Staying fit and healthy is an important part of being an athlete, but what people sometimes don’t realise is that you don’t always stay in shape from just team practice.
Outside of training, I hit the weight room twice a week as well as doing an intensive cardio session. During off-season, I train twice a day in order to prepare for the upcoming season.
Nutrition is also a vital part of my training, along with active rest, and recovery days. I try to make sure I am always eating foods that give me energy and help my body recover from my workouts. I also drink a lot of water which I think people sometimes forget to do.
Here are some of my favourite workout tips:
1. Find a gym buddy.
Everyone has moments when they don’t want to get up to work out, even me. My body can get very sore after some hard training sessions and, rather than hit the gym again, I’d love to have a lie-in and relax. That is what a gym buddy is for. Find someone who is motivated about getting to the gym so that you can help each other stick to a good and balanced workout schedule.
2. Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition!
I can’t stress enough how important good nutrition is for fitness. If you hit the gym 3 times a week and have a tough training session, you then don’t want to go and ruin that by eating fast food. Crack out that cook book and get to your local store to get some good fresh fruit and vegetables and make your workouts worth it.
3. Pay attention to technique
This is a key ingredient for lifting weights; but it is just as important when running or doing any other physical exercise. If you are doing it wrong you risk injury which could set your goal back a few weeks and even interfere with your everyday life.
4. Have fun!
Exercising is a great way to boost your energy so it’s important that whatever you choose to do, you have fun doing it. I love playing basketball so training is great for me, but there are so many other ways to do a good work out. Whether it’s yoga, spin class or boxing, make sure you enjoy it because that will help you stick to it.
Stay fit everyone!
Steph Gandy captains the Westfield Health Sheffield Hatters and led the team to victory in retaining the WBBL Trophy – the Hatters 54th national trophy. Steph, a Great Britain international, first played for the Hatters between 2005 and 2009 before spells in Australia, Italy and Spain. She returned to the Hatters in 2010 and has proved herself to be a vital member of the team, winning numerous Most Valuable Player awards including the WBBL Player of The Year in 2014-15.