Sick Up of Busting Your Ass in The Gym, Yet NOT Getting The Results You Want? Here’s What to Do…

By Elliot Newman

Many guys go to the gym, and legitimately try to improve themselves. They try to build Muscle. They try to get Stronger. 

Most try to lose Body-Fat.

Yet, the harsh reality is that a huge number of these guys FAIL to make the progress they want. And, as a result, many give up.

If you want to make better gains in the gym – be it building muscle, getting stronger, or losing body-fat – here are 5 suggestions that can help…

#1: Take The Time to Warm Up Every Time You Train

Nothing will STOP, or prevent, your progress faster than getting INJURED.

In fact, if you suffer a bad enough injury, you won’t be able to train at all, and then not only will you FAIL to make progress… you’ll actually start going backwards! Which is incredibly de-motivating.

One of the biggest mistakes the average ‘Gym Rat’ makes is NOT Warming Up before they start training. Many guys just throw 135lbs on the bar, and start pumping out reps. Then they wonder why their joints hurt!

Now. There are many ways to warm up, but by far and away my favorite way is to do a few minutes Original Strength. This involves simple movements like Diaphragmatic Breathing, Head Nods, Rolling, Rocking, Crawling and Marching.

You can learn more about this system by visiting my friends at Original Strength on their website, HERE.

I highly recommend you do 3-5 minutes of Original Strength, before you workout, as a bare minimum.

Then, once you’ve done that, do a few lighter sets on your FIRST exercise. For instance, let’s say you’re going to Bench Press, and your workout calls for you to do 5 sets of 5 reps with 100kg.

Before putting 100kg on the bar, do something like:

Bar x 5 x 2 sets

40kg x 3 x 2 sets

60kg x 3 x 2 sets

80kg x 3 x 1 set

Then:

100kg x 5 x 5 sets

Make sense?

This’ll actually make you STRONGER on the 5 x 5 with 100kg, than if you just walked into the gym, COLD, threw 100kg on the bar, and started knocking out the sets!

#2: Rotate Your Exercises

Many guys get stuck in a rut – doing the same exercises, with the same weight, for the same number of sets and reps, over and over again, week-in-week-out. Then they wonder why progress never happens, and aches and pains occur!

To make progress, you have to do MORE.

If you want bigger shoulders, you have to get STRONGER on exercises that challenge your shoulders – like Military Presses and Dumbbell Presses.

If you want bigger legs, you have to get stronger on exercises that challenge your legs – like Squats, Lunges and Deadlifts.

A simple way to get stronger – and avoid boredom, and avoid overuse injuries – is to rotate your exercises regularly. The great Strength Coach Pavel Tsatsouline calls this “same but different”.

Allow me to explain…

Instead of doing Bench Press every week of the year, instead, do something like this:

Weeks 1-4: Bench Presses

Weeks 5-8: Incline Bench Presses

Weeks 9-12: Floor Presses

Weeks 13-16: Decline Bench Presses

Then, during weeks 17-20, come back to the Bench Press. What you’ll find, assuming you know how to program your intensity, set and reps, is that this kind of training – often referred to as ‘Conjugate Training’ – will prevent overuse injuries, keep you enthusiastic and excited, and lead to faster progress. And better long-term progress.

Here’s another example of how ‘Conjugate Training’ works:

Instead of doing Squats every week, do:

4 weeks of Squats

Then:

4 weeks of Front Squats

Then:

4 weeks of Box Squats

Then:

4 weeks of Safety Squat Bar Squat

Then come back to Squats.

All the variations work the same muscles – just in slightly different ways. Thus preventing overuse injuries. And stopping you from going insane with boredom. 

The same ‘Conjugate Training’ (rotation of exercises) can be applied when Fat Loss is the goal. For example:

Instead of using the Treadmill for every cardio session, instead:

Do the Treadmill for 2-4 weeks.

Then the Stationary Bicycle for 2-4 weeks.

Then the Cross Trainer for 2-4 weeks.

Then the Versa Climber for 2-4 weeks, and so on.

Give this a try.

Using this model of training I made the fastest strength gains of my life, going from a 60kg Deadlift (yup, I was pretty damn weak), to a 227.5kg Deadlift (in competition), in just 8 months. And “YES” – I was ‘Drug Free’ the entire time.

#3: Have Harder Weeks and Easier Weeks

Remember earlier, how I said that most guys get stuck in a rut of doing the same damn thing in the gym, every time they train? 

And, this leads to a lack of progress.

Well, as well as rotating exercises (see my previous point), you also need to change the Intensity and Volume of your workouts. Giving you easy, medium, hard and very hard training weeks.

When I say ‘Intensity’ – I’m talking about the percent of your 1 rep max. For instance, if your 1 rep max is 100kg, and you do 5 reps with 70kg, the intensity of that set was 70%.

When I say ‘volume’ – I’m talking about sets x reps. For instance, if you do 5 sets of 5 reps with 70kg, the total volume is: 25 reps x 70kg = 1,750kg

Over time, if you want to add muscle and get stronger, your volume must go UP! There is no other way! 

But, it cannot go up all the time. You must allow the body time to rest and recover. An easy way to do this is to train HARD for 3 weeks, then take an EASY week.

During the easy week you can:

• Stay active, but NOT lift weights (personally I don’t like this)

OR:

• Keep the Intensity the same, but reduce the reps by about 40% (I like this a lot)

Let me show you how that second option works:

Let’s say you did 100kg for 5 sets of 5 reps and it was tough. Next week, you decide to take an EASY week. Instead of doing 5 sets of 5 reps with 100kg, you do 5 sets of 3 reps with 100kg.

So, the intensity is the same, but the reps dropped from 25 in total, to 15. Which will feel EASY.

Now, sometimes you need to back off the Intensity as well as the volume, but I’ll have to talk about that another day. For now, just know that not all training weeks should be the same – variety is necessary… Hard (week 1), Medium (week 2), Very Hard (week 3), Easy (week 4), and so on.

#4: Train The Back of Your Body More Than The Front!

Go into any gym, and you’ll see a common theme…

Many guys have a big chest, big shoulders and big biceps.

But, very few guys have a big back, or big triceps. And, even fewer have built up their legs!

This is moronic to say the least.

My advice?

Train the back of your body TWICE as hard as you train the front of your body. 

No woman wants a man with a huge upper body and no legs!

Train your legs, train your gluts, train your back, train your triceps. These are actually the muscle groups that make a man as STRONG as an Ox.

#5: Pay Attention to What You Do Outside of The Gym

Remember this:

You should only do in the gym what you can recover from outside of the gym!

I know that at 34, with 2 young kids, a growing business, and many responsibilities, I cannot take liberties with my training that I did when I was 19 and my life was basically:

Train at the gym, and fuck hot chicks.

Back then, at 19 years of age, I could go out on a Saturday night, till 3 in the morning, hit the gym at 12 noon the next day, and still have a great workout.

These days that ain’t happening!

To be able to train hard, and make progress, not only do I have to think about my training very carefully – I also have to ensure:

• I am well rested (getting 8 hours of sleep a night)

• Hydrated (drinking at least 2 litres of water a day)

• I eat well (unprocessed, natural foods)

• I’m not burning up a ton of energy on other ‘physical pursuits’ outside of the gym. For example: I love Mountain Biking, but I’m not going to spend 3 hours on my bike, the day before a big Squat and Deadlift session!

I hope this got you thinking about how to make FASTER results in the gym. 

If you have comments/questions, leave them below and I’ll gladly get back to you ASAP.