Tips to crush your next PB

The Personal Best (PB) is one of the core concepts of Freeletics and one of the simplest ways to measure your progress.

Once you are performing the exercises with proper technique and you improve your PB on the same God workout, Single Exercise, or Sprint, you’re getting better. It’s as simple as that.

When you think about improving your PB, you will most likely think about how to optimize the workout itself. However, keep in mind that you can only perform as well as you regenerate.

What does that mean?

Often, people think of their energy levels as a rechargeable battery, like the one in your phone. This is misleading.

A battery, unlike a human being, can be recharged at irregular times and wherever it’s convenient--it doesn’t matter whether you charge all the way up in one go or recharge a little bit here and there, the battery doesn’t care.

But your body is not a phone! Thinking about your own energy supply as if it were a phone battery leads too many to delay what they probably need most for their PB: regular and sufficient sleep.

Many of the most important regenerative processes of the human body happen during sleep:

• Your whole body is recovering from the day’s stresses, including your brain and internal organs
• Your muscles are built and rebuilt, your soft tissue recovers
• Your brain archives new information and/or reviews new and improved movement patterns

By neglecting your body’s need for regular, uninterrupted sleep you could not only hamper your next PB performance, but you could also increase your risk of injury.

So, don’t skip on your z’s and prepare yourself for that new PB!

Never underestimate the impact of a good playlist. Did you know that studies found that by listening to motivating music, you can train longer and harder? ^[1],[2]

While the effect seems to be even better when the music is rather fast-paced than slower, it’s most important to find the right music that works for you.

Feeling tired? Unfocused? Experiment and find out which playlist helps you out in each case. It will help get you in the zone for that next-level performance.

So, make sure you have that PB playlist ready to go when the time has come.

You might think that to become faster you should focus on the speed of your exercise execution. And while this is at first a very logical assumption, it is not the best way to approach a new PB.

Why? Because you should focus on good quality execution first. By becoming better at your exercises, you will automatically become more efficient.

And at the same time, you will make sure you train the muscle groups you’re supposed to. While you may improve your PB faster by taking shortcuts, you’ll get less out of your training in the long run. At worst, you might even injure yourself. And you won’t improve your PB in the hospital.

If you’re facing a longer workout, make sure to set a good pace that you can maintain throughout the workout. By pacing yourself at the beginning, you will have more energy towards the end of your workout to push and go for that new PB.

What does this look like?

Let’s take the Burpees in Aphrodite as an example. Let’s say you can perform 15-20 Burpees in a row with proper technique and without needing a short rest.

Break down those 50 Burpees in your first round into smaller sets of 10 instead of doing 20 Burpees right from the beginning to avoid reaching exhaustion and needing a longer rest later in the workout.

Make sure to perform all of your exercises with clean technique and at a pace you can stick to. That way, you’ll become faster because you are really feeling how you should move and remove any hesitation when it’s time to go.

Maybe you’ve wanted to improve your PB for a while now and just haven’t managed to do it yet. It’s a natural reaction to become impatient or even frustrated when that happens.

But don’t give in to that temptation: By putting unnecessary pressure on yourself or rushing the process, you won’t improve your performance.

Keep training consistently. While you may not see your improvements in a new PB (yet!), your body is constantly adapting.

It just needs the necessary amount of time to do so. And as soon as that time has passed, your new PB will be there waiting for you. If you put in the work, you can be confident that it will happen.

What you put inside your body is another important factor for your next PB. Keep in mind that there are two parts to a good diet built to enhance your performance:

1. The quality of your food
2. The timing of your meals

Regarding quality, make sure to supply your body with a healthy mix of all the important nutrients. This means having a balanced diet that is rich in protein, healthy fats, and micronutrients.

Make sure you’re not satisfying your sweet tooth with sugar-rich premade food when trying to perform well in your workouts. Instead, go for something that is good for you and will help you (i.e., go for a bag of nuts instead, or have a full meal at regular intervals).

Also, make sure you eat at the right time. This will be different for everyone. So, try to get to know what your digestive system tolerates well before your workout. Many won’t do well with a fatty and heavy meal anywhere near their workout and would be better off eating afterward.

Others will need that small boost of a snack before they get going. Find out what works for you and hit that PB all fueled up on the right fuel.

Use these tips to hit that new PB! And while your own PB will feel great, also make sure to celebrate it with your friends and followers. And offer them a heartfelt #ClapClap too, when it’s their time to shine.