Here we want to provide a peek behind the curtain of advice you can expect from a personal training session at Third Space. For beginners starting their fitness journeys, random workouts reward you with random results, while expert guidance guarantees progress.
Performance is a tough term to pin down, but all it really means is getting the absolute maximum out of your session. Whether you want to build strength, burn fat or gain speed, focusing on improving performance in the gym will help you reach your goals more quickly.
Split between activation, training, nutrition and recovery, Third Space PTs James Ralph, Tom Hall and Callum Melly reveal their simple yet effective tips to make sure your first steps to elite performance are in the right direction.
Activation
Only stretch what needs stretching before a workout. If it’s tight and restricts movement for the upcoming session, then stretch, mobilise and activate that muscle. If it doesn’t, don’t! Stretching inhibits a muscle, so excessive stretching actually acutely decreases force output. Also, you may risk injury if you stretch and don’t strengthen these new ranges. – James Ralph
Before you train your big lifts (deadlift, squat or bench press) think about the movement and perform some super quick, explosive movements that mimic your main set. For example, six quick reps of broad jumps before your deadlift.
This is called pre-activation potentiation, which sets up your muscles and tendons to fire quickly and responsively to your main exercise. Try squat jumps for squats, speed press-ups for bench press and high skips for running. Give it a go with 5-10 seconds of effort, take 30 seconds rest and repeat – Tom Hall
Fascial release via foam rolling is a great way to prepare the muscles for exercise and aid recovery; by eliciting pressure on the muscle and fascia (the connective tissue that encloses the muscle) through what is essentially self-massage, you can increase blood flow to the muscle, thus improving oxygen and nutrient delivery to support performance in your workout. – Callum Melly
Working out
What’s the worst thing about a heavy set of deadlifts? Putting the weights back. Try propping one side up with a small 2.5k plate on the inside plate so you can easily slide the plates off. With the other side, pick up the empty side of the bar and slide it out from the other side to leave a neatly stacked pile of plates to put back –JR
Back-off sets ensure your performance keeps improving weekly by managing fatigue. Of course, your muscles tire after two sets of an exercise. However, instead of dropping the reps from 10 to 8 (or failing) drop the weight a couple of KGs. This will allow you to finish the set and lift more throughout a workout. For example…
10 reps of 100kg = 1000kg Lifted
8 reps of 100kg = 800 kg lifted
but
10 reps 0f 95kg = 950kg lifted
Lifting lighter is the better option, it puts your muscles under greater stress overall, which is what will improve your performance more quickly over time. – TH
Nutrition
Research by Brad Schoenfeld has forced us to rethink how we take supplements around workouts, comparing post-workout and pre-workout shakes, which means taking on your 25+ grams of protein 15 mins before your workout compared to after. The results found greater performance and hypertrophy benefits from pre-workout protein. Maybe keep this one to heavy weights rather than HIIT because it’ll be tough to stomach on the treadmill! –TH
Recovery
When training in the gym, we look to impart stress upon the body to force it to adapt. With constant stress, the body requires periods of recovery or the only adaptations that occur will be detrimental to performance. The body physically requires time to regenerate cells and repair the body from the stress caused. It has been shown that less than 6 hours of sleep per night increases the risk of injury, coupled with a reduction of up to 300% in reaction time. If weekday schedules make this difficult, a weekend lie-in will at least make Mondays more successful – JR
