How do you balance going to the gym and playing a sport?
Hey Gym N Japan Fam!
It's another week and that means another great post from two goofballs. This week we are going to talk about how to balance your gym program with your sports schedule. This is more for those people who are playing a sport and think that they can't balance it with gym and giving you some motivation to show you that you can do it. Look at Jake for example: He works full time, plays footy with multiple training sessions a week, writes a blog weekly, films/ edits a youtube video each week which we will link HERE if you wanna have a look and he goes to the gym consistently! Can’t talk him up too much but you get the point he is busy and has to manage his life pretty well if he wants to get those gains.
Obviously during a footy season it will be very hard to gain weight but here are some pointers to maintain and keep you on the gain train as much as you can.
Planning
Planning, PLANNING PLANNING! When you are in the middle of a footy season, it will be very difficult to gain weight because the intensity of your workouts will be significantly lower in the gym.. You definitely don't want to be doing a super hard leg day before a training session or game! And if you did do that, you would be increasing the risk of injury because your legs are already fatigued before you play or train. So when you are training you need to be mindful of your sport, what muscle groups it uses and plan your gym sessions around that.
I (Haydon) would be terrible at planning because I know how sore I get after a good leg session so I’d be suffering big time at a training session or a game.. Luckily I don’t play any sports at the moment..
The biggest and I think (Jake) the most important thing to consider in the gym when trying to maintain a high level of athleticism in your sport, maintaining or gaining size in the gym and not burning out is structured training and dieting. Without a proper diet from your increased training load - sometimes training twice a day a few times a week - it is so so important to ensure we are recovering well enough to get us through each and every session.
I know I did it a few years ago, where I did my normal gym routine 5-6 days a week PLUS training for foot 2-3 times a week and playing a game. Sometimes I did footy in the afternoon and then went straight to the gym afterwards. Did I burn out? Fkn OATH I burnt out super quickly! When doing 2 separate sports, it is important to identify which one requires the higher level of performance and the other which can be modified. I am doing this currently, where I will reduce gym down to 3 days a week with a higher focus on injury prevention and maintenance of the gains I currently have.
Consistency
As always it is super important to be super consistent, and when playing sport it can be difficult to do that because you might be sore and tired from training or a game of footy. It will get easier the more that you do it and your body adapts to the extra workload. Again this can come down to your diet. If you aren't fuelling your body with enough carbs, fats and proteins to recover, you will be forever sore and eventually burn yourself out.
Nutrition
Alright this is a little less to do with the actual training part but this is vital to set you up for success! When you are doing a sport you need to remember that you will be burning a lot more calories in a day so the first thing you need to do is make sure you are eating enough and there are plenty of calorie counting apps out there. Next is to make sure that you are counting your Macros because this is super important for your body to be getting a good balance of these and will help big time with recovery.
Next! Make sure that you are keeping up with your protein because obviously you are trying to get huge soooo it is important to have enough protein in your body for recovery.
Sometimes with nutrition and sports and gym, it can become slightly more difficult. It may be a case where we carb cycle. WHAT does this mean? Basically on the days you have your dedicated sports, you will increase carbohydrates to give you that added energy to get through the session and recover adequately from it as well. Then on your gym days you can reduce the carbs as you won't need as many.
Quick reference:
More Calories
Count macros/ balance them appropriately
More protein
Take creatine
As always, thank you so much for tuning in! It really does mean a lot to us
If you guys have any questions, want us to do reviews etc. feel free to send us a message and we will do our best :P
And once again thank you for your support!
Stay Tuned! Posting weekly on Sundays at 6PM :D
P.S don't forget to follow us on Instagram and Facebook!