There’s working out and then there’s training. The two are not the same.

Those who work out don’t have a particular goal. They go the gym, do a few exercises, get a bit of a sweat on and clock out. And that’s absolutely fine. Simply by doing that, they’re ahead of the game. But if you’re reading this you probably have loftier goals.

You want to excel. Here are three ways to massively boost the effectiveness of your current training program, whatever your goal.

1 – Train With Other People

The research in recent years has validated what dedicated gym-goers figured out years ago: You’ll get far better results training in a group than training alone.

Recent research published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association shows that those who train in a group setting experience a 26 percent greater stress reduction than those who go it alone. Research participants who trained solo, experienced no significant changes in stress levels, and limited improvements to quality of life. That’s pretty damning, but is reflective of the poor quality of training you tend to see in your average gym.

It seems Arnie and all his pals at Muscle Beach back in the sixties had it right. So find a friend, or better yet, a group of like minded individuals (for example, our Warrior Tribe) and get involved.

2 – Track Your Results

If you ask me for directions, I need to know where you were starting from to give you a meaningful answer. Fitness is exactly the same. If you’ve got a goal in mind, we need to know your starting point or we’re flying blind.  Most people, if they track at all, use weight on the scale. Which is something, but it’s hardly comprehensive. If you get heavier is it muscle? Fat? Water?

We track our personal training and Warrior Tribe clients progress every two weeks with our InBody Machine, a highly accurate method of body composition measurement.

If you don’t have access to something like that, at the very least take girth measurements of your stomach, chest, arms and thighs, and a couple of photos. Front, back and side photos of you with your shirt off or in a sports bra might make painful viewing initially, but within weeks you’ll look and feel much better by comparison.

Once you’ve agreed on the directions, you’ll reach your destination in record time.

3 – Stop Half-Assing Your Nutrition

You can’t escape it. Training is the fun part. You get to pump yourself up and look good in the changing room mirror. But the real work is done at the dining table (Or, as the case may be, out of a Tupperware box at your desk at work).

You need a plan. You need to stick to it for two weeks and then assess if you’ve made progress, and if you haven’t made progress you need to change something. It’s crazy how often we meet people who have been on the same vague plan for years and seen zero results. It’s not going to suddenly work after three years, something needs to change.

So whether it’s intermittent fasting, low carb, paleo whatever, stick to it long enough for it to actually work, assess your results and tweak as you go.

Or, you could take the guess work out of it and have us work it all out for you.

If that sounds good, check out our Warrior Tribe and drop us a line today.