The gym is where we become stronger, more physically capable and more robust versions of ourselves. Experiencing improvement in our capabilities is a beautiful thing, but it’s one that takes repeated volitional effort and focus. Distractions in the gym are everywhere and only serve to minimize our progress, making for lost time with nothing to show.
When it comes to achieving your training goals, focus is everything. Without it, you’re dead in the water. So, in this article, I’ll discuss nine tactics to implement for developing laser-like focus in the gym, which will drastically enhance your training, making it more effective and rewarding.
Here’s why I’m writing this article: If your workout isn’t focused, it likely isn’t nearly as effective as it could be. A focused lifter is an effective lifter. And if you’re going to put in the time and effort to head to the gym, it only makes sense to get as much out of your training session as possible, and that’s near impossible to do if you can’t focus.
So, let’s unpack each tactic here, one by one, so that you don’t miss out on having better workouts.
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As I kick things off here, take note that none of these tactics involve taking pre-workout supplements or any other sort of stimulant.
There’s no need to take pre-workout formula before your workout in hopes of having better focus. Sure, take it if you want, but in my humble opinion, you’d be better off learning behavioral techniques to improve your training focus rather than relying on chemicals to get the job done.
Just my two cents, which you are welcome to discard, if you’d prefer.
Tactic 1: Plan your workout!
Everything starts with a plan, and if you don’t know what your workout will look like from start to finish, you’re already setting yourself up for failure, at least from the perspective of attaining a focused workout.
Without a planned, well-structured workout, you’re opening yourself up to a world of distractions. Basically, every possible distraction can present itself—rest breaks that are excessively long, chatting with every lifter in the facility, aimlessly wandering around the gym not knowing what exercise you should do next, and so on.
If you’re struggling with focusing in the gym, knowing what your entire workout will look like from start to finish—from the moment you walk in through the door to the time you leave—will shut down numerous disruptions that might otherwise cause you to lose focus.
At a minimum, a well-planned workout that optimizes your focus should include:
- Knowing what your warmup and preparation will look like
- Knowing the exact exercises you will perform, and the order in which they’ll be performed
- Knowing how many sets and repetitions will be performed for each exercise
- Knowing (and sticking to) your rest breaks between sets and exercises
- Knowing what your cool-down or recovery methods will look like
It may sound cliche, but it’s true: if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Planning your workout not only gives you structure but also a plan of attack, both of which cut down on distractions and drastically increase your focus when working out. And with better focus comes much better training results.
Put it on paper. Know what each and every workout will look like and how it will flow. It will lead to fewer surprises that derail your training flow, concise training sessions, and better focus throughout the entire process.
Tactic 2: Visualize what you’re after
In addition to planning out the specifics of your workout, before you step foot in the gym, you would also be wise to visualize what it is you’re after—what it is you’re chasing down as you head into the gym. What’s making you head to the gym in the first place?
Whether it’s the image of the leaner physique that you want, the bigger arms you’re after, the image of being able to run in the park with your kids, or anything else, finding and fixating upon that image before—and during—your workout, can go an incredibly long way for enhancing your focus.
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Visualization is a technique that any successful bodybuilder or athlete will acknowledge having used to help them get to the top. Arnold, as an example, talks about it all the time in terms of how he used it to up the intensity of his training sessions.
There’s something about visualization that not only motivates us but also keeps our mind fixated on the task at hand, which keeps our thoughts anchored rather than aimlessly drifting around in a sea of distracted thinking.
“A focused lifter is an effective lifter.”
Conjure up the mental image of what it will look like to achieve your goal—visualize what that outcome will look like. Fixate on it as you head into the gym, while you’re in it, and going through your workout.
Visualization works. You’ll be surprised how much the image of obtaining your goal will do for improving your ability to focus and concentrate while training!
Tactic 3: Use dynamic warmups to stay mentally engaged
Not only are dynamic warmups scientifically proven to be effective, they’re time-efficient and keep you focused on the task at hand, the latter of which can’t always be said when sitting on a stationary bike, elliptical machine, or similar piece of cardio equipment. These cardio machines aren’t bad by any means, but if focus is an issue for you, it may be worth avoiding them.
