Five Tips for a More Efficient Workout

Going to the gym is a noble venture, one that most people do with great intentions. Yet, for a number of reasons, all of which that are completely unsubstantiated, too many people seem to underachieve once they begin their workouts.

They enter with lofty goals that exceed reality, and they tend to their workouts too loosely, allowing the gym to be a socializing Mecca rather than a place to work hard with a clear purpose. Instead, they saunter about from place to place, wasting time at the water fountain or chit chatting with an old high school classmate. After pumping out six curls and thinking about doing some abs, they again take to adjusting their ipod or yapping it up with some roaming trainer. In the end, lots of time ill used.

All of this is fine if you are satisfied with getting minimal results and bolstering your social life. If that's the case, then life is good for you. But, if you find yourself needing more from your valuable time spent in the gym, give these ideas a try. You don't need to spend hours upon hours working out; instead, you need to have a purpose and a commitment to efficiency.

Know your long-term goal: Heading into the gym just to go is a recipe for disaster. You need to generate a long-term goal that you can work towards so that each exercise you choose, each session you complete, has a purpose. Without one, you can never really evaluate your progress, and you can easily lose your motivation.

Have short-term goals: These are daily expectations you have for yourself when you walk into the workout. They are pieces of your long-term goal, activities that allow you to take those valuable baby steps toward something larger and more important. These goals are the ones that should drive you inside the gym, and they are the ones upon which you should reflect to determine whether or not your workout was successful.

Anticipate your fall: Realize that you are human and that, no matter how much you wish to be an indestructible machine, you will have downfalls-sets you just cannot complete, cardio that you decide to skip, etc. While you should fight against having these pitfalls, you must accept the fact that they may occur; in fact, they may need to happen. Perhaps you scheduled a rigorous training session that is ambitious in the least, but you have gotten minimal sleep all week because you have been sick or putting in a ton of extra hours at work. Your body and mind may beg you for rest, and for good reason. Listen to your body and make the required adjustments, even one that calls for you to downgrade a workout. Yet, be careful to understand the difference between making a sensible decision and quitting.

Be planned: Write down not only what you want to do, but also, and more importantly, the order in which you plan to do it. Much like recording your food shopping list in the sequence you will go through the store, you must craft the session so that you can move about the gym efficiently. Schedule body parts properly so you can superset or work opposing muscle groups, thus minimizing your rest periods and maximizing your workout. Poorly devised plans lead to wasted time and muscles that are given way too much opportunity to recover.

Eliminate distractions: Get an iPod. Put together a great playlist. And then hit the gym with a purpose. Do not stop to engage in fruitless conversation that will only make you end up skipping sets or cooling down. Remain focused on your short-term goal and move about the gym so that you are always working. You can chat afterward at the shake bar or in the locker room, but for now you are in your world.

Overall, just be organized and structured, as they are the only ways you'll ever reach your full potential.