Your body repairs itself all night long while you sleep. It awakens, internally ravenous to replenish the energy it burned up during the repair cycle. Not feeding it creates a metabolic slow down and hampers your gains. Eating five to seven small meals and healthy snacks during the day is the key to kicking your metabolism into high gear to shed pounds and lean up. Breakfast is the starting point.

All too often we burn the candle on both ends. People who get the recommended eight hours of sleep give their bodies more time to repair and prepare for the day ahead. The more you train, the more rest you need to adequately recover from bouts of exercise, and the accompanying daily life stress we all face. Power naps of 15 to 30 minutes can be a big addition to one’s overall rest quotient.

Change the channel on any thoughts of negativity. Drop “I can’t” from your thoughts, life and lips. You are the executive in charge of your fitness, and your thought life is where it begins. If you think you can, you will. If you think you can’t, you won’t. When faced with negative thoughts, speak mental words of encouragement: “I am strong; I am able; I am courageous; I am well equipped to take on this challenge; I can.”

Those last reps, where you feel yourself losing the ability to perform, need to be pushed through. It’s in those reps to failure that the body is made keenly aware that it has to adapt to the physical stressor you are placing on it. Through that adaptation, the body changes right before your eyes. If not challenged, the body merely remains in a state compatible to deal with the current physical stressor you place on it. You must challenge your thresholds. Stuck in a rut? Change your routine. Do it backwards, rest more between sets, rest less between sets, use heavier weight, lighter weight, split up the routines to multiple days – you name it, but keep the body guessing and work it to failure.

“I never knew I needed a trainer … until I had one.” The accountability to push through, stay on course, eat healthier and have quicker gains through programmed sessions can jump start, or take any fitness level to the next peak. Knowing that a qualified accountability partner is waiting for your session to begin, helps keep you alive and on fire to force the body to adapt to the way you want it to look and feel, in the least amount of time. Proper form, technique, motivation and intensity are the keys to making your time in the gym the most efficient and effective as possible.