It’s all too easy for the mind to disengage when the body is given a low-intensity, repetitive task on a guided movement track. When this happens, you can kiss your crisp, razor-sharp focus goodbye.
Dynamic warmups, on the other hand, keep your mind engaged, which helps ensure you don’t mentally drift off and lose the precious focus you’re fighting to either build or maintain.
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Additionally, five to ten minutes is all it takes to ensure every part of your body is ready to rock and roll for your upcoming training session. Rather than taking ten minutes to pedal on a bike as you mentally drift off into space, your mind will be just as prepped and ready to go for your workout as your body itself.
If you’re not sure how to perform an effective dynamic warmup or you’d like to learn more about the science behind this warmup methodology, you can check out any of my content below:
Tactic 4: Maintain STRICT rest breaks (it improves training density)
While this all goes back to knowing exactly what your training session will look like when stepping foot into the gym, it now goes one step further by having the discipline to honour and stick to your designated break time between sets and exercises.
Not adhering to designated rest break durations is one of the most common issues lifters and gym-goers face, and it’s one that can arguably derail your training focus the most.
It’s all too easy to let a thirty-second rest break between sets turn into a three-minute rest break.
Using this example, if you were supposed to be taking thirty-second breaks, this now gives your mind two minutes and thirty seconds to be opened up to distractions, draining your focus, all while prolonging your training session in non-beneficial ways.
Pro tip: The amount of training accomplished within a specific timeframe is known as training density. The more training you can fit in within a smaller timeframe, the more your training density increases. Aim to increase your training density to improve your workout focus!
Know what your allotted rest breaks are between sets and exercises, and stick to them! Use a stopwatch, wristwatch, facility clock, or whatever else it will take. Not only will your training results be more noticeable, but you’ll also create quicker, denser training sessions by retaining sharp mental focus throughout your session.
“There’s no need to take pre-workout formula before your workout in hopes of having better focus…you’d be better off learning behavioral techniques to improve your training focus rather than relying on chemicals to get the job done.”
Tactic 5: Do THIS with your phone (seriously)
While ditching your smartphone altogether for your training session might be a worthy action to take (it’s a distraction magnet), it may not be feasible for every individual to do so; I get the fact that there are often reasons why we need to keep it on us.
That being said, incoming notifications, scrolling social media, responding to text messages, and all sorts of other focus-breaking distractions can take place when working out with your smartphone. So, switching on airplane mode should be considered a necessity if you’re serious about focusing when working out but still need to keep your phone with you.
Pro tip: Checking your phone during rest breaks can easily prolong your designated rest time, so pairing this tactic with tactic 4 is a very smart move for ensuring you stick to your allotted rest break.
Airplane mode will prevent unneeded distractions from getting between you and a focused workout. Turn it on and get after your workouts. You can respond to messages and resume scrolling social media once your workout is over.
Tactic 6: Set a hard timer for your session length
This is one of my favourite tactics to use for producing focused workouts, particularly because it works exceptionally well.
The concept is simple: set a hard limit on how much time you’re allowed to spend in the gym and activate the timer the second you walk into the gym facility.
When the timer goes off. You’re done. No more working out. Not even a cool-down. You must now leave.
Why such a hard stance on immediately leaving? Because it forces you to work against the clock to complete everything in your session.
If you take this tactic seriously, it will motivate you to go into the facility and get stuff done! And when you know you’re up against the clock, you’ll feel a sense of urgency to get your training accomplished, which will keep your focus locked in on what’s important.
It might take a session or two to determine what an accurate time limit should be for your session, but once you know what it is, implement and enforce it. It should be a limit that is tough but doable, so long as you stay on track throughout the entirety of your session.
Pro tip: Once you have a challenging but doable time figured out, take an extra five minutes off; you’d be surprised at what you can accomplish when you know you’re up against the clock!
