5 Quick Tips To A Better Training Session

1. Increase Your Sodium

Contrary to popular belief your sodium level will pretty much determine how good of a training session you have. Many health "experts" have told us over the years to decrease sodium levels for healthier blood pressure levels and overall healthier lives..... This is complete bull shit for most people. Before i go on here i want to say if you are at risk fro any heart or blood pressure problems then you should watch your sodium but for those of us with normal blood pressure and no issues and train hard its actually fine to up your sodium and i highly recommend you do.

 

Symptoms of Not Enough Sodium

- Loss of energy levels

- Unable to get a pump or good vascularity when training

- Your muscles may have a more water or flat appearance

- Your Overall Strength and Stamina drop quickly when training

 

My recommendations For Sodium Consumption

- Put salt and sodium rich condiments on your meals - ENJOY THE HOT SAUCE!

- Put a 1/2 teaspoon of pink sea salt in your pre workout

- Make sure your using Iodized Salt (iodized salt helps the body make thyroid hormone)

- shoot to have 4,000-8,000 mg of salt a day depending on how much water you drink. The more water you drink then the more sodium you should take in as well as how long you train, the longer the workout the more sodium.

- keep it simple and don’t worry about tracking sodium just make sure you are salting all your meals an make sure and add some salt to your pre workout.

 

If Your Not Accustomed To It

You will get bloated for a bit but stick with the higher sodium and your body will create homeostasis. Overtime you will adjust to the added sodium and you won’t be as bloated anymore. If you continue to be bloated then just up your water more till you find that sweet spot of sodium and H2O, Trust me you will know when you hit it.

 

Also check out the video from the Rhino (Stan Efferding) You will find that when the Rhino Speaks you just listen ;)

2. Music Selection

A little different kind of tip here but music selection for when your warming up and in your working sets will set the mood for the workout. Studies have actually proven that having special playlists of music that give you adrenaline will directly improve your workout performance. Not really a huge surprise here.... Still tho i see some people just play a normal playlist of music with no real method behind it to improve there training. They just click on pandora and select a station hoping to get something out of it. Well this is where I'm going to recommend you first start by getting Spotify then once on Spotify you should take the time some day to build a special playlist specifically designed for your training. This playlist needs to have songs that really have you get chills and songs that you can just feel the adrenaline pushing out and  creating that feeling of  just being a beast.

 

I like to actually use my playlist as part of my workout and how i arrange my sets. For me during warm ups i like a good dub step beat as it really helps me get my nervous system ready and accustomed to the weight as i work up in weight. Once im at my working sets i prefer to switch into motivation mixes and or epic music (the type of music you see in movie trailers and it makes it feel like your saving the world.) Pretty much my hardest sets i pick a song that really goes with the current moment. I found when i started training like this that i was always able to get my mind ready. For my working sets i have a plan i like to follow, i put my wrist wraps on, then get my knee sleeves and occasionally a belt then i pick my epic song let it get to a good part while i prepare myself mentally for the lift then when i feel ready i attack my set. Create a plan of attack for each set and include music in that plan and i guarantee your workout performance and mood will sky rocket! Also try to change up your amp up songs because studies have also shown the more you use a specific song the more chance overtime you will lose those amp up effects from it, sort of interesting! Music is really a type of caffeine! Sort of... Speaking of Caffeine make sure you use these techniques to get the most out of your pre workout cocktail.

 

3. Your Plan of Attack

Are you one of those people that just go in the gym with no plan, nothing wrote down and just make it up as you go? Or are you very organized with your training where you can tell me exactly what your set to do in 5 days from now? It always amazes me when i encounter so many people training without tracking what they are going to do or even what they did. To make progress overtime you need to progressively overload in multiple ways over time. If you don't track then how on earth are you going to know what you did? I can tell you every PR i have ever had since 2013 on each one of my main lifts. I recommend having each day planned out, reps and sets of what your going to be doing in the gym each day. For me every Sunday once i meal prep then i also program the weeks workouts as well in my notes app on my phone. The cool thing about using the notes app is that you can pull it up on any device in the world by just logging into your iCloud account on icloud.com each week every Sunday is when i do my programming so then all i have to do is just follow it through the week and track what i did and its as simple as that! That way your training gets built into your schedule and you don't have to schedule around it. I can look at what i have to do and know exactly how long i will be in the gym for that session. Are you in need of a program with everything calculated for you? check out SHDUPA or maybe your even interested In my coaching services!

