You can cut your gym time in half - no by 75% and build a better body ever before!
Do you ever think about spending more time doing the things you love and less time working out in the gym?
There are 6 practices that can shave your gym time to a fraction of what it used to be while building you a better body!
Imagine being so confident in your body that you could strip down to a swimsuit at any time and not bat an eye!
Better bodies aren't built in the gym. They're built by what you do when you leave the gym.
Better bodies are built by recovery, sleep, and the restorative practices you do at home.
Gym time is for breaking down muscle. Remodeling your body is done afterward, BUT only if you recover properly.
IF YOU WANT TO BUILD A BETTER BODY IN LESS TIME TRY THESE 7 PRACTICES
1. Lift Heavy
Yes, even women. No, you won't bulk up. Unless you want to. If so, eat a lot, and I mean a lot, and get more sleep.
You can't completely ignore the gym, however, you can minimize the time you are there. Heavy workouts build strength and stimulate change in your body. Focus on big compound movements with heavy weights.
Working heavy and using compound movements that hit all the major muscle groups allows you the most bang for your buck. You get fat burning and lean muscle gain along with strength.
You may want to check out Body By Science, which is a style of lifting that takes only 12 minutes a day and can be done only 1 time per week, depending on your goals.
We found 2 sessions of Body By Science a week maximized lean muscle gain while one session a week allowed maintenance of muscle and an increase in strength. That's HUGE!
Gaining strength with one 12-minute workout a week is amazing! Talk about in and out. Gaining lean muscle with 2 workouts a week for a total of 12 minutes at the gym is a breakthrough.
Unless you want to stay in the gym longer, then I highly suggest you check out the Body By Science system.
The key to this is that if you stop gaining strength, you need to rest longer. So, instead of working out once or twice a week, you go to once every 9-10 days. How's that for minimizing gym time?
Add some heavy weight, or try the body by science program for 6 weeks and see how you feel. Better yet, see how you look.
2. HIIT
High-Intensity Interval Training can be done almost anywhere. You don't need to be in the gym.
But if you do it in the gym, you can be done with your cardio workout in less time than it takes most people to get on their "workout" shoes. And only have to do it once or twice a week.
Instead of moving about slowly on the elliptical for 60 minutes...BORING... step it up! And be done in as little as 8 minutes or as long as 18 minutes!
HIIT has been shown to be more effective than steady state cardio.
And takes a fraction of the time. HIIT isn’t anything complicated or hard to do. Really, all you need is to get your heart rate up for a short period of time, repeat it a couple times and done.
Exercise bike, sprints, battle ropes, swimming, rope jumping, anything will work.
A good protocol is called peak 8. It’s 8 intervals of all-out work followed by 90 seconds of rest between each interval. That’s just 4 minutes of actual work.
I’d argue you can also get away with cutting it in half and doing just 4 intervals for a total time of 2 minutes of total work.
Check out the PEAK 8 program. If you add in a 2-minute workout, then 4 round will take you about 8 minutes and the PEAK 8 will take you 18 minutes.
Keep in mind that unlike steady state cardio, you don’t have to do it every day. 1 or 2 days a week is plenty.
I used HIIT to train for a 19 mile Spartan Beast World Championship with no steady state cardio. In fact, I hadn't done steady state cardio for the previous 5 years. And during all 19 miles, I didn’t have to stop and rest for the entire race.
Stop doing an hour of cardio and try out HIIT once or twice a week.
3. Sauna
Sauna has been shown to increase human growth hormone (HGH). Human growth hormone has been shown to increase lean muscle mass, decrease fat mass, and increase bone density.
Get in the sauna after your workout.
Not only has sauna been shown to increase HGH, but it helps make you more adaptable to stress of any kind.
Getting uncomfortably hot and learning to breathe through it creates adaptations in your body that allow you to be more comfortable in both hot and cold, but also in stressful situations.
Sauna also has been shown to lower core body temperature during a workout, meaning when you do HIIT and other intense workouts, you can go for longer before getting fatigued.
In addition, studies of people who use sauna show that the more people sauna the longer people live.
