10 Ways to Make your Workout More Fantastic

There’s a lot of people who work out on a pretty regular basis, but fail to see any positive changes in either their performance, health or appearance. Why? Maybe they’re doing the same thing over and over and over again. Maybe they’re hitting a physiological ceiling to their genetic potential (excuse me while I vomit in my mouth at the mere thought of this). Maybe they’re scared of injury or of change or of becoming “bulky.” Seriously, I’ve watched some of the same people doing the exact same workouts for the better part of a decade, then complain about how they’re not getting anywhere, then balk at the thought of having someone offer suggestions on changing what isn’t working for them, only to continue making me want to slam my head through a wall.

SO today, I thought I would bring you some of the best ways to make your workouts more bad-ass, dieseled out, and all-around awesome. If you want your lady-friends to start talking more about your pecs than any in an upcoming vampire saga movie release, just follow these verbatim.

#10: Change what you do once in a while.

The body gets used to the same stresses being applied by making the workout more efficient, thus limiting your adaptation potential. The best anaology I ever heard about this was looking at a garbage man’s job. One day one, heaving garbage cans and hopping on and off the truck would leave him feeling like a bag of ass by the end of the day, and by the weekend he’s ready to pack it in and hit the morgue for some shut-eye. The next month he’s whistling and jumping around, not even getting sore anymore after the work day (maybe that’s just my garbage man. He’s a bit of a beast). The job has led to a short-term overload, which the body eventually adapted to.

If you’ve done the same workout for more than 2 months, switch it up. Now. Change the exercises, sets, reps, superset scheme, grip, weight (for the love of God, HEAVIER!!!), and pretty much every other thing you can think of to make it a different workout. If you don’t know what to change, get a trainer, or get a good program that you can follow (See point one at the bottom of this post for more).

#9: Get some actual goals

If your goal is to “get healthier,” there’s so many ways you can go that it becomes such an open-ended goal that you cannot hope of hitting the mark. Now if you get a goal of decreasing body fat, decreasing your blood pressure or lipid profile, or maybe even to turn the head of your local barista, those are things you can actually do something about, and get a specific direction in place to help you get there, plus you’ll actually KNOW when you get to that goal.

A great example of this was a client I began training three years ago who was recently diagnosed with osteopenia, or thinning of the bones. This was the precursor to osteoporosis, so she was concerned about the risk of fractures associated with decreased bone density. We started on a resistance training program to help increase the stress on her skeleton and to create a new need to increase bone density naturally, and within 2 years she’s now almost a full standard deviation above the diagnositc criterium for osteopenia (Yay!!) and her doctor will be taking her off meds later this year.

#8. Music

For the love of all that’s good and holy, get some good music playing to get something out of your workouts!! We play God-awful music in my gym. How awful is it?? Within one hour the other day, we had Copa Cabana remixed, Rod Stuart, then one song from the current decade, followed by something from the Bee Gees, and finished off with a muzak track of Britney Spears. Then it repeated the next hour.

You can’t get pumped up to lift something heavy when Sheryl Crow’s The First Cut is the Deepest plays every morning at 6:14am. We’ve all had impromptu dance parties in our living rooms and when a really key song comes on it gets you all jacked up and makes you want to throw the fridge through the nearest window. Maybe that’s just me.

Seriously, get some solid tunes pumping and you’re testosterone will increase by 18% immediately.

#7: Dress like you know where you are.

This is so freakin hilarious. One of my distance training clients sent me a video for technical breakdown, and I saw something I never thought I would see in a gym. Watch for what the bald guy is wearing.

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There are so many ways that I love this. The fact that he’s wearing a snowflake Christmas sweater is fantastic. The fact that he’s wearing it IN A GYM is even better. I’ll offer free training to this guy for an entire year if he can be my personal fashion consultant.

If you’re looking to take your workouts seriously, dress for comfort as well as function. Vinyl trackpants, while comfortable, don’t allow you to move all that well unless you want to have instant ventilation. Likewise, the nipple-hanger tank tops may be functional, but there are some people who just can’t pull off the look without making everyone else around them uncomfortable and slightly closer to the point of breaking down in laughter. wear some shorts, a t-shirt that wicks moisture, and some good quality shoes. If you need belts, chalk, wraps, straps, gloves, mouth guards, and any other accessories, please lift appropriately. Don’t wear a belt (loose) to the water fountain on your rest break between sets of 20 rep bicep curls.

#6: Train Like Your Families Lives Depend on it

If you had to break down a wall to save your entire family before a bomb went off, how hard would you work to bring that sucker down? That’s how hard you should work at your failure/fatigue sets. If you’re not working to your uttermost potential on most sets, you’re setting the bar too low for yourself, and not challenging the body enough to see adaptations, especially if you are an intermediate or advanced lifter. Approach each set with the intensity of a life or death scenario.

#5: Watch a Training Montage

It’s biologically impossible to watch a Rocky training montage and not want to get after it. That’s science.

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#4: Train Active Mobility for your Hips in your Warmup

The hips don’t get nearly enough flexibility training in the average training program. As a result of this underprogramming, people tend to have limited squat depth, internal/external rotation, and a limited stride length when walking or running. Training the hips to increase their mobility before the training session with active mobility can have a dramatic improvement in force production capactiy, joint mechanics during compound lifts, and help reduce the pressure placed on the knees and low back due to inadequate movement at the hip joint. Active flexibility is better than static stretching prior to a workout, as static stretching has been shown to reduce the neural input into the working muscles, therefore reducing the force output following the stretch bout. Plus, you look hella cool doing some active mobility drills like these instead of static stretching like a 1970’s jogger.

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#3: Get a Training Partner

There’s no question having someone else there to help you out when you need an extra push plays huge on your ability to see gains in performance. Additionally, having a supportive partner to work with keeps you accountable, makes you work harder, and gives you someone to make work harder as a result. As you see them making gains, it motivates your competitive side to continue to work hard and see gains of your own, otherwise you’ll start falling behind. This is the big benefit to group or semi-private personal training. It forms a community and makes everyone else work that much harder to keep up and to show off for everyone else.

#2: Stop Negative Self Talk

Too often I ask a clinet “So how are you doing today” and get met with a barrage of everything that’s going wrong in their lives, no matter how miniscule.

My dog is lazy

My elbow is kinda sore. How sore? About a 2/10 on a pain scale

I have a mild headache

I didn’t sleep well last night

I feel bloated

Wah

For every problem you have, someone wishes they had it that good. Think of what’s going well instead of what’s going badly. Did legs two days ago and you can still walk? Awesome!! Standing slightly taller from some of the spinal work you’ve been doing? Sweet Sassy Molassy that’s fantastic!! Hit a new PR on rotator cuff exercises? BOOM goes the dynamite!! Finding what is good gets you jacked up to get more greatness out of the workouts, so instead of pissing and moaning about the little things that aren’t actually holding you back but are just providing some background static to make you think they’re important, focus on what you can get better at, what you’ve seen progress in, and what is working well for you.

#1: Get Show and Go Training from Eric Cressey

It’s always easier to follow a program someone else created for you. This is one of the most complete and comprehensive programs I have ever seen, plus it gives you thousands of different combinations for exercise regressions, different equipment, days/week training schemes, exercises, nutrition, and all sorts of little goodies to go with it. Plus, it’s on sale until TODAY AT MIDNIGHT FOR 50% OFF, so get Show and Go Training now and save yourself a lot of headaches from being small and weak all your life.