You show up every week sometimes more than others but you keep showing up. But alas you don’t seem to be stronger or more tone.
If you’re newer to the weight room or have spent most of your fitness journey in group fitness classes your approach might need a little tweak.
Focus on these five tips for making your time in the gym more effective:
- Stop focusing on how many calories you’re burning: When it comes to lifting calorie burn isn’t the point. It’s getting stronger. Tired & Sweaty does not equal the same thing as providing your muscles enough challenge to grow.
- Pick a program and stick to it for longer than a month: Group fitness classes have lots of change and novelty so it can make the necessarily repetitive nature of lifting seem boring by comparison. Commit to 4 months, 6 months, a year see what happens.
- Stop adding in extra cardio and plyo moves between sets: If you’re going to lift heavier weights your body will need rest. Adding in mountain climbers or jumping jacks defeats the purpose. It’s also likely a sign you’re trying to burn more calories or get in a burn….refer to #1 If you don’t rest your body won’t be recharged enough to ever lift heavier.
- Try lifting the heavier weights, you might surprise yourself: If you’ve done mostly group fitness then yeah 10-12lbs is probably heavy relative to how quickly you were pounding out 15-20 reps of an exercise. What if you grabbed the 20lb weight and did only 6-8 reps…… Give it a try. See what happens 💪🏻
- Slow Down: We aren’t racing against a 30-minute class time anymore. Or trying to work as hard as possible for 30 seconds. Much like in stripping – slow down. Try really focusing in on the movement consider counting out 1-2 seconds as you lift and lower. Then more time under tension the better.
Transitioning away from some of those habits and mindsets can take some time, kind of like it takes a while to get used to not texting your ex all day every day after a breakup. But it’s 100% doable.