There are different reasons for getting up to do sports again and again. Some do it for the fun of exercise, like to be active or want to shape their appearance. Others want to lift more and more weight in weight training, strive for a marathon or simply want to get better all the time. They are similar to professional athletes who always want to get the best out of themselves. But if you want to go beyond your limits, you have to do more than "just" train hard. What you can do to achieve your best performance, you will learn in this article.

Sometimes people underestimate how much preparation can matter. It includes not only stretching and warming up, but also, for example, the meal before the training session. Here, every body is different, which is why we recommend you try different things. One or the other athlete is more efficient when he or she trains on an empty stomach, while others need a snack for energy. In this case, a banana with peanut butter is a good choice. This contains carbohydrates and a lot of fructose, which gives one short-term energy. The peanut butter provides the body with a lot of proteins, which are important for muscle building, among other things.

Since you often sweat out a lot of water during training, it is not only important to drink plenty of water after training, but also before. We recommend about 400 ml before training. On rest days you should drink at least 1.5 liters of water. On sports days considerably more, to compensate for the sweat. Because if the body is dehydrated and gets too little fluid, this can affect not only the circulation, but also the general conductivity. Especially in summer, you should therefore drink at least 2.5 liters or more on training days.

Even though the training is hard, most athletes really enjoy it. You put in long hours and hard work. But you shouldn't skip the rest days. Because it is precisely when the body comes to rest that it begins to process the training and develop itself further. If you leave out this phase, you won't be able to reach your full potential. Mentally, the so-called rest days can also be a great help in progress. Regular breaks of two days per week prevent mental burnout and keep the fun going for longer.

Every person can do some things particularly well and is somewhat worse at others. That is completely normal and okay. The important thing is how you deal with it. It's not a solution to focus only on your strengths and ignore your weaknesses. Let's take a sprinter as an example: He is really fast in the 400 meters, but so far it has only ever been enough for second or third place. This is because most of the competitors are faster at the start. Of course, the sprinter could now try to become even faster in order to make up for the start. But wouldn't it be logical if he practiced his start instead? Most of the time, it is more beneficial to address the cause than the symptom. 

With the right diet you can change everything. In our posts about the vegan diet and what impact it has on sports, we've already established that giving up meat and animal products can have a big impact on our performance. But if you just can't break away from meat, why not test it out for a month first? You will feel a difference relatively quickly. Other than that, always make sure that you eat all the healthy components every day. This includes healthy fats, carbohydrates and proteins. If you do a lot of sports, you should also make sure that you eat enough calories. Otherwise, it will be quite difficult for you to build muscle mass or increase your athletic performance.