The one thing to remember when going to the gym is that you must constantly challenge yourself. The only way to maximise the results of exercising is to consistently evolve and develop your routine. If you do the same task over and over again, then eventually you’ll forget that you are even doing it. Your body is no different.
If you never modify your workout, then your body will no longer progress, as it ceases to be tested. It will adapt itself to the routine, and the effectiveness will eventually wear off. Progress comes from you pushing yourself by stepping up to next level, developing your workout and challenging your body.
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Set Yourself a Plan and a Goal
One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they exercise is that they have no goal in mind. A fundamental way to make your gym routine a whole lot more successful is perspective. What is it that you want to achieve? Do you want to lose your winter belly or build up your muscles for summer? Are you thinking about running a marathon, or do you just want to improve your endurance?
Whatever it is, give yourself a goal to achieve. This will have a profound effect on your fitness performance. Not only does it give you something to strive for, but it also means that you can tailor your workout to help with injury prevention. Likewise, by identifying a goal, you can specify the nutrition that you require, as your diet pre-and post-workout will have a huge impact on what you can gain. By figuring out your goal and constructing a workout plan, you are creating a workout map to follow to become a fitter, healthier you!
Try Targeted High-Volume Workouts
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With a regular gym routine, you are always in danger of your body becoming too accustomed to your workout. After four to six weeks of a routine, you are no longer testing your body’s strength potential, and you will see a stagnation in muscle development.
Try every week to target one specific body part with a high-intensity, high-volume workout. By hitting your muscles hard with an impactful, sustained workout of extended reps, you are pushing your body further than it is used to, and this is vital in helping muscles develop and grow. Make sure that you feel comfortable and have the correct support when pushing your body to its limit, and to avoid muscle damage and ligament strain, look to add compression clothing to your gym wear. To find the type of clothing that suits your particular workout, check out product details to see how certain items such as a knee sleeve or back brace can benefit you.
Elongate time Under Tension
As opposed to the usual weight repetitions that you are probably used to during your workout, challenge yourself to elongate your weight reps. Push yourself by subjecting your muscles to longer bouts of strain – this, in turn, will stimulate new growth. Making sure that your muscles are withstanding enough stimulation is vital in maximising their development. It is important to maintain a steady speed of reps with specific focus being given to the hardest part of the process: the lowering of weights, which encourages the most amount of muscle growth.
Wind Down with Body-Weight Finishers
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A great way to spike your metabolism and burn off a great deal more fat is with some body-weight finishers. Instead of pounding a few more gruelling reps, try winding down your workout with a few timed rounds of dips (arms), push-ups (chest) and pull-ups (back). You can build an incredible amount of muscle and slash more fat during the end of your workout without causing any more strain to your body.
Oftentimes, when completing strength training, gym-goers have a tendency to put their already-tired bodies through massive strain with a few more reps of external weight. This can cause serious damage to their joints and ligaments.
Engage Your Brain
This last tip may sound a little silly, but it is nonetheless very important to make sure that you energise your brain during your workout. A gym routine can be a boring and long ordeal if you aren’t in the right mindset, so take little steps to make it into an exciting activity. Throw out your boring gym gear and deck yourself out in bright colours such as neon yellow or orange, which have been proven to energise the brain. Likewise, scrap the playlist that you’ve been listening to all year and seek out new, up-tempo workout music to ramp up the intensity and get your blood pumping!
