When You’re Workout Isn’t Working Out

I’ll let you in on a secret, when you’re new to training the worst workout in the world will give you some form of result from exercise.
You see, even a poorly designed exercise program will work because before this program you weren’t doing anything.
So of course, your body must adapt to this exercise thing you have thrown at it, in the form of muscle tone and fat loss.
But what happens when this workout that you used to preach to all your friends about stops giving you the love?
Well the short answer is, it’s time for a change.
This doesn’t mean that the only way to kick start results is to enter the next open Cross-fit games.

Some intelligent tweaks to your current regime could be fire cracker you’ve been looking for.
Here is my list of 7 ways you can kick start results from your current training program:
1/ Increase overall sets:
I like to look at the overall working sets my client performs. If they are doing 4 exercise with 3 sets, then they are doing 12 working sets. So, a simple way is to change the workout to 16 working sets.
This could be done by adding in exercises or increasing the amount of sets performed on each exercise.
2/ Increase overall Reps:
You may be using 12 reps for most of your exercises. Time to move it to 15 reps. The trick with increasing reps, is to make sure you are using the same weight that you were using on the previous rep scheme.
Simple yet very effective!
3/ Increase the weight lifted:
The holy grail of breaking through plateaus. Complacency is using the same weight week in and week out. The main reason I preach tracking all your workouts.
So, if you’ve been doing 50Kg Bench Press for the last 2 months, it’s time to add some extra weight to the bar.
4/ Increase the complexity:
Choosing an exercise where the complexity increases is a great way to break through plateaus.
There is a magnitude of ways to go about it, however some simple suggestions are:
=> Bench Press to a dumbbell press with a fit ball
=> Barbell Back Squats to Front Squats
=> Lat Pulldown to Chin Ups
The list is endless!!
5/ Shorten Your Rest Breaks:
Nothing fancy about this. I’m sure the idea of this scares you a little, but shortening your rest breaks is a great way to invigorate your training.
A simple strategy is to cut them in half. Make sure you have some form of stopwatch to keep yourself honest.
6/ Slow down your tempo:
We always talk about repetition for each exercise.
What is far more important is the time under tension for the working muscle. So instead of being a thoroughbred out of the gate, slow down the speed you move the bar. Try a 2 second up and 4 second down tempo.
You can thank me later.
7/ Train more often:
Like I said at the start, when your new to training everything works.
Training 3 times a week used to be more than enough. Maybe it’s time to up it to 4 or 5 times a week. I know this strategy isn’t for everyone but it may be the 1 thing that’s stopping you from seeing continuous results.
There you have it! My 7 ways to kick start results.