Personalize Your Workouts

Every person is different, everyone's anatomy and physiology are different, everyone's goals are different...  All reasons why everyone's workouts should be different also!!!  This message is not only important for people hitting the gym every day but also for the trainers, coaches, PT's or whomever is prescribing the program in the first place.  I have to admit, in my early years of personal training I was lacking this blatantly obvious concept in my program design.  I was guilty of writing programs for my clients that were similar to ones that I myself used in my own workouts and enjoyed doing until I realized that my 45 yr old female client probably didn't care if she had huge traps or could bench press 300 lbs. Therefore the theme for today is specificity!

 

 This concept of specificity is important to realize as your are planning your exercise routine so that your program is specific to you and only you.  It's not always as easy as cutting a routine out of a Muscle & Fitness magazine, following it and then hoping to look like the guy on the cover in 12 weeks.  I often get asked to write a quick program for someone and send it to them without every seeing them in a gym before.  I try to explain to people that it may not be the best program for them because I don't know what kind of experience they have with some of the exercises, whether or not they can physically do them and/or if the gym they workout at even has the required equipment.  Also, not all people call exercises by the same name, (some exercises don't even have name!) so it's tough to explain the exercises without physically being present to demonstrate them and make sure they are done properly.

Each person is different and responds differently to exercise.  For example a 20 yr old can handle a relatively high training load and can workout/train multiple hours a day 5-7 days a week whereas a 70 yr old may need days in between workout sessions in order to recover.  Furthermore, some people may not be able to perform certain exercises whether it be from an old injury, lack of coordination, or they're 7 ft tall and a back squat is completely out of the picture.  Therefore it's necessary to modify workouts so that they not only fit your individual bodies but your goals as well.

 

 Another concept of specificity is training for a purpose or a specific goal.  A football player doesn't need to be running 80 miles a week just like a swimmer doesn't need to be doing a bunch of jump squats to improve their vertical.  Similarly, in terms of fitness goals, if you are looking to lose weight you don't need to be doing 5 sets of 3 reps with 5 minutes in between sets in the weight room, or if you are trying to increase strength and size you don't need to be doing a back squat.... on top of a stability ball.... on one leg....underwater for sets of 100.

How To Do This?

 So, now the important question: How the hell do I do this?  Well, below are a few tips on how to design a workout specific to you!

1. Set Personal Goals

Before you start any type of program you need to decide what you want to get out of it. Do you want to lose weight? Build muscle? Improve your endurance? Or just look good in a swimsuit? Regardless of what you want, write it down, set a timeline (a realistic one), join a gym and go for it.  In life you often hear the phrase "more is better" is this case it's not always true.  I'm all for the idea of you wanting to be awesome at everything but some times it's simpler to just pick 1 or 2 goals and focus solely on them because a lot of times if you have too many goals they can get in the way of each other and become conflicting.  For example, it's difficult to try and improve your marathon time while trying to gain 40 lbs at the same time. 

2. Know Your Environment

Know what you have to work with; meaning if your goal is to improve your swim performance but you don't have access to a pool, you may not hit your goal as quickly as you'd like to.  The same goes for weight lifting or gym workouts.  If you belong to a smaller gym that doesn't have a lot of equipment or machines, you need to get creative and design a workout that focuses more on body weight exercises or unconventional exercises such as "playground pullups" or "tire flips."  The creator of P90X has made a fortune off of this concept.  He has designed a plethora of workouts that you can accomplish all in the confines of your own home.

3. Trial/Error

Don't be discouraged when something doesn't work or goes wrong. For example, if you wanted to increase your back squat but you soon realize you can't properly hold the bar behind your head because of shoulder issues, don't just quit, try something else; maybe incorporate front squats or leg press into your routine instead. It's important to constantly try new things and plug them into your workouts because variety is the spice of life and it will force your body to continually adapt and improve.  It's also just as important to toss something out if it's not working for you or has gotten too easy.  Keep your body guessing!

4. Monitor Progress

In order measure the effectiveness of your program and determine how close you are to achieving your goals, it's important to monitor your progress throughout the way. This can mean anything really, depending on what your goals are. If you were trying to gain lean muscle, you can have your body composition assessed. If your goal was to improve your 5K time, what better way to monitor your progress than to go out an run one!? If you are working towards strength/power goals, you can test your 1RM on certain exercises (this is especially important for program design as you continually need to adjust your weights each week as you get stronger).

5. Continually Improve

This tip goes along with the previous two.  In order to improve, in whatever area it may be, you need to continually challenge yourself so your body adapts.  Without progressively overloading your system you will hit plateaus and become stale and you will never reach your goals.  So go big or go home!

 

No One Ever Got Awesome Just Sitting Around

How To Spice Up Your Workout

Often times workout routines become a chore, a routine, just something you check of your daily to-do list. And that's fine for a lot of people and it's definitely better than what the majority of Americans do everyday. However, the best way to improve i.e. get bigger, stronger, faster, is to change your routines and make your body adapt and force it to make improvements.

