This may be a question that you haven’t asked yourself for a while, or even ever. I know we can all get carried away with wanting to hit certain numbers in the weight room and on the scale, I’ve been there. When doing this, it can be easy to forget to ask yourself if you are doing it in a healthy way.
What does make you a healthy lifter then? Well, there are a few things that anyone can do to make sure they are prioritizing their health alongside their training and none of them are secrets. Plus, they are relatively simple to incorporate into your routine. They are also variables you are very aware of, but they can easily be overlooked by more exciting goals you put in place.
Prioritizing sleep
Possibly the most important in this list. A healthy lifter knows the importance of sleep and the negative impacts it can have on your life and performance in the gym if you are sleep deprived. Did you know that if you are even slightly sleep deprived then important hormones such as testosterone, cortisol, insulin and growth hormone can all be impacted in a negative way? Some symptoms that you can look out for if you think you’re sleep deprived are moodiness, forgetfulness, brain fog, irritability and fatigue. If you sleep well and have everything else in check, watch your performance skyrocket.
Tracking macros
Do you have to do this? No. If you are making great progress without tracking then stick to what you’re doing. Can it make a big difference to your life and training? Absolutely.
A lot of people get scared about tracking macros, over complicating something that is relatively simple. There are plenty of apps about now that work out the macros you need for the day in relation to your goal, so most of the hard work is done for you.
A good way to think about tracking your macros is relating it to if you were to open your own business. You would want to know (and track) everything that you put into the business, so you could compare and analyse what was working and what wasn’t. By knowing what you are putting in your body, you are able to measure it against if you are getting stronger, losing weight and feeling better. If you aren’t, you adjust.
Getting those steps in
If you are thinking ‘really?’, then I don’t blame you, but look at the previous two points I have just mentioned. They are equally as simple.
If you can walk daily, that’s great. Outside preferably but if not, then there is nothing wrong with a good old walk on the treadmill. Admittedly, that is sometimes a little easier to do as we have a whole plethora of things to distract us from the actual walking nowadays.
Don’t think that because your sole aim is to build muscle, you shouldn’t be walking. Yes, its cardio, but cardio has a whole other range of other benefits aside from burning calories. A brisk walk has been shown to aid in recovery (this will allow you to train more and improve performance) , improve mental health and give you a sense a better overall feeling of health and wellbeing.
Ask yourself (and be truthful) , are you a healthy lifter? Do you do the above day in and day out? As I mentioned, it's easy to get solely focused on the end goal and forget the minor details. When in reality, focusing on those minor details can actually help you achieve the end goal you set yourself.
