If you have been making it to the gym multiple times per week on a frequent basis, chances are you have already won half the battle. But if you have been going for weeks or months and are still doing the same routine each time (which I often come across when talking to friends who are exercising for general health) then your body has probably become adapted to this and you are no longer reaping the benefits of all the time you are putting in as much as you could be. Below are simple tips for progression that can help take you past a plateau.
Sets and Reps
Ah, yes, the easiest one to think about. Get rid of your classic “3x10” on every exercise. Seriously. Add a set to each exercise. Add a couple reps to the exercise each week or to the end of the last set. If you’re looking to increase your strength, move the rep range to something like 1-5. Looking for hypertrophy so that you can put on new muscle mass and increase size then look for reps of 10+. Lose the monotonous 3x10 though, whatever you do.
Load
This basically ties in with sets and reps. Decreasing your reps to 1-5 for strength will obviously need an increase in load to provide a meaningful training stimulus. Here is one way to progress the load: Say you are doing 5 sets of 3 repetitions on the bench press. The first set you use 140 pounds, then 145, then 150, then 155, then 160. Well if you use this same set/rep scheme for the second week on the bench press, aim to reach the weight you finished at the first week (in this case, 160) by the 3rd set and then go up in weight on the 4th/5th set.
Rest Periods
I feel as though this part is often forgotten about. Tell Jim to stop talking to you about his lawn so that you don’t suddenly have a 10-minute break between sets. Rest periods have a huge effect on recovery between sets and often need to be programmed for your training goal. A simple continuum from the NSCA textbook: If the outcome goal is strength/power rest should be 2-3 minutes, if the training goal is hypertrophy or muscular endurance look for 30 seconds to a minute and a half. I also suggest downloading the interval timer app. This helps you to know exactly how long your session will take. Say you do an exercise for 6 sets, then you could set a 3-minute timer and start each set at the beginning of the 3 minutes. If it took your 42 seconds to complete your reps, you would then get 2:18 rest before starting the next set.
Exercise Selection
Go from dumbbell to barbell. Change your grip from overhand to neutral. Change your stance on squats or deadlifts. Mix it up! You can target similar muscle groups but throw the body off the routine it’s used to with simple changes in exercises. Don’t let things become stale!
Frequency Add another day to your weekly routine. Try to have it focused around movements or physical qualities you didn’t already hit in the other sessions.
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