The past 9 months I’ve made better progress in the gym than the last 3 years. The difference has come mainly from a change in my mindset towards training: instead of trying to find the ‘best program’ and jumping from program to program every couple of months, I just stuck with the basics (squats, deads, dips, press, chins etc), and focused rather on trying to improve the QUALITY of each workout.
To me this means:
- Better form, so I’m actually working the right muscles and not getting injured. Using a FULL range of motion - full extension and full contraction.
- Greater focus and intensity - pushing each set as hard as possible. Not leaving anything within me.
- Flexing each working muscle HARD during each set (“voluntary tension”), thereby improving form and stimulation.
- Taking each set one rep at a time - lift, PAUSE, lower, PAUSE, breathe. (Instead of just “pumping out” a set like it’s a race.)
- Taking the time before each set to really focus on what I want out of that exercise - and building aggression that I take into the set.
- Repeating a few mantras again and again between sets, instead of just letting my mind drift as I used to do.
- Timing my rest between sets with a stopwatch (worn on my wrist). A little inconvenient initially, but I now swear by the practice.
- Visualising a few reps of each exercise before I do it.
All sounds so simple, but it’s actually a challenge to put all these things into practice - and I’m not saying I’m doing it all perfectly yet. But just trying to do so has added a hell of a lot to the progress I’m making from workout to workout.
So I thought it’d be a good discussion point for the all the serious trainers out there to share the things (even the “little things”) each of us do to get the best out of each workout.
Rob
(Edited for spelling.)