Make it a habit to get in the sauna twice a week or more. Preferably right after your workout.
4. Fasting
Fasting has also been shown to increase HGH and helps with fat loss.
According to this Mayo Clinic article, HGH declines as we age and is responsible for helping to increase muscle, decrease fat and increase bone density.
My favorite way to fast is a 24-hour fast once a week. I like to fast dinner to dinner. That way I get in a 24 hour fast and still get to eat each day.
Just stop eating at 6 pm and don’t eat again till 6 pm the next day. You can have tea and coffee, but don’t add anything like cream or sugar.
Fasting 1 day a week with a 3 day fast a couple times a year is said to help maintain normal weight.
You can also look up Dr. Longo’s fasting mimicking diet that allows you to get the benefits of a 5 day fast while still eating.
Granted, you don’t eat much, but it is much easier for some people than eating nothing. He does charge for the meal plan, but the money goes back to research.
You can get a free version of the meal plan here and buy your own food.
Intermittent fasting also works for some people. Intermittent fasting is refraining from eating for 14-18 hours a day. Basically, finish dinner and don’t eat again for 16 hours. If you finish dinner at 6 pm, eat your first meal the next day at 10 am.
At a minimum, fasting allows you to consume less total calories, but it can also help with rebalancing hormones, weight loss, and more.
Try out intermittent fasting or a 24 hour fast once a week. See what works for you and how easy it is to avoid eating for a short time.
5. Sleep
Lack of sleep is associated with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
Sleep is critical to body recomposition.
Want to look amazing? Want to benefit from your gym workouts? SLEEP!
Without proper sleep, you do not benefit as much from a workout and will not build lean muscle and lose fat as easily.
In fact, you'll be more prone to gain fat if you aren't sleeping enough.
Sleeping less than 6 hours a night is associated with weight gain.
Set yourself up for sleep by getting 7-8 hours of sleep each night.
The best way to do that is to eliminate BLUE LIGHT from your life after sunset. Check out the article on how to do that HERE.
Your sleep just won't be as rejuvenating if you don't have melatonin present before bed. Melatonin is your body's anti-cancer hormone and helps you get the benefits of sleep.
However, most people lose half or more of their nightly melatonin by using a device, turning on overhead lighting, or watching tv after dark.
Exposure to artificial light after sunset stops the body's production of melatonin.
You don't have to live in a cave to fix this problem. AND you can get far better sleep at night than most people.
Just block one wavelength of light at night. Blue light is the wavelength of light shown to reduce melatonin.
You can block blue light at night using blue blocking glasses after the sun sets, like these Raoptics, Rhythm Optics, or Swannies. Code Primalhacker gets you a discount.
Pick up a pair of blue light blocking glasses and go to bed earlier each night.
6. Sun
Yes, sunlight can help you obtain the body you want. Avoid the sun at your own detriment.
Not only does sunlight protect you from disease, but it also helps you build hormones you need for optimal health.
Sunlight sets our body's circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythm is so important for health that the 2017 Nobel Prize was given for circadian rhythm and its impact on human health.
Setting our circadian rhythm in sync with the sun means we lower our risk of obesity, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease which are all linked with exposure to artificial light at night and messed up circadian rhythm.
In addition, thyroid hormone, which has a lot to do with our weight, is built first in the eye. Tyrosine is an aromatic amino acid. It can capture sunlight and information is passed from that light to tyrosine.
Tyrosine then takes that information and makes dopamine and T3 hormone.
When sunlight programs tyrosine, it provides information tyrosine needs to build thyroid hormone properly.
We all know when thyroid hormone is messed up we get weight problems.
Sunlight has also been shown to lower all-cause mortality. That means we lower our risk to every disease by being in sunlight!
Get out in the morning sun, ideally within 1 hour of sunrise each day. Sunrise is special and contains no UV light.
7. Peptides
We always teach you how to get the most out of your biology using FREE practices.
But if you want extra help (everyone likes shortcuts), peptide products can be had that contain growth hormone-releasing peptides.
NASA states that growth hormone can increase energy levels, increase metabolic rate, accelerate recovery, and improve sleep.