Summary

Pre-workout

Clothes – sporty top, shorts/joggers, trainers and hand towel

Food/Supplements – caffeine/preworkout , carbs

Lifting Gear – resistance bands, lifting belts, wristwraps, gloves, barbell pad….

Music – headphones & chargers

Post-workout

Shower – soap, shampoo, deodorant, cologne/perfume , flip flops, a microfibre towel, clean change of underwear and a couple basic t-shirts.

Protein – protein powder, jam jar/protein shaker, protein bars

Motivation is the fundamental key element to any kind of self betterment, be it physical, emotional, financial, career oriented…

Because no one can do it for you, no matter how expensive the personal trainer you can find they won’t be able to do the actual exercise for you. It is for this exact reason that we must prepare everything in a way that eases and streamlines the process of exercise to make it as simple as possible for ourselves to actually get it done. Put simply, what we are doing is allowing for the LEAST amount of motivation possible to achieve the same results, sounds complicated at first I know but here me out, I’m going to give you all my tricks and strategies that I use that allow me to get all my gym goals/objectives done for when I’m least likely to want to do it and have the least amount of energy/motivation in my to do it. It would be really easy for me to sit here and tell you that anytime you’re not feeling it just simply channel your inner Cbum/The rock/MarkyMark/(whatever hard working individual you lookup to), but let’s be real it’s just not that easy. There are days were you’re just not feeling it right?

Step One. Get you a locker.

If you’re reading this, it probably means you’ve joined or are about to join a gym and are looking for what equipment/tools you might need. Most gyms (if not all) have access to lockers, a lot of them might say that you have to pay or book them, but in reality all you need is a pad lock (I prefer the combination ones, so I don’t have to remember where I left the key). Once you’ve put your padlock I’d recommend having a piece of paper inside your locker with your name email and number in case they do open it while you’re not there. This has only happened to me once, as they were doing a monthly check on the lockers, and they were nice enough to give me a new padlock.

step one complete, you’ve got your locker and it literally has your name on it.

Step Two. Fill it with the essentials.

I look at what I need in my locker from two perspectives, what do I need before I workout and what do I need after.

Pre-Workout

Clothes

The best way to know what to have, is to act as if you’re coming from work and therefore aren’t wearing any gym gear. In this case the bare minimum I’ll require are; shorts/joggers/leggings…, a couple of sport tops, some GYM trainers (click here for more) and a hand towel for those sweaty seshs. I always keep a cap/hat in my locker for those bad hair days (everyday), while it doesn’t help the physical side of my workouts it helps with the psychological side of them by allowing me to not worry about how crazy I might look with my Albert Einstein morning hair. By leaving these items in the locker you can now turn up to the gym from any location or situation as you have a full change of clothes and more importantly one less excuse to not go.

Supplements

Thanks to my locker there have been plenty of times that I’ve headed towards the gym without any prior preparation. One of the things I like to have before most of my gym sessions is some form of caffeine, typically it’s via coffee but when I’m in a rush or am feeling adventurous I will dable with energy drinks. Often when I’m on my way to the gym there usually tends to be an offer on 0 calorie redbull (the grey one), the offer is 4 for the price of 3. So every now and then I’ll get the 4, drink one and leave the other 3 cans in my locker, for those days where I haven’t had time to caffeinate myself or for when I’m feeling low energy.

The other essential ingredient to any good heavy weight workout is some form of carbs, I’ve found that if I’m doing cardio I really don’t require carbs and sometimes function better fasted, but when it comes to lifting weights there is no doubt that I perform my best when properly carbd up. I typically have some toast and eggs at home beforehand, but for the days when I don’t have time or am coming from somewhere else, I like to snack on Rice Krispies Squares. If you don’t know what these are, they’re a bar with crunchy rice and marshmallow, they’re big enough to give a great amount of glycogen needed for the imminent workout but not too big to leave you bloated. If people are trying to be healthy a great alternative is having some plain rice-cakes and a jar of peanut/almond butter, or whatever preworkout snack you like best.

Lifting Gear

(All the gear, but no idea )

Depending on your gym you might have access to all the gear/equipment you need; resistance bands, lifting belts, wrist-wraps, gloves, barbell pad…. If you’re lucky enough that your gym has all of these at your disposal then you don’t have to worry about them. If not, your locker is where these pieces of equipment should live as to never impede a workout due to forgetting one of them. For me the most important ones I use are, wrist straps for pulling, a couple of loose resistance bands for stretching and warming up, chain belt so I can add more weight to body-weight exercises such as pull-ups and dips.

Music

For me music is honestly one of, if not the most important thing on this list, which means I always have music with me. This means headphones (over-ear is my preferred method) and a source of music (phone, ipod, etc), so in order for these always to be functional I leave a charger for each in the locker for when my headphones are running low on battery or my phones about to die.

Post-Workout

Shower

Although the majority of times I finish a workout I typically go home and get showered, there are plenty of times that I shower at the gym which allows me to then go to work, or wherever I have planned to go straight from there. Which is why my locker always contains; soap, shampoo, deodorant, cologne/perfume (link to , flip flops, a microfibre towel (they dry so quickly!), clean change of underwear and a couple basic t-shirts. If you’re lucky enough to have a swimming pool as part of your gym then I’d recommend also having whatever swimming gear you may need, so you can have a swim whenever without having to plan ahead.

Protein Shake/Bars

Last BUT NOT LEAST, PROTEEEEEEEIN!!!! You’ve just smashed a workout, quickly whats the time?!?!? The ANABOLIC WINDOW!.. Okay all jokes aside, seeing as how we have a locker and we’re optimising the way we workout both pre and post workout, it would be crazy not to make use of this for protein intake. I do this in two ways;

Protein powder. I have a dedicated protein powder that lives in my locker. While I used to use a proteinshaker, I found that it was actually quite hard to wash in the gym without a sponge and washing liquid. Instead I know use an old Jam jar instead, there are a couple reasons for this; as it doesn’t have any grooves inside (unlike most protein shakers) it’s a lot easier to clean, I also think the glass helps with this. Also the width of the jar allows me to chuck in protein without having to worry about it going everywhere like when trying to use plastic bottles. Also it’s cheap, easy and recyclable. The other option is to have a stack of protein bars for when you’re in a rush and don’t have time to mix up a nice shake. I usually use this option when I’m late and would rather not miss my train, or when I know I’m going to be out for long and now that I’m going to get peckish.