Is It Time To Shake Up Your Training Program?

There are dozens of ways to prevent stagnation, plateaus and just plain boredom from setting in. Keeping the body guessing is the key to being sure that your body continues to progress. Typically, we make our greatest strength gains the first 1½ to 2 years. I mean, where it seems like you are going up in weight almost every week. You feel like you're simply amazing, and then it starts to slow down. Before long you may find yourself working with the same weight for a couple of months, even longer. That is perfectly fine and well and good. Maintenance is a wonderful place to be as well. You feel energetic; have excellent health and all the physical strength you find you require in your everyday life ... this is a great place to have arrived. The truth is, though, that there really is no limit to how strong, energetic and healthy you can become. Look at my hero, Jack LaLaine. This man is in his 80s and can literally do hundreds of pushups at a time, not to mention pull-ups and abdominal exercises ... he's awesome. So, if you find yourself feeling sort of stuck, here is one of my favorite solutions.

Whatever weights you have been working with, cut them in half and go for depth and slow-mo. This accomplishes a couple of really good things. First, it gives the tendons and ligaments direct stimulation, asking them to grow thicker. Usually, as we increase weight, we begin to reduce our range of motion. It may be in very small, almost imperceptible amounts at first. It has been my experience, though, that over time, if you are not careful, the range significantly diminishes. The main reason for that is ego. We simply hate to admit that we aren't able to go into a full-range movement with that much weight. The real risk in that is, should you go full range, the tendons and ligaments would probably become strained due their not being up to speed with the muscle that they are serving. Hence, the main injury after age 40 is tendonitis. Secondly, when you slow down and take all the momentum out of the movement, you call on all the weak sisters. In other words, as you perform an exercise at a normal rate of speed, there is enough momentum that the weaker muscle fibers really are not utilized. The stronger fibers simply do all the work. Warning ... you may find yourself rather sore after a slow-mo for this very reason. The definition of a slow-mo is anywhere from 8-20 counts on both the eccentric (contraction) phase and on the concentric (extension) phase of the exercise.

This, to me, is a very effective technique for breathing some new growth into your program. Due to the speed at which you are moving through these exercises, I recommend selecting two major body parts at a time. Plan to perform 6-10 sets per part. Remember, it is never about a number in terms of reps; it is all about reaching failure or fatigue. It may take you the better part of two weeks to complete a full-body workout, depending on how often you train ... that's okay. Reach that fatigue on each set, and you will see a very nice increase in your strength over the next couple of weeks ... there is no doubt. Click on Fitness Tips for more information.

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