A fitness journey can be an extremely long and frustrating process. So there is nothing worse than nailing your training and nutrition (and I mean consistently not just some of the time) and still not feeling like you’re any closer to achieving your goals.

It is easy to get caught up in focusing on certain factors (i.e. training and nutrition) while neglecting seemingly insignificant ones that actually play a major role within our fitness journey. Such as:

Setting Clear Goals

When you are trying to achieve goals at the same time that require the exact opposite of each other you are sabotaging your chances of success because what you are doing to achieve Goal A is counter productive to what you need to do to achieve Goal B and vice versa.

The most common example of this are people who are trying to lose fat and build muscle at the same time. This is a massive oversimplification but basically losing fat and building muscle require different caloric needs. To lose fat you must be in a calorie deficit and to build muscle you must be in a calorie surplus.

What to take from this is that you need to ensure that you are setting clear goals and working towards that and not doing work that is counterproductive to the goal that you hope to achieve.

Staying Hydrated

Hydration is arguably one of the most overlooked components with respect to the achievement of our fitness goals. Ensuring that we are adequately hydrated is not only important for our fitness goals, but it is generally important for our overall health and well-being. Make sure you’re getting enough water.

How much water you need to drink will vary for every individual and depend on your level of activity. According to NHS guidelines you should be aiming to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. However, this is quite vague, so a good general rule to go by is to ensure that you are not thirsty at any point throughout the day (as thirst is a sign of dehydration).

Getting Enough Sleep 

In a Harvard study conducted in 2008 experts concluded that “getting enough high-quality sleep may be as important to health and well-being as nutrition and exercise.” When we don’t get enough sleep we feel tired, grumpy and lack focus. While the odd  bad nights sleep won’t do us any harm, several nights of lack of sleep will have considerable negative impact on our fitness goals and our health. According to the NHS the average individual requires 8 hours of good quality sleep every night.

Getting Adequate Recovery 

Ensuring that you’ve scheduled recovery days in your training program is just as crucial to the achievement of your fitness goals as your workouts. Recovery plays several roles from helping to prevent injury to fighting against burning out (both mentally and physically)

Just some food for thought

Jay xx