Improve Your Muscle Gains While Spending Less Time at The Gym

February 24 2014

Improve Your Muscle Gains While Spending Less Time at The Gym

Ever notice how some people are always at the gym yet they show minimal muscle gains? Their lack of any sizable muscle gains isn’t due to their metabolism or body chemistry, but instead it’s a combination of poor decisions and wrong technique.

Just because you spend a full two hours at the gym every other day (or more frequently) doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get a good workout. Someone who spends just half an hour at the gym can build more muscle in less time if he or she knows what they are doing. This week, we’re going to discuss some tips on how to boost your muscle gains while decreasing the amount of time you spend at the gym.

Create an Physical Fitness Plan

You can’t expect to have a solid, productive gym workout without a structured physical fitness plan in place. Entering the gym without knowing which muscle groups to target or which equipment to use will only slow you down.

The easiest way to create a physical fitness plan is to write down which muscle groups you plan to target for every day of the week. For instance, you could target the upper body on Monday, biceps and triceps on Tuesday and lower body on Wednesday. Alternatively, you perform a full-body workout on Monday, rest Tuesday, and hit the gym again on Wednesday for another full-body workout. The key thing to remember is that your muscles need at least 48 hours to recover.

Don’t Wait For Equipment or Machines

One of the biggest time-killers at the gym is waiting around for other members to finish using a particular machine, equipment or weights. You may find yourself waiting for 10, 15 or even 30+ minutes just for someone to finish, and that’s valuable time that could be spent working out your body.

Rather than waiting on your preferred gym equipment to become available, go find something that’s not being used. Even if it’s just a set of dumbbells, you can perform a wide variety of workouts to target just about every muscle in your body, so there’s really no reason why you should wait for a piece of equipment or machine in the gym.

Eat Snacks, Not Meals

There’s nothing wrong with munching down on a protein bar or shake to boost your energy levels and satisfy your hunger cravings, but you should avoid eating full meals at the gym. Trying to prepare and eat meals at the gym will only take up more time — and that’s time that could be spent working out rather than eating.