This might be one of those articles that really help your workouts stay fresh and interesting. Most of you who have been training for more than a few year,s know that changing your workout routine is as important as the routine itself. For example, if you have been working out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, take the weekends off and train the same body-parts each day, you’ve probably hit a plateau. This means you’re not seeing any new results. As crazy as this sounds, your muscles will eventually get used to the same exercises performed the same way for the same amount of reps. Repetitions should not be confused with repetitious.
Being a personal trainer means spending countless hours in the gym and constantly figuring out new ways to improve the workouts for my clients and keep them fresh and motivating. Having your finger on the pulse of the fitness industry is key to my clients seeing the results they pay their hard earned money to acheive. For those of you who don’t use a personal trainer, here are some ” tricks of the trade” that might help freshen up your workouts and help get you back on track to seeing results.
The first big mistake I witness on a regular bases is training the same body-part on the same day week after week. If you find yourself working chest,tricep,s and shoulders every Monday, try starting the week by training your legs instead. If you’re like me and dread a leg workout, try adopting my philosophy of getting legs out of the way on Mondays, taking off on Tuesday, hitting back and biceps on Wednesday, skipping Thursday and ending the week on Friday with chest,tri’s, and shoulders. I train abdominals after each workout and also do cardio for 30 minutes after abs. Try this routine for a month or so then mix up the days you train and body-parts the following month. I guarantee you’ll start to see better results.
Another way to mix things up at the gym is to try different excercises using different equipment. If you’ve always started your chest workout doing flat-bench presses, try an incline dumbbell fly to warm-up, and stretch those pectoral muscles. Instead of starting a back workout doing lat- pulldowns, don’t be afraid to get deadlifts out of the way first. Deadlifts are one of the best exercises for strengthening your lower back and also building overall power. I recently introduced lunges to one of my female clients who had never done them before. The next time I saw her she said she was sore for three days. This is a perfect example of mixing up your workouts with different exercises done out of your normal sequence.
Tricking your muscles can also mean ditching the weights and going for a swim or a bike ride. Too many of us get caught up working our different muscle groups and forget the most important muscle in our body, the heart. I’ve been guilty of this myself. After finding out that I had high blood pressure, I changed my thought process when it came to training. Nowadays my workout routine is split 50-50 when it comes to lifting versus cardio. This change has been very important in keeping my blood-pressure stable and also keeping my weight down.
Another great way to keep things interesting in the gym and keep your body guessing is by super-setting. If you’re not familiar with this concept, here’s a good example; next time you’re working your chest by doing a bench-press, without resting in between sets, grab a set of dumbbells and perform a fly movement. This super-set will activate those fast twitch muscles which don’t get enough attention by just performing slower repetitions. I also get my clients to work their abs in between each set no matter which body-part we’re working. This is also an effective way to accomplish more of a workout in a shorter period of time. No one says you have to be in the gym for hours.
Switching things up at the gym as far as your workouts go is vital to keeping your muscles guessing and avoiding tha same old boring training regiment. Don’t be afraid to try different equipment or even try a spin-class to really ramp up your cardiovascular system. I also recommend working out with a partner to create new and different methods of training. My wife and I often train together and incoporate unique principals based on our past experiences at the gym. You’d be surprised on how working out together at the gym makes for a better relationship at home ( and in the bedroom ). So start mixing up your workouts and stay healthy!
