| Hey friends! Carly here from Inspire. For the next couple of weeks, I wanted to re-iterate some hard fitness truths that might make you a little bit uncomfortable. Now the goal here is not to be harsh, but to educate, and hopefully, INSPIRE you to approach your fitness and nutrition most effectively. Alright, here we go: Most people do not work out hard enough in the gym to make real progress As fitness professionals, we tell our clients that consistency is the most important aspect of fitness. Yes, that is true if you are wanting to be healthy and maintain a basic level of fitness. But in order to progress, you actually have to push yourself in your workouts. And let me be clear here – by progress, I am talking about getting stronger and building muscle, NOT weight loss. You have to push yourself harder each time. Or at least most of the time (yes we are all going to have off-days and that is totally fine and normal, but that’s not what I’m talking about here). I will be honest here. I see a lot of people grabbing the same sets of weights week after week, and while that is great for people who, again, want to be healthy and maintain a level of fitness, this is not ideal for people who want to build strength and muscle, because if you continue grabbing the same weights week after week, you will end up plateauing and potentially eventually losing some muscle, because you are no longer challenging it. The reason why we at Inspire do the same workouts week to week (for 4 weeks) is so you actually have the opportunity to progress, get better at the exercise, and build some muscle. If we changed the work up every week, you would always be at your starting place, strength wise, because you will continue to grab the same weights you used the last time you did that exercise, maybe 5 weeks ago. At Inspire, we currently use 4 week long programming, which is the most common programming cycle length (also known as a mesocycle). With this programming, you can truly get stronger, because you have already mastered an exercise at a certain rep range with a certain weight, so maybe now you try it again the next week with a higher weight. So what do I suggest? While of course safety is the highest priority for everyone, I don’t think most people are lifting to their true capacity, or even to a degree that will induce hypertrophy (muscle growth). Now I am not saying to lift so heavy to the point of risking injury — remember – losing that good form we work so hard to build a strong base of is a form of failure/”failing a set”. But the hard truth is if you don’t think you are getting pushed hard enough in your workouts, or you think the “sweat weeks” we do on our off weeks at Inspire are harder than our lifting weeks, it is because you are not lifting heavy enough during our regular programming. (Or maybe you stopped at 10 reps when you definitely could have done at least 15, but just “didn’t want to.” …Or maybe you aren’t working through a full range of motion in your exercises. …Or maybe you are going through your reps too quickly.. working out faster works the muscles LESS. Lift more slowly.) Drop sets are an amazingly effective method to build strength quickly and show you that you can lift heavier than you think you can. A drop set is when you pick a heavy weight, do as many as you can with it, fail the set, and then continue with a lighter weight, until you either finish the set or fail that as well. So maybe consider using this technique in the gym if you are looking to make some progress: pick up a weight one to two levels heavier than you think you can do for the prescribed reps, plus the weights you think you can lift at. Start with the heavy weight. You may surprise yourself with how many you actually can do. Let’s say you fail that exercise at something under 8 reps, maybe you got 4 reps. Now pick up the weights you initially intended to use and finish your set either to the reps or to failure. (Bonus: They will now feel super light!!) You will have now increased your strength and muscle gains because you lifted a higher volume than you initially intended. This is my absolute favorite and easiest way to get stronger, though it does require you to get a little bit uncomfortable in your workouts. But building strength and muscle does in fact require you to get a little bit uncomfortable. You truly have to push yourself to make those gains. Our members at Inspire will be starting a new program this next week, I’d really love to see everyone kick it up a notch and pushing themselves! You might even break a sweat. 😉 If you are not yet a member of Inspire, text us at 828-845-4953 and I will get you scheduled a consultation to meet with us and see the gym. We even offer a free 7 day trial! (We promise you will love it.) Also as always, feel free to reach out with any questions. Until next time, Carly Leasure, CPT, CNC, WLS |
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