The gym can get boring.
No matter how much you love it, sometimes, doing the same things over and over again can get a bit tiresome, and you can hit a plateau quickly without realising it.
One way to combat this? Change it up! You need to make sure you are making training exciting, or, just like a boring diet, you’ll drop it quickly and fall back into bad habits.
Here are some ways I like to mix up my training to ensure I stay on track and don’t plateau:
Change splits around often
Sometimes it can get considerably dull to be doing the same things week in week out, so I like to go back to the real basics and switch up my training splits every 4-6 weeks. It’s great to keep your body guessing, but also to target your muscles for longer periods (e.g instead of training back and bis, train back on its own and hit it for longer).
Never do the same thing week after week
Then we get down to the actual exercises. Never do exactly the same exercises and amount of reps/sets one week after the other. Mix it up. Add in drop sets, super sets, go heavy on an exercise you went light on last week. Your muscles adapt quickly, so keep them on their toes!
Have a focus of the week/month
Have you got a goal this month? Set one. My current one is beating 6 overhand pull ups, so I’m tailoring my training to this.
I’m also going to focus on unilateral training once I’m back from my holiday, with one week beginning every training session with unilateral exercises for the first 20-30 minutes of the session. Having a focus or a goal to work towards is great for motivation.
Make it interesting
Don’t like running but want to do cardio? Then do something different! Recently I’ve been doing one legs session per week focusing around supersets/circuits and then the stair master or an incline walk. It’s sweaty, it gets my heart rate well up, and most importantly I enjoy it (until the pain kicks in). You need to be doing the type of training you love. The same goes for lifting: want to lift heavy and focus on compound lifts? Do it! Prefer a more bodybuilding style approach? Go for it. I mentioned in this blog that no one should ever tell you how to train, only you can decide that.
Hopefully, these tips help you. Especially with the winter coming in, and dark mornings and nights making you want to stay in bed, you’ll need something that makes you want to jump out of bed. Make it worthwhile.
NAT WHITEHOUSE FITNESS 