The 3 Easiest Gains You Can Make (Before Lifting)

The colour of YOUR urine. The timing of your cardio. The type of warm up you do. In other words, how much water you drink, whether you do cardio before or after weights, and the number of warm up sets you do before your workout… The state of these 3 things, once again, BEFORE you workout, dictates how effective your workout WILL BE at building muscle. In this video I’ll go through 3 of the common workout mistakes people make before working out. This includes all the best things to do before your workout – plus all the things to never do before a workout – to ensure that you’re getting the best possible gains.

The color of your urine affects muscle growth. It matters because it shows how hydrated you are. Your hydration matters, especially when building muscle, because it will affect your workout performance. Muscle function starts to become impaired with dehydration levels as little as 1%. And with dehydration levels as little as 2%, you’re going to see both decreased performance and motivation in the gym. Meaning that one of the best things to do before your workout, which will help you get an easy bump in your performance, is to simply make an effort to drink enough water before your workout. A good recommendation is to consume at least around 500-600 mL (17 to 20 fl oz) of water an hour or two before your workout, and at least another 500- 600 mL (17 to 20 fl oz) closer beforehand (20-30 minutes). If you’re somebody who works out first thing in the morning, being adequately hydrated before your workout will be even more important for you.

Next, cardio. One of the most common questions I get is ‘Should I do cardio before or after weights?’ Here’s the answer: moving your cardio to after your workout rather than before will help prioritize energy for your weights workout, which is what builds muscle. Although performing cardio burns significantly more calories than lifting does, it can also interfere with your lifting performance. Generally, to avoid any interference, you’re best off separating your resistance training and cardio sessions by several hours or on separate days all together depending on how long and intense those cardio sessions are. Practically though, not everyone has the time to do this. So if you are going to perform cardio and resistance training in the same session, to minimize any negative effect on your weights workout, it’s best that you save cardio for after your weights workout rather than doing it before.

Next, warm ups. Although it’s true that performing too much cardio before a workout can have negative impacts on your performance, one of the things to never do before a workout is to skip out on a proper warm up since that can also hinder performance. What you want to do is just enough to warm up your muscles and joints you’re about to use without using up excess energy that could otherwise be used towards your actual workout. What this means is that for the best results, the general part of your warm up should consist of about 10-15 minutes of low intensity cardio and/or dynamic stretching focused on the muscles you’re about to work. For example, using an elliptical or rowing machine and upper body dynamic stretches is a good choice before an upper body workout, whereas using a spin bike with lower body dynamic stretches like leg swings and deep squats is probably best before a lower body workout.

After the general warm up, it’s best to move onto a specific warm up using warm up sets before moving on to your workout. The best way to do this is by progressively increasing the weight over 2-3 sets for your first exercise for a given muscle group.

Here’s an example:

• Set 1: 50% of your working weight for 10 reps
• Rest 1 minute
• Set 2: 70% of your working weight for 6-8 reps
• Rest 1 minute
• Set 3: 90% of your working weight for 1-2 reps
• Rest 2 minutes
• Begin first working set

Overall guys I hope you were able to see the importance of paying attention to the common workout mistakes that people do before their workout, as that is honestly where most people screw everything up and is why many who train consistently and train hard still struggle to see results. That’s exactly why at Built With Science we’ve created step-by-step programs that not only show you exactly what to do during your workouts, but also shows you exactly how to eat and recover outside of those workouts so that you can build muscle and strip off excess fat in the most efficient way possible. To join today, take the analysis quiz to discover which science-based program would be best for you and where your body is currently at below:
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