"So shawn what if what i have tracked in my notes app for the day is just not going good? The weights feel super heavy and i'm just not in the mood." Ok so for me when i have a day like that i either A - suck it up and train anyway or i reduce the weight down 10-20 pounds and just hit my working sets with that weight. At least if you have a plan then you have something to edit to your choosing if you need to. Problems arise when you have no idea what your going to do in the gym so you have no platform to go off of.

 

Quick tip - when you track PR's in the Notes app each time you hit one write it out as (example):

- Bench 3x8 (150lbs) 150x8 RPE 8 x8 RPE 8.5 x8 RPE 9 Rep PR! Bench PR

so let me explain that. The 150 stands for 150 pounds you have and the 3x8 stands for that you have 3 sets of 8 reps. the RPE is Rate of Perceived Exhaustion (learn about that here) and then if i make all 3 sets and hit 8 reps and if i have never done that weight at those reps then u can write a rep pr. but also notice how i then after it wrote out very clearly "Bench PR". that way when you hit command f on a mac when on the notes in safari web browser then type Bench PR it will only show you every time you wrote the word Bench PR so there you can easily see when your last PR was! really cool feature! No way to do that on the phone but at least you can on the computer.

 

Another plus of tracking everything is that after the week is over you can look back at your progress and appreciate everything you accomplished. It really is a good feeling to have!

 

4. Warm Up Properly and Don't Begin Till Your Ready

We live in a day in this age where you are either a person that warms up entirely way to long or your the person that just goes straight to the barbell. Both of those options are bad in my opinion. I recommend finding a place in the middle like my 15 min mobility routine. Something that is quick efficient and gets you warm in minimal time. One problem i used to come across a lot though was i would have a bad workout when i was not warm enough and instead of trying to warm up more i just began the workout which usually was a terrible training session. My advice to you is that if for example you have squats and as your warming up things are not feeling right is to just keep hitting warm up sets of 1-3 reps until you are ready. for example lets say you have a 5x5 with 200lbs planned but as your warming up 185 feels terrible! Did you get weaker? NO your just not ready to go up in weight yet so my advice is is just keeping hitting 185lbs for sets of 1-3 till that feels light then you can progress on to your working sets. I might for example have to do 2-4 sets with the same weight as im warming up to get everything primed. A good rule to follow is that if the warm up weight you hit does not feel light and move well then hit that weight again till you can make it move with ease.

 

5. Have a Plan A and a Plan B

This sort of goes along with what i said above in (have a plan) but this takes it a step further. This is something i do occasionally when I'm at work and just not feeling right during the day. I train after work so i have the whole day to pretty much feel out what feels right and what does not feel right before i get into training so i have some time each day to figure out if its going to be a really good workout or if i might need to adjust some things. Lately i had to do this a lot since i cant lift anything heavy at the moment due to a back issues but when i was first starting to rehab my back while i was at work i would throughout the day just evaluate how my back was feeling so then i would have an idea if i would even be able to do the rehab i had planned for it or if i would have to adjust. So when that happens i actually write out a second workout to sub in if things are not going right once i start training. This is also a great trick to use if you start to feel a little under the weather while at work as well. Here is an example

 

Plan A

- Deadlifts 5x5 285lbs

- barbell rows 3x5 (150lbs)

superset 3x8-10

- incline db press

- cable rows 3x8-10

Superset 3x8-10

- Side laterals

- Wide cable pull downs

Notes- At work today i started to feel a sickness come along, I'm going to try this but i mgiht do plan B instead... Update - its after work right now and 255lbs of deadlifts feel really bad, this is just not my day so im just doing to do plan B

 

Plan B

- Deadlifts 5x5 200lbs

- barbell rows 3x5 (400lbs)

superset 3x8-10

- incline db press

- cable rows 3x8-10

Superset 3x8-10

- Side laterals

- Wide cable pull downs

Notes- Much better, still not feeling the greatest but at least I'm able to do something.

 

Now here is an example for a back issue arising

 

Plan A

- Deadlifts 5x5 285lbs

- barbell rows 3x5 (150lbs)

superset 3x8-10

- incline db press

- cable rows 3x8-10

Superset 3x8-10

- Side laterals

- Wide cable pull downs

Notes- At work today i noticed my back issues hurting pretty frequently i might have to do plan b tonight. Update- yea 185lbs is killing my back, plan b it is.

 

Plan B

- Landmine Rows 3x8-10

superset 3x8-10

- incline db press

- cable rows 3x8-10

Superset 3x8-10

- Side laterals

- Wide cable pull downs

Notes- Dropped the deadlifts completely and just did landmine rows for substitution. Pretty decent workout!

 

See on that option i took out the movement that hurt completely and just substituted an accessory in place of it. Here is an article that will tell you how to accessorize the main movements just in case you can't do them.

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