“How effective do you want your plan to be?“
I’ve posed these types of questions on more than one occasion when talking with clients during check-ins. It is a rhetorical question but it still gets people talking with how they “think” things should go.
Whatever they expect, who wouldn’t want more effective results while putting in the same, time and effort?
So here! Take this supplement and use my discount code!
Kidding, kidding.
We work with busy people. Everyone is running around and trying to fit so much into their day. That’s why your workouts NEED to be effective. There’s no reason to have to do extra workouts or longer sessions, just to see the same result.
If a workout is going to squeeze its way into your schedule It better be working some damn magic!
Your workouts should be effective at giving you a result with however much time you can commit to it each week.
Whether you are doing 2 days a week or 5 days a week.
30 minute sessions or hour and a half sessions.
You should be able to see progress in some way, over time.
BUT, there is always a catch…
You can’t expect Grade A results with Grade D effort.
So here are my 6 tactics to making your workout plan more effective!
#1: Get Stronger
If you are going to use the gym as one of the avenues to you seeing results, then you should focus on strength. You don’t need to be the strongest person in the gym but you should be seeing improvements in your strength over time.
The reason we weight train:
- Gain muscle
- Lose fat
- Lose weight
- Increase your ability
- Improve bone density
- Improve heart health
- Improve blood pressure
- Fight all cause mortality
- Improve mobility
- Increase brain health
- Boosts mood & self esteem
When I start working with someone, things like this come up often:
“I used to use the same weights every week”
“I used to do the same amount of reps every week”
“I used to be scared to go any heavier”
“I don’t think I can do that”
I get It, being on your own, not following a plan makes It hard to know when you should move the weight up. It’s also intimidating. What will It feel like? Can you actually do It? Are people going to be judging you?
Here is what you can do to KNOW when you should move up the weight:
- Make a rep range for each exercise
- 4-6
- 8-10
- 12-15 (all rep ranges are beneficial)
- If you reach the top of the rep range on that exercise with a rep or two more that you could have done, It’s time to move up the weight
- Make the smallest jump you can in regards to what weights you have available. (If you have dumbbells that make 2.5lb jumps, try that before jumping up 5lbs. If your gym only has 5lb jumps, give that a shot!)
- Aim for the lower end of your rep range with the new weight. As you build confidence and strength you will be able to do even more reps with the new weight!
I have clients who don’t feel fully confident about moving up the weight on their own so I will write things like:
“If you get 12 reps with the “x” dumbbells, move up in weight and aim for 8 reps the next round”.
Now, moving up in weight is not the only way to show you are getting stronger.
You could do more reps, move the weight faster, take less rest, do more sets, do more range of motion, add a tempo, or even just have the same weight feel easier.
#2: Push Yourself a Bit More
Just working “harder” is not what we are looking for. Have you ever seen someone in the group class that looks like they could collapse any minute because they haven’t stopped jumping, running, and jerking their body around for an hour?
Yes, they worked hard, but did they get any better?
It’s about doing the RIGHT TYPE and the RIGHT AMOUNT of work to see change.
For some people they need to work harder and push themselves a bit outside of their comfort zone. That doesn’t mean going balls to the wall on every exercise.
Having a set or two during a workout where you take yourself close to where you can’t do any more work might be that increase of intensity your body needs.
Think or a push-up where you can only get 10 reps and cannot do another no matter how hard you try. That’s pushing yourself to the end limit.
Take a look at your last workout—How many exercises were done that you could have done 5-10 more reps if you really needed to. If It’s most or all of them, It’s time to ramp up your intensity a little bit!
#3: Try New Things
I discussed it earlier and I am going to discuss it again.
There are too many people doing the same exact workouts, using the same weights, doing the same amount of reps day in and day out.
With no improvement in your program over time, you can’t expect to see any progress. And you have to be bored, you just have to be. There is no way you can get excited for a workout knowing it’s the same one you’ve done the last 50 times. It’s time to move on.
Try working on new ideas, exercises, methodologies. How will you know what works best for you without trying things out!
I have a list of main principles that I believe work best for most people, but along those lines we try new things all the time.
With most people I work with, we are on a new workout program every 4-5 weeks. With those new plans we will add in new rep schemes, exercises, rest periods, and different styles of training. It not only keeps things fresh and exciting but it keeps us finding new things to practice and progress.
If you haven’t switched up your program in a while, I think it’s time to try something new!
#4: Get Better EVERYWHERE
If your goal is to lose weight are you only going to be doing cardio in your “fat burning zone” for every workout?
Hell no!
You will work on getting stronger.
Eating in a calorie deficit.
Getting more mobile.
Improving your cardio.
Gaining muscle.
Eating enough protein.
And all these things will pair together to make you look & feel your absolute best as you lose the weight.
It’s not just about jumping on one train and riding it forever. Being able to use multiple avenues allows you to reap the benefits from everything instead of trying to rely on a single modality to carry everything you want.
- Using your added strength to increase the amount of muscle on your body.
- Using that muscle to help keep a certain “shape” to your body as the weight drops.
- With the increase and strength and muscle you also focused on mobility to make sure you are feeling fresh and able for every workout you walk into.
- Not only that, but you are doing 1-2 days of added cardio not only for the heart health benefits but also the step/movement increases it helps you add for those days.
