done-for-you-programming, a convenient location and schedule for you, coaches who know what they’re doing and care about their members, and a strong sense of community.
There are a few things that can have a big impact on your preparedness, effectiveness, results, and overall well-being that don’t have to do with the act of lifting heavy things.
First, showing up early is being on time and allows you to prepare.
Being consistently late leaves potential and results on the table.
When members of our or any other gym arrive right when the session is about to start or later, they’re going to feel rushed and slightly unprepared. The quality of their readiness will suffer which means the quality of their performance could suffer.
About 7 years ago, I had a conversation with a member who always showed up late. I asked him, out of respect for the gym and his training partners, to wake up 5 minutes earlier so he could arrive 5 minutes earlier. Ever since that conversation he has shown up 10-15 minutes early for over 1000 sessions to do what we’re covering here.
If you arrive in the gym 10-15 minutes before the session starts, you will have time to foam roll and get your heart rate up before the session starts.
Foam rolling helps you check in with your body and is the first part of preparing for the work ahead, uncovering which parts of your body need attention while toning down your nervous and muscular systems.
We encourage our members to use a golf ball or mini foam roller on their feet for 30-60s, Next, move on to a bigger foam roller or the Rollga foam roller and check in with your calves, hamstrings, glutes, low to upper back, lats, hip flexors, quads, adductors and pecs. If an area isn’t giving you much feedback, move to the next. If an area is barking at you and you’re making awkward faces, spend some time working through that discomfort. Do this so you can move as freely as possible when it’s time to add weight to your movements of the day.
Time is of the essence so be aware of how much time you’re spending. 5-6 minutes should be plenty to do a full body scan with a foam roller to improve your soft tissue quality.
If you feel a lot of hot spots throughout your body, spend extra time foam rolling on your rest days or over the weekend, working through those special areas. The more frequently you use a foam roller the better you adapt and those areas that were once mildly painful end up toning down.
No one ever says “I feel worse” after going through their foam rolling routine.
However, if you skip exploring and scanning your body with the foam roller, you’re likely leaving some mobility restrictions on the table.
The next thing you can do before the prescribed warm up begins is ride a fan bike, get on a rower, do some variation of a loaded carry, crawl or cross crawl. This can take 2-3 minutes.
This shouldn’t be effortless. Get your heart rate up. Break a sweat.
Foam rolling and warming up before the session begins will make it easier to get into and out of challenging positions throughout your actual warm up.
The older we get, the more important the warm up becomes.
At ELEVATE, we designed our small group training session (TEAM) warm ups to align with the movements and exercises programmed for that specific session.
We’re going to work on breathing mechanics, joint mobility (specifically targeting ankles, hips, thoracic spine, shoulders and wrists), stretching, continuing to get warm and get into and out of positions that will help us improve our potential during each loaded or body weight movement pattern within the training session.
When we start off the session with a breathing reset drill, that’s an opportunity to get your mind right for the session and leave your personal shit at the door. You’re in your gym now. Breathe in the good energy and exhale anything that can get in the way of your mental state and impact your performance. Get mentally prepared.
You made the time and financial commitment to invest in yourself, so when you are in the gym – it’s 100% about you improving your life. Don’t let things that are bothering you outside of the gym get in the way of your performance. It’s take care of yourself time.
A side note – unless you’re using your phone to monitor your heart rate and/or follow a workout in a training app, stay off your damn phone! This is a distraction and will only interfere with where your head is at during your session.
The last thing we want to cover in this message is the conditioning portion of the training session. You’ve done all the strength work because that’s the fun part. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable, yet you push through because you really want to see the reps or weight increase, get stronger and build confidence.
Are you finding an excuse to skip the conditioning?
Don’t.
The conditioning at the end is programmed for you to improve your cardiovascular health and endurance, improve blood pressure, blood glucose control and burn fat.
Complete the session by doing your conditioning or “finisher” work. It’s called a finisher not because it’s design to finish you – it marks the conclusion of your training session (before the cool down).
Now, tell me why you’re going to skip the conditioning. You care about those benefits, correct?
This entire system, from start to finish, is a recipe to help you move better, feel better and perform better, getting the results you’re after, so you can do greater activities out of the gym.
Show up earlier.
Get in your prep work.
Get your mind in the right place for the work ahead.
This is your time 2-4 days a week. Make it count.
If you do all of these things already, then you are maximizing your health and fitness potential and progress.
If you see one or more glaring areas of improvement, pick one thing and take action.