In all the years that I have been a personal trainer in the gym, there are 3 things that I practically see every day that hinder people’s progress. From insufficient intensity to only making half movements and not training frequently enough. Read these 3 tips for an optimal training stimulus and immediately see if you are already using them. If not, there is plenty of room for improvement!
Training to Failure
Training with 100% effort means training each set to failure. Research shows that it yields the most progress in hypertrophy. Moreover, this way, it’s easy to track whether you’re getting stronger with each workout.
In practice, it means you have a range of repetitions within which you can perform maximally.
For example: in the Bench Press, the aim is to do 4-8 reps for 4 sets. In the first set, you are strongest and may be able to do 8 repetitions. In the second set, you might do 7 repetitions, followed by another 7 and then 5. If you were to stick to an exact number of repetitions, for instance, 4 sets of 8, then maybe the last set would truly be at 100% intensity, but in the earlier sets, you might have been able to do 9, 10, or 11 repetitions.
So, choose a ‘range’ of the number of repetitions you want to do and always train with 100% effort. Give it your all, set your weights down, and push out as many reps as possible. Training with less intensity also means training for less results.
Train with a Full Range of Motion
If you want to give a muscle group a good training stimulus, make sure to load it across the full range of motion. It engages more muscle fibers and provides a greater stimulus for muscle growth. Yet, in the gym, you often see that people don’t train with full Range Of Motion or movement range.
To illustrate how you can approach it for the 2 most important exercises for your glutes, the hip thrust and pull through, watch the video below.
Train Each Muscle Group More Than Once a Week
As popular as it is to train your chest every Monday and have a fixed ‘leg day’ once a week, it is far from ideal for muscle growth. When you make proper use of supercompensation, you train your muscles approximately every 72 to 120 hours instead of a full week between 2 workouts.
Especially women can often train the same muscle group multiple times a week, even on consecutive days. This is due to less strain on the central nervous system, allowing for much quicker recovery. If you’re following a traditional split fitness schedule where you train each muscle group once a week, consider switching to a full body or upper body/lower body schedule. If you want to stick with a split schedule, divide it so that you have 3 different training days and start your first training again before a full week has passed.
These 3 ‘training rules’ will help you achieve more results in the gym. Whether it’s about getting stronger, building more muscle mass, or just looking cool because you’re doing it right.
