10 Ways to Make Your Workout the Best You Can Do

It has often been said that the best workout you can do is the one you are not doing. In other words: It’s time to do something. While the details in your exercise routine are important, the main goal is to get moving regularly.

Here are 10 things that will make your workout the best:

1. Consistency

The No. 1 rule for exercise and physical activity is to make it more than just a workout of the day, but something that fits into your schedule and becomes a part of your lifestyle.

Read Next: This Full-Body Military Fitness Workout Requires a Buddy

2. Design it for Your Goals

Doing workouts that do not address your specific goals is generally unhelpful if you hope to see the results you want. What are you looking to accomplish with your fitness routine -- for example, aesthetic enhancement, health and wellness, or improving for sports? If you have goals, you will focus more on assessing yourself and seeing improvements. However, if you are not seeing the results you seek, a simple assessment every few weeks can help you make changes to your training to get back on track toward your goals.

3. Work on Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Whether you have muscular imbalances or specific activities are more challenging than others, designing a plan to help you maintain strengths and improve your weaknesses will help you be more well-rounded. For the military professional, the fewer weaknesses you have, the more you will develop and maintain your abilities to be an asset in any situation.

Consider programming that engages strength, power, speed, agility, endurance, muscle stamina, flexibility, mobility and grip. If you have fitness tests to prepare for, tactical fitness programming will help you master all the elements of fitness needed to be a productive team member.

4. Work Endurance, Strength and Flexibility

Optimal performance and longevity require a solid balance between the three main elements of fitness: endurance, strength and flexibility. Endurance enhances work capacity, having a foundation of strength develops overall durability, and flexibility and mobility can be essential for injury prevention and more stable movements.

5. Work on Maintaining Your Weight

Most Americans need to improve two things: moving more and eating smarter. Portion control is one of our most significant issues. Carrying extra weight may be associated with certain chronic conditions that slowly erode our performance and, later in life, our independence.

6. Fit it into Your Schedule

We all have the same 24 hours in our day. Short, quick workouts can be as effective as longer workouts, depending on your abilities and goals. How we arrange our work, leisure and family time into the day can limit our time to exercise. Combining physical activity with other events can be a valuable way to manage time effectively.

For instance, walk around a field your kids are using for sports practice or take a 10- to 15-minute walk during an hourlong lunch break. One of the best time hacks is to start your day a little earlier while others sleep for uninterrupted time to exercise. Although these may be difficult to juggle at first, they work if you give them a chance.

7. Do Exercises You Enjoy

Nobody likes all the exercises in a program. However, you must like something about the workout; otherwise, you will never show up in the first place. If you balance a workout routine with more things you want to do than do not like to do, you may find that, because you are doing new things, you see solid improvements quickly. Because you start to see improvements, you may never skip leg day again or skip the cooldown cardio session at the end of a workout.

8. Make it a Lifestyle Change

The mindset of being on a fitness journey means you are not supposed to stop when you reach your goal weight, PT test scores or a competitive event you trained so hard to do. Instead, move on to the next goal. It makes training more enjoyable when you have different goals each month or a long-term objective. Keep the focus; the next thing you know, you created a lifestyle change and are not just working out until the goal is met.

9. Design it for You

A coach or trainer could help by developing a program that targets your goals and fits your abilities, your time available per day, the number of days per week you work out and the equipment available. This will help you avoid the frustration of training programs that take too long and do not address your specific needs.

10. Integrate Nutrition

If you want to lose fat and build muscle -- in other words, improve your body composition -- you need a physical fitness routine and a disciplined diet and nutrition plan. Nutrition is fuel for your future workout and recovery from your previous workout. Address nutrition for both fuel and recovery, especially if you're looking to improve your physical performance. However, understanding the relationship between fat loss and muscle gain, nutrition and fitness programming will take your performance and longevity to new levels.

For more workout ideas suitable for all fitness levels, visit the Military.com Fitness Section for additional articles. Hundreds of articles are designed to assist beginners and advanced athletes of any age with fitness test preparation, optimal performance, recovery, goal setting, strength training, nutrition and stress management skills.

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