A Few Simple Ideas to Mix Up Your Routine

Summary:

Every now and then I catch myself stuck in the same routine and my workout starts to get a little boring.  Here are just a few things that I do to put a little variation into my workouts to keep them interesting, and keep me going back to the gym.

Keywords:

workout, fitness, workout routine, split routine, palm grip, triset, workout split

Article Body:

Every now and then I catch myself stuck in the same routine and my workout starts to get a little boring.  I know this is starting to happen when it gets easy to miss my regular workout.  Recently, I noticed this had happened when I easily talked myself out of going to the gym for almost 2 weeks straight.  Obviously, something needed to change.  So here are a few ideas that I use from time to time just to spice up my workout.  Give them a try, and I’m sure you’ll find some new excitement to your workout as well.

Change your Grip!

This is a small change compared to most of the others you can do, but one way to spice up your workout from time to time is to change the way you’re gripping the bar when doing barbell or machine exercises.  One of my favorite grips is the palm grip.  In fact, I’ve read several articles from fitness trainers and other professional athletes that suggest that on exercises like the bench press, you should only be using a palm grip. 

So what is a palm grip?  Let’s use the bench press as an example for the palm grip.  Many of us have been guilty of using a standard grip on this exercise, myself included.  A standard grip would be where you wrap your hand around bar as if you were holding a baseball bat.  If you want a more effective bench press, try not wrapping your thumb around the bar.  You might think that you’ll lose some stability by doing this, but I’ve never had that problem.  You might have to bend your wrist a little more to compensate, or lower the weight just a little bit.  The main benefit to using a palm grip on this type of exercise is that by putting your thumb in this position, you are reducing the amount of effort that your forearms will put into the exercise.  Therefore, you chest and tricep muscles will have to work even harder to do the lift.  Try this, and I’m sure you’ll notice a difference the next time you perform a bench press.

Try Trisets!

You’ve probably heard of super sets, where you do two exercise consecutively without resting in between.  Have you ever tried doing three different exercises?  This works extremely well with bicep exercises.  The benefit to doing a triset with a bicep workout, is it allows you to hit the bicep really hard in three different ways.  Here’s an example of a bicep triset: standing barbell curls, hammer curls, reverse barbell curls.  You’ll also notice in this sequence that you have to change your grip with each set of the triset.  This is the best way to utilize a triset.  Here’s an example of a triset with triceps: straight bar cable push downs, rope cable push downs, reverse cable pushdowns.  Again, the key here is to change the grip on each exercise.  Give these a try, and I’m sure you’ll feel a new pump in whatever body part you utilize them with!

Change you Split!

Have you been following the same split routine for two long?  Has your split routine consisted of chest and triceps, back and biceps, or something similar for several months?  Try reversing your split or doing a 5 day split instead of a 3 day split.  Do chest and biceps, back and triceps just to mix it up a little.

These are just a few basic ideas, but its always a good idea to mix up your routine on a continual basis.  That way you can keep your body guessing and growing to adapt to the changes in stress that you place on your muscles.

dw � r e � 0� of exercisers per body part trying to target every muscle and hit every “angle”. This should only be a concern of someone with an already developed, mature physique who is trying to improve weak areas.

If you have no pec, don’t concern yourself with trying to target inner, outer, upper, lower or whatever. Just work your chest. You should do no more than 2-3 exercises per body part. That’s it. Doing more than that won’t build more muscle, faster. In fact it could possibly lead to muscle loss. Long training sessions cause catabolic hormone levels to rise dramatically. Catabolic hormones are responsible for breaking down muscle tissue resulting in MUSCLE LOSS. While at the same time, long training sessions suppress the hormones that actually build muscle.

If you don’t want to lose muscle during your workouts, I suggest limiting your sessions to no more than 60-75 minutes MAXIMUM. Less if you can.

11. Limit your aerobic activity and training

Honestly, I do not do any aerobic activity when I am trying to gain weight. This is mainly because it interferes with the important “non-active” time my body needs for muscle building and recovery. I do understand that people have lives and other activities that they don't want to give up, so it must be kept to a minimum. It won’t hurt your progress as long as you don’t over do it. If you find that you are doing more aerobic activity weight training, that’s overdoing it.

I also don’t recommend it because people tend do it for the wrong reasons. Many start aerobic activity because they believe it will help them to lose fat. While that is true, it won’t do so on a high calorie mass diet. To lose fat, you need to be eating fewer calories.

12. Don’t program hop

Here’s how it usually happens. You’ve just read about a new exercise or workout that is supposed to pack on the mass. Now, even though you had already started another training program a few weeks ago, you are tired of it and really want to start this routine instead because it sounds better.

I call these people, “program hoppers”. They are very enthusiastic when starting a new program, but they never follow it long enough to actually see any results. They are easily distracted and love to drop whatever they may be doing to follow the latest "hot" workout or exercise.

My advice is don’t do it. This is a bad habit that never leads to a positive outcome. Understand that it takes time for any program to work. To be successful, you must follow your program consistently. Yes, there are many different training methods and interesting routines out there, but you can’t do them all at the same time and jumping around won’t allow enough time for any of them to actually be effective for you. Pick one that is focused on your current goal and stick with it. There will be plenty of time to try the others later, but NOT NOW.

In Part 3 of this article, I will cover your eating rules and guidelines to MAKE SURE you know how AND what to eat to build muscle mass.