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It takes a natural drive and energy to keep up with a challenging workout schedule. And while exercising helps you feel more energetic and alert over time1, days when you can’t find your groove are inevitable. Each set feels harder than usual, your cardio session nearly runs off without you, and you feel like it’ll never end—fatigue.
Maximizing your daily energy is crucial to increase intensity and performance to reach your fitness goals. Your body slowly loses oomph throughout a long, full day. But making it a priority to bring your best energy to your workout—something that’s often overlooked—is the safest and efficient way to deliver consistent results.
More Energy: 5 Ways
Positive health benefits from a regular exercise regimen2 are too great to ignore. And energy leaks can sabotage your motivation and sweat time in the gym. If low energy levels impact your training, it’s important to find ways to optimize your workout.
1. Hone Your Hydration
Proper hydration3 is essential for nearly every function in the body. It helps to lift your mood, achieve optimal brain function, and sustain weight loss. But staying hydrated also affects your gym performance. When you’re dehydrated, your motivation can tank, fatigue sets in, and physical exercise feels more difficult.
Muscle mass is nearly 80 percent water. So, constant hydration throughout the day is huge to bring energy to your gym sessions. When you’re losing water, you also lose precious electrolytes essential to your muscles—especially when putting them through a sweaty gym session. Ample hydration helps to defend against the oxidative stress that can occur with high-intensity exercises.
2. Eat for Energy
Food is a major factor in the energy equation. Finding a balance in your diet is integral to fuel strong workouts. Strategize your pre-workout meals to increase your energy at the gym. Boost your energy with a pre-workout snack. If you plan to hit the gym within the hour, reach for fast-releasing carbs for some quick energy. Carry snacks in your bag, so you’re ready to go at any moment. If you plan to train within a few hours, choose foods for your meals with slow-releasing carbs to sustain energy levels.
Your pre-workout meal should add strong fuel for the session ahead. Prioritize nutrition for energy and avoid eating too little. It’s often common for those on a weight-loss journey to under eat, putting them at greater risk for injury,4 inefficient workouts, or halting their progress altogether.
3. Supplement to Prime Your Performance
You take time to stretch, warm-up, and prepare your body for a good workout. And your cells need priming, too. Energize any form of exercise with nutrition-focused on a cellular level. Your body can’t thrive without optimal levels of vitamins and minerals. Poor food choices can leave you deficient in essential nutrients. Help build a solid foundation with smart supplementation. USANA CellSentials promote balanced levels of high-quality vitamins and minerals, including helpful micronutrients that support multiple metabolic functions throughout your body.* Healthy cells are vital to your energy level, and supplementing is a great way to give your workout what it needs to take you to the next stage.*
4. Rest and Reset
Adequate quality sleep is a major blind spot that can affect your workout energy. We all have an occasional poor night’s sleep, but if you consistently get fewer hours of sleep than is optimal, your energy levels can tank. Too little sleep over time will inevitably wear down your natural energy, both in life and your fitness sessions. Not only will you be less driven and capable of picking up those heavy weights or keeping up with your usual running pace, but you also won’t recover properly.
Muscles break down during training and repair as you rest each night. Sleep is one of the most important, but commonly sacrificed, performance and energy accelerators. Incorporate a strong bedtime routine to bolster your sleep. Supplementing with a melatonin product to help naturally regulate your sleep and wake cycles is one way to get your nightly rest back on track.*
5. Recognize Your Limits
A drop in energy levels, especially if you exercise regularly, can indicate you are overtraining. For gym enthusiasts sagging in energy, make sure you are in proper balance and take rest days to avoid training so hard it becomes detrimental to your progress.
If you experience an inability to sleep, loss of motivation, a drop in performance despite regular sessions, compromised immunity, and/or feeling constant soreness or aching in your muscles, you may benefit from some much-needed rest days to recover and reset. Take a day or two off to see if your natural energy returns. Plateaus and loss of strength leave you grinding your wheels without the payoff from a thoughtful gym plan. Schedule days off in your regular program to maintain energy for winning progress.
Exercise for More Energy
As your body experiences the positive changes in body conditioning, you’ll discover your energy increases overall, which may seem counterintuitive at first. Living an active lifestyle is one of the best natural ways to fight fatigue. Your heart muscle grows stronger as it works more efficiently to pump oxygen to your brain and other organs. Your sleep quality can improve. You release endorphins to help support mood and mental health—there are few downsides to integrating consistent exercise as part of your healthy lifestyle. Work out smart by fueling the workouts that fuel your life.
Written by Candice Keller and brought to you by Satyajit Routray.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
References
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2862249/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413117302231
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/7-health-benefits-of-water#section1
- https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijsnem/29/2/article-p152.xml
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