As a general rule, for a standard training workout, you should be able to keep everything under one hour. I’d advocate for:
- Ten minutes of dynamic warmup movements
- Forty-five minutes of training
- Five minutes of a cool-down activity
Tactic 7: Avoid socializing (here’s how)
On one hand, this tip is obnoxiously straightforward and filled with common sense, yet on the other, not so much. Sure, the more you socialize, the more you break your focus, prolong your workout and make your overall workout less efficient.
Yes, some people like to mix in a bit of socializing with their workouts – fair enough, there’s a time and a place to do so, depending on one’s training goals.
It’s totally fine during your workouts to politely let people know that you’re not interested in chatting at the moment, don’t feel bad about this; it’s a gym, and you’re here to do work.
Pro tip: Wearing earphones or earbuds can be a great way to non-verbally signal to people that you’re not interested in chatting. If you don’t listen to music while working out, put in a pair of earbuds but keep them turned off – it will give people the impression that you’re busy listening to something and would prefer not to socialize.
So, if improving your focus while working out is the name of the game, chances are you’ll need to cut back on socializing, be it with other random individuals and, yes, even your training partner.
While having a good training partner can certainly open up the door to various improvements with your workouts, if you’re not careful, they can potentially disrupt your focus.
While a good training partner will hopefully know that you’re stepping foot in the gym to get stuff done (hopefully their mentality is the same), it may be that you need to let them know that you’re trying to improve your in-session focus, and as such, won’t be socializing much during your workout. Hopefully, they understand. If not, perhaps you’ll need to find a new training partner.
Tactic 8: Go to the gym during quiet hours
There are two benefits to working out in the gym when it’s not busy:
- You can power through your workouts much quicker (since you don’t have to wait for equipment to become available or “work in” with others). This leads to quicker workouts, making it easier to maintain focus from start to finish.
- There are fewer distractions taking place in the facility while you’re there. Fewer people trying to socialize with you, asking if they can “work in” with you, asking you to spot them, etc.
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A quiet gym is a focus-friendly gym. If nothing else, avoiding the peak hours for which your training facility is busiest can be quite helpful. From a focus-maintaining perspective, training in a busy gym is better than training in one that’s absolutely jam-packed.
Fewer people, fewer distractions. Simple as that.
Tactic 9: Change locations, if needed
This will likely be a last resort, but it’s worth mentioning. Sometimes a gym’s environment is so obnoxious, so constantly crowded, and thus, so distraction-filled that it’s seemingly impossible to have any type of focused workout while in the facility. If this is the case, it may be worth pulling the plug on that particular facility and heading to another one instead.
It’s a drastic measure, to be sure, and one that I wouldn’t consider implementing unless you’re highly confident that you’ve got a better facility lined up and that it will afford you more focused sessions.
Obviously, this doesn’t apply if you’re working out in a home gym. (Although, if you are, and you’re consistently having trouble focusing, maybe it’s worth going to a gym instead?)
If nothing else, give every other tactic on this list a try first before jumping ship and heading over to another training facility. Ultimately, if you find that workout after workout is riddled with distraction-promoting activities or environments, making the switch might be a necessary action to take.
Final thoughts
A focused lifter is an effective lifter. Regardless of your lifting or training goals, maintaining your focus when in the gym will optimize multiple facets of your pursuits. So, now that you know how to dial in your mental focus when working out, go make some good things happen!
Frequently Asked Questions
To be as helpful as possible with focusing when in the gym, I’ve included a few brief answers to some other commonly asked focus-related questions when training. I hope they’re helpful to you!
Hi! I’m Jim Wittstrom, PT, DPT, CSCS, Pn1.
I am a physical therapist who is passionate about all things pertaining to strength & conditioning, human movement, injury prevention and rehabilitation. I created StrengthResurgence.com in order to help others become stronger and healthier. I also love helping aspiring students and therapists fulfill their dreams of becoming successful in school and within their clinical PT practice. Thanks for checking out my site!