Things You Should Do Before Every Workout For Natural Muscle Gain And Fat Loss

After a long day at the office or in the classroom you’re eager to hit the gym.

You get through the entrance doors, swipe your membership card, pick up a towel and head for the locker room. Your stuff is dumped in a locker and after a quick change, you soon find yourself heading onto the gym floor, and of course you get started straight away with your workout.

You didn't have a pre-workout ritual. Well, you did, but it involved rushing round, not focusing on anything other than the time crush you are probably facing, and doing all you could to get into the gym as quickly as possible so you could get everything done, head home and spend the rest of the night watching TV and surfing the Internet. Your workout is on autopilot, and you're not getting the full benefits.

Rushing before your workout is one of the worst things you can do if you really want to build natural muscle and lose fat. You need a pre-training protocol to get you in the mood for your workout and get the most from your session. So what can you do to make your workout sessions at the gym more effective?

The Mental Pre-Workout Ritual

Unless you work right next door to the gym, you should have some time before you train either in the car, on foot or on public transport between work and your health club. Use this time wisely.

There’s nothing worse than trying to get yourself psyched up for a heavy sets of squats or getting ready to attempt a personal best time on the treadmill with the afternoon’s meetings, overdue reports, or run ins with colleagues still going round your head.

If need be, stay an extra two to three minutes at work and write down everything that’s bothering you on a sheet of paper. This serves to get everything stressful out of your mind so that you can actually give your best while you exercise. It’ll still be there in the morning and you won’t forget anything important, but for the rest of the evening, don’t let it bother you.

Visualize Your Workout

Visualize your workout while you’re on the way to the gym or in the locker room. Visualization is one of the best ways to ensure you’re going to have a great workout. Think about what exercises are on the cards for tonight. (This is assuming that you have a plan and don’t just waltz into the gym without any idea of what you’re going to do – a plan is vital, but this should go without saying.)

Imagine how you’re going to feel as you walk up to the bar for deadlifts, pick up a kettlebell for a set of swings or set up the bike ready for a one kilometer sprint and visualize yourself succeeding.

With your mental ritual now in place, you’re ready to have a great muscle building, fat burning workout.

Well, almost …