6 main rules of training an experienced athlete that will help you get results

CMC in freestyle wrestling and kickboxing, two-time champion of Moscow in Thai boxing

Today I would like to share the principles and rules that I use myself in the training process. Don’t be surprised if some of them are familiar to you – these rules were derived long ago by very experienced athletes, so I will just pass on what I have learned over the years of training.

Set yourself the right goal

Before you run out to buy a season ticket to a cool fitness club or wrestling gym, define for yourself – what exactly you want to achieve. Everything depends on the right goal-setting.

Do you want to lose excess weight? Great, the fitness club will help you, but the lion’s share of work on weight loss can be done outside or at home. Want an atlanta figure? Great, but without personal training and sports nutrition it will be nearly impossible to achieve (especially in the first few months). Want to learn techniques to protect yourself? Good reason, but be prepared for an incredible challenge physically and mentally. Set a goal and, based on it, calculate your capabilities.

Properly organize your daily regimen

The human body, as we know, can be programmed to perform almost any task. But this is possible if a person has the will and discipline. The first refers to aspects of spiritual practices, but the second is quite ordinary – building a regimen of sleep, nutrition and training.

Spánok

Let’s start with the first. Sleep is an incredibly important process for regaining strength. It is necessary to fall asleep at the same time. The ideal interval is from 23:00 to 00:00, or better even an hour earlier. Sleep length of 7-8 hours is optimal for an adult. If you fall asleep much later than the comfortable corridor, then you will need more time for recovery.

Výživa

Now let’s move on to the second important point in the regimen – it is nutrition. It should be systematic and meet your training goals. Three meals should be mandatory: breakfast, lunch and dinner, but the calories depend on what you want to achieve.

If you are losing weight, the food should be less caloric, and if you are gaining muscle mass, the food should have more protein and carbohydrates.

Regardless of whether you are gaining mass or losing weight, you should eat the right food: fast food and other teenage delights like chips or chocolates should be avoided. Food should be well digestible.

It is important to add that you still need to eat even if you are losing weight. Hunger causes a lot of stress to the body, and you need calories for intense physical activity. The ideal time to eat is two hours before training. And also be sure to drink plenty of clean water – 1.5-2 liters a day.

And the last, most important aspect – no bad habits. Even if it seems to you that it does not affect your overall physical condition. Believe me, it does. From my point of view, it is very stupid to “dumb down” your own body at the moment when you are trying to cleanse and strengthen it.

Keep your joints and ligaments healthy

In the early days of training, it’s very common for enthusiastic amateurs to tear their back or injure their legs on a run. This is my personal “pain”, this kind of thing has happened to me, and more than once.

When you are passionate about sports, you feel the growth of physical strength, you strive to do more and more. In this process, you often forget about recovery, warming up and stretching. And this leads to unpleasant consequences – to torn ligaments and long recovery, after which you have to make up for lost time for a long time.

Injuries occur because beginners forget about their musculoskeletal system. The worst part is that, unlike a muscle injury or deficiency, joint damage carries far worse consequences.

Joints can not be pumped up, but you can strengthen them a little with a complex of vitamins (their intake should be coordinated with a doctor), and the best way to save joints. You can do this only with the help of proper exercise technique. In this you will be helped by experienced people, whose advice is better assimilated personally. You can try to learn on your own through YouTube, but in this case the responsibility will fall on you.

This also includes ligaments – the connective tissue that holds bones, muscles and joints together. Due to excessive physical activity, they can be stretched or torn, and then you can forget about sports for a long time.

Paradoxically, but to save ligaments, you need to perform a set of basic exercises, so that the muscular skeleton holds the load. It is not for nothing that many experienced athletes love the deadlift and squat. With these exercises, tendons and ligaments are hardened and muscles are strengthened. A regular bicycle or exercise bike is incredibly valuable for the hamstrings, quadriceps, back and buttocks.

Combine work with weights and your own body weight

All exercises aimed at strengthening muscles can be divided into two types: work with absolute weight and work with relative weight. The first allows you to build muscle by lifting weights (barbell, dumbbells), the second allows you to strengthen muscles with your own body weight, i.e. you are the exerciser. These include pull-ups, push-ups and sit-ups.

Both sets of exercises are interrelated and extremely important, but I think it’s best to prioritize relative weight work. If you can lift your body on the bar, you can easily overcome an obstacle the height of your height in an emergency. In addition, coordination improves, which is a key skill for athletes from various martial arts. But, I repeat, there is no way without working with “iron” either.

Don’t forget to check your health

Before starting an intensive training process, it’s always best to get a check-up or an in-depth medical examination (IME). Growing up, we never had such events. Coaches relied on willpower and character development. In fact, it is important to realize that professionalism consists not only in dedication, but also in a reverent attitude to one’s own health.

I am glad that sports culture is developing in Russia: now in children’s sports mandatory check-ups before the start of the playing season have been introduced, and I think this is the right thing to do. Such important indicators as heart rate and blood pressure must be normal, otherwise sports can be fatal. Every athlete should know that you should have a checkup every six months.

Do not miss training

If you imagine your own body as a company on the stock market, the benefit of the training process will be your profit. You reinvest this profit (benefit) in the next training session and get a profit again. Accordingly, the more you reinvest, the more you benefit.

Now imagine that you missed a training session and did not make a profit. To get back to your previous performance, you will have to work harder, more persistently and more intensively, and this is already risky, because you can overload your body.

Risk, of course, a noble cause, but not in the case of health. It is better to move according to a strictly planned plan and do not skip training. Remember about discipline, and everything falls into place.

Of course, business activity sometimes seriously jeopardizes the training process, but even in this case I always find time for the gym or push-ups. When the body is in sport mode, cognitive abilities are better and morale is on the rise. That means you can conquer new heights!