The easiest way to do this is make adjustments to your daily workout routine. This can be as simple as switching up your daily splits and hitting different body parts different days or completely overhauling your entire workout by incorporating different exercises, set/rep schemes, recovery periods etc.  I typically recommend to completely change your workout routine at least every 3-4 months, if not more.  I understand how easy it is to get to the gym, hit your favorites, do what's comfortable and get out of there but that's all it is, is easy. You're not getting the as much bang for your buck as you could. So, don't let all of that time and work go to waste. Change up that workout and mix things up a little bit.

Below are some modifications/lifting techniques that you can incorporate in to your workouts to mix things up a little bit and add some intensity to your workouts:

1.  Drop Sets
The term "Drop Sets" refers to a weightlifting technique used following your last set of a particular exercise.  Follow your last rep of a set, or when you've reached failure, you immediately drop the weight ~20-40% and continue to lift the new weight as many times as you can.  This technique is a good way to overload your muscle fibers and stimulate muscle growth.

Warning: They call them drop sets because you drop the weight on your last set, not because you drop the weights on your face. It's recommended that you use a spotter for these sets as your arms, legs or whatever are going to feel like jello when you're done.

2.  Super Sets

Super sets is a technique that combines two exercises into one never-ending set. For example, if you were super-setting bench press with lat pull-downs, as soon as you finished your last repetition of bench press you would immediately head over to lat pull-downs and complete a set followed by a rest period.  Then you will start over with bench  press at the end of the rest period.  Some people, will use 2 exercises that utilize opposing muscle groups similar to the super set mentioned above, whereas others will super set similar exercises i.e. back squat with leg press.  Super sets are a good way to speed up your workouts and keep your heart rate elevated.

3.  Negatives
Negatives or "forced reps" are techniques used by weigh lifters to promote muscle growth and strength by lifting heavier weights than you normally can handle. How is this possible?  During a muscle contraction there is a concentric (shortening) and eccentric (lengthening) motion.  During the eccentric motion, a muscle can handle heavier loads than during a concentric motion. For example, during the bench press the lowering motion is eccentric and the pushing phase is concentric.  So, in order to apply this technique you should lift a weight that is 10-20% heavier than you normally would for that rep range and with the assistance of a spotter, focus on the eccentric motion of the exercise.  In other words, you should be doing the lifting during the lowering phase and then with the help of your spotter, get the bar back up to the starting position and then repeat.  This is a very effective strategy to not only increase muscle strength but size as well because heavy eccentric lifting is a powerful stimulator for muscle growth.  However, I recommend only doing negatives once every 6-8 weeks as eccentric lifting can be damaging to the muscles and your body needs time to recover.

 

4.  Cluster Sets
Cluster sets, inter-repetition rest, rest-pause are all names for a lifting technique that focuses on repetitions separated by short rest periods to allow for fully-recovered explosive movements.  By allowing your muscles to recover in between reps, you should be able to lift heavier loads and heavier loads, equals greater strength gains.  Below is a comparison between traditional strength training and cluster sets:

Traditional Strength Training:
  -  6 sets of 6 reps with 3 minutes of rest in between set @ 80% of your 1RM typically taking ~20ish minutes to complete.

Cluster Set Training:
  -  (1+1+1+1+1+1)*6 sets.  In the scenario, each plus sign corresponds to a 10 second rest period.  So, during 1 set, you will complete six reps with 10 sec of brief rest in between each rep.  Then, following your 6th rep you will rest for 3 minutes.  This will take approximately the same amount of time ~20-25 minutes but you should be able to use a heavier load of roughly 85-90% of your 1RM.

5.  Circuit
A circuit style routine is very common in the fitness industry.  During a circuit, you will continually move from one exercise to another without rest until the very end.  Each "circuit" or rotation through all of the exercises is one set.  Usually people will do 2-3 sets per workout.  The idea is to move as quickly as possible and keep your heart rate elevated.  Some people recommend doing sets with a certain number of repetitions i.e. 15 reps for each exercise.  Another technique is to complete as many repetitions as possible for a certain time period i.e. 30 seconds per station.  Circuit style workouts are a great way to combine your weight lifting with your cardio as you are continuously moving from one exercise to the next forcing your body to ramp up the cardiovascular system while also stimulating your muscles to grow.  It's also a way to get a quick, efficient workout in as most circuits usually only last 20-40 minutes.

6.  1-Arm/Leg Exercises
If you can do it with 2 legs, try it with 1! One-legged, or "armed" exercises are a great way to mix things up in the weight room, especially if you have any muscle imbalances.  Obviously you won't be able to lift as much weight as you could with 2 limbs, but this way you are forcing one limb to do all of the work instead of having one overcompensate for the other (if there are imbalances).  Also, one-limbed exercises will engage the core to a greater extent as your body will be forced to stabilize itself due to the odd positioning and alterations in your center of gravity.  In terms of what exercises you can do, the sky is really the limit. I've seen 1-leg squats, leg press, dead-lift, leg curl... Similarly for upper body exercises, I've seen 1-arm lat pull downs, bench press, rows, etc.