If you're into training you may have experienced a significant improvement in your performance from one week to the following. When that happens people often wonder, "Did I get that much stronger in a week?" or "Is it possible that I'm so much faster compared to last week?".
Well the bad news is that it's very unlikely for a person to gain significant strength or speed over a one week period. However the sometimes shocking improvement can be the result of the following factors.
Rest, Recovery, Nutrition
I like to bring these three aspects under the same paragraph as I believe they're are equally important and I also like mentioning them first as they're the most important contributors to improved performance.
Rest can refer to the time spend relaxing between sets and exercises as well as to a person's downtime.
Recovery is phase when the body repairs itself (both physically and mentally) and because it mainly happens during night time, our sleep quality has a significant impact on the outcome. Imagine trying to recover/sleep while the psycho couple next door is screaming their head off at 11pm and at the same time their equally psycho kid is trying to play a death metal song (totally out of sync by the way) on the drums. Guess what, next day you'll look and perform like a burnt, smashed, run over and exploded Wile E. Coyote from Looney Tunes.
Nutrition is crucial and mainly for two reasons. First of all nutrition is fuel. Your body metabolises macronutrients, predominately carbohydrates and fats to produce energy so your organs can function and you're able to participate in activities. Secondly nutrition provides the necessary building blocks (macro and micronutrients) that your system requires to repair damaged cells and build new ones.
If you had a "bad" week with little rest, poor recovery and inadequate nutrition but the following week you managed to rest, slept well and ate the right things, you could see a pretty striking difference in performance both in your every day life and in the gym too.
Focus
If you've done certain movements or routines a number of times, you've programmed your body, therefore it's capable of working on auto pilot (to an extent). However if we want to see improvements we have to concentrate and be present when working out. We've got to pay attention to our breathing, body alignment, muscle activation and orientation/direction while exercising. It helps to build stronger neuromuscular pathways thus resulting in increased strength, increased speed, improved coordination and enhanced reflexes. You don't even have to wait for a week to see the surprising effects of focusing. Try this! Grab a ball, start balancing on a single leg while bouncing the ball next to your body like they do it in basket ball. Do this while thinking about the fact that the new Sex and the City movie is going to be absolute crap without Samantha or that they'll keep making Fast and the Furious movies until Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson turns sixty and then try the same exercise but paying attention to your balance, to your hand position and to the force you apply to the ball while bouncing it. Now, compare the results!
Being strategic
When tackling an exercise, especially during endurance training, we often start way too hard. We burn the fuel too quickly and then we're left with an empty tank but with 70-80% of the work still ahead of us. Inexperience and being overly excited can be a source of such an error. Pacing is key and doing it the right way can notably change the end result. Quick example, if you try to run 5k at 100% of your max effort you won't last long. Burnout will come fast and hard leaving you fighting for your life throughout the remaining distance. Not surprisingly the end result is gonna be less than impressive. However if you pace yourself and keep your effort at a 70-80% from the beginning to the end you're more likely to achieve a better time.
Written by Szilard Jakab
30.04.2021
#fitness #gym #workout #training #sport #crossfit #exercise #strengthtraining #endurancetraining#balance #mobility #powertraining #speedtraining #agility #cardio #gymlife #personaltrainer#coach #performance #muscle #weightloss #healthylifestyle #gymmotivation #health #healthy#lifestyle #fitfam #jointpain #musclepain #prehab
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