5 surprising evidence-based tricks to maximize your workout

You’ve been dedicated and disciplined in your workouts. You’ve done everything right, yet still can’t achieve your workout goals—be they weight loss, higher endurance, increased muscle strength, or speed. Here are five surprising tricks that may help you take your workouts from good to great.

Listen to music

Even the most rigorous workout—think high-intensity interval training (HIIT)—can be less difficult if you’re listening to upbeat music, according to a study recently published in Psychology of Sport and Exercise.

Researchers enrolled 24 insufficiently active adults (mean age: 24.08 years; 12 men) and had them complete three HIIT trials while listening to motivational music, a podcast, or nothing. Musical choices included three high-tempo, highly motivational songs chosen by a panel of experts. The three HIIT trials consisted of three 20-second all-out sprints broken by short rest periods for a duration of 10 minutes, which included a warmup and a cooldown.

Those who were listening to music reported that they enjoyed HIIT more than those listening to the podcast or nothing. Music listeners also demonstrated elevated heart rates compared with the others, as well as higher peak output. Finally, affective responses during the three trials were also more positive in those listening to music. Researchers concluded that listening to music might ultimately lead to better exercise adherence.

Exercising while listening to music involves “entrainment,” or the tendency to alter biological rhythms to match the beat of the music, the authors explained. This can be especially useful for runners. Exercise instructors, too, have grasped the importance of music, and their playlists include songs to match the intensity of their workouts, geared to motivate and push their classes to achieve more.

SWEAR!—and do it out loud

In another recent study, also published in Psychology of Sport and Exercise, researchers found that swearing—not silently, but out loud—can increase your maximum exercise performance when pumping iron, compared with not swearing. But, they don’t know why. Swearing had no effects on cardiovascular and autonomic functions like heart rate or blood pressure.

In tests of anaerobic exercise among 29 participants, those who repeated a swear word demonstrated greater maximum performance than those who just repeated a neutral word. In tests of isometric exercise in 52 participants, those who swore like sailors had greater hand grip strength. Heart rate, heart rate variability, blood pressure, and skin conductance, however, were not affected.

Smile while you run

Smiling while you run—as opposed to frowning—may improve your running economy, according to a recent study published in Psychology of Sport and Exercise. Researchers studied the effects of facial expressions and relaxation during running in 24 trained runners, who completed four 6-minute running blocks at 70% of velocity at VO_2max, with 2-minute rests in between.

Instructions were to smile, frown, consciously relax hands and upper body, or maintain normal focus (control group).

Smiling reduced oxygen consumption compared with frowning and control, with 14 participants achieving the best running economy while smiling, compared with only 1 who did so while consciously relaxing.

In addition, researchers found that perceived effort was higher during frowning than smiling or relaxing, and activation was also higher during frowning compared with all other conditions. Heart rate, affective valence, and manipulation adherence were not different between groups.

The researchers concluded that smiling periodically while running at vigorous intensities may improve your movement economy, while frowning could increase your perception of effort and muscle activation. Relaxation had no bearing on any outcome.

Mind your elbows

To get the most out of your walk, keep your arms straight and don’t bend your elbows, according to results of a recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.  Walking with your arms straight will make your walk more energy efficient.

Researchers included college students whom they filmed while walking and running on a treadmill with straight or bent arms. They found that those who bent their arms while walking increased their energy consumption by 11%. No differences were seen between straight or bent arms when running.

On the flip side, it seems that if you want to burn more energy, to lose weight for example, walking with bent arms may be the ticket.

Learn how to rest

It may sound counterintuitive, but resting may be a key to getting the most out of your workout. Timing your rest periods between sets will lead to optimal strength and conditioning training. The goal of rests during your workout is to give yourself enough recovery time to keep working at peak performance and optimize mechanical and metabolic stressors, as well as minimize micro-damage.

For example, if you are looking to build muscular endurance, rest no more than 30 seconds between sets. For hypertrophy (building muscle), between-set rests should last 30-90 seconds. For strength or power, rest 2 to 5 minutes between each set.