Please don’t take the “everywhere” in this title too seriously. You shouldn’t be trying to become a crossfit athlete, while running triathlons, and attempting to be the world’s strongest person. But picking a few areas that WILL help you along the way is what we are looking for.
If you are lost and not sure where to start when it comes to finding more than one area to focus on – Start Here:
- Work on getting stronger
- Work on improving your cardiovascular health
- Work on improving your movement/mobility
Your 2-3 workouts in the gym each week will focus mainly on your overall strength.
The focus on your range of motion during every exercise you perform will help improve your mobility GREATLY along the way. You will also start each workout with a well-planned warm-up with mobility being the main focus to hit that nail on the head twice.
On your off days you will dedicate 20-45 minutes of a cardiovascular style “workout”. I put this in quotes because this could be a brisk walk, a hike, or even things like kayaking/paddle-boarding. The goal is to get you moving for a set amount of time and elevate your heart rate during that time.
These three things can be implemented in about any goal you may have and will have a positive impact. I’m not saying mobility work will help you gain muscle or lose fat (it might), but you won’t regret feeling and moving better as you get deeper into your journey.
Find at least three areas that you want to put your focus on, if you can handle more, add them in!
#5: Variety
Now, this topic could piggyback off of #3 or #4. But, the importance of variety in your plan deserves its own section. I am all for mastering the basics for a LONG time, but that does not mean you can’t add any variety to your plan.
Take a push-up for example.
If you can get 8 push-ups right now. I wouldn’t just have you do straight sets of push-ups for the next 16 weeks. What you could do instead:
- Weeks 1-4: Band assisted push-ups
- Weeks 5-8: Regular push-ups
- Weeks 9-12: Deficit push-ups
- Weeks 13-16: Weighted push-ups
This creates not only new variations to try but also gives you better chances to progress at your regular push-ups by adding in a variety of angles, styles, weights, and reps. All these things can help create new strengths in areas that you just haven’t explored yet.
This can go for just about any exercise. Use the variations to challenge your strength, range of motion, and help you progress more EFFECTIVELY.
What I do for myself and my clients→
I find a group of main, base exercises I want them to focus on. For most people, that list is very similar.
- Squat variation
- Hinge variation
- Single leg squat variation
- Upper body push variation
- Upper body pull variation
- Core variations
- Weighted carry variations
When it comes to finding the right base exercises, it depends on the person, their ability, and what they are looking to achieve. If someone wants really strong legs but hates using a barbell, a goblet squat might fit into their base squat variation quite well.
From there, we can do things like heel elevated goblet squats, kettlebell rack squats, tempo goblet squats, or dumbbell racked box squats. These are all just different variations of the same type of movement. Keeping things not only fresh and exciting but also allowing you to get stronger in more than one way of squatting.
This is not a pass to walk into the gym and just do whatever for that day. Make a plan and work through that plan the way it’s written. Stick with the same plan or exercises for 4-5 weeks before you go in and change things. Give yourself time to practice and get good at those exercises, THEN change to a new variation.
#6: Get Better OUTSIDE of the Gym
Yes, this post is about making your workouts more effective. And up until this point, everything we have discussed has been about making your actual plan in a way that gets you where you want to be.
But, how effective those plans are will be limited (or not) by the things you do outside of the gym. If you sleep like shit, eat like shit, and move like shit, your workouts will be shit, no matter what tactics you employ.
You can try and get stronger, work harder, get better everywhere, and add more variety to your plan, but without taking care of yourself the other 23 hours of the day, things are not going to move in the right direction.
“The things you do outside the gym
will have a bigger impact on your success
than the things you do inside the gym.“
So what are we talking about here?
- Get 7- 9 hours of great sleep every single night
- WATER, have a lot of water more often than you think you need
- Eat in a way where most of your foods are made up of whole natural sources that are balanced in protein, fats, and carbs each day
- Rest and allow your body to recover throughout the week (working out HARD 7 days straight is not the ideal way of doing things)
- Move your body every single day (we are not meant to sit on our butts for hours on end, get up and MOVE!) Aim for 7,500+ steps per day.
Now what?
Now you are going to lay out your entire workout plan. Write out exactly what you are doing.
- Your actual workouts
- Effort for each exercise
- How often things are being changed
- Your results over the past 3,6,12 months
- Your strengths
- Your weaknesses
- All the things you are doing outside the gym
When you go through your entire plan you are going to see the areas you are doing really well in as well as the areas that might need some more focus. Pretty self explanatory right?
The things you are doing well, KEEP DOING THAT.
The things that you aren’t doing well, GET BETTER AT THAT.
If you feel as if you are definitely doing great with pushing yourself for a few sets every workout but lack any sort of variety, try writing down 2-3 variations of all the exercises in your plan. In a week or two, switch your plan to those new exercises and get really damn good at them.
By working on the things you suck at right now, they WILL help improve the other areas as well. Take the example we just went over, if you start adding in more variety, you will begin getting better in more than just the things you are good at. So not only are you adding variety (#5), you are also beginning to get better everywhere (#4).
If you start improving on your things outside of the gym (#6), I can say with strong confidence that you will be able to push yourself harder (#2) and begin getting stronger (#1).
You want your plan to be more effective? Follow these 6 tactics and you WILL start seeing some positive change!
In good health,
Jeff
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