Don't Get Like Stael Bread In Your Training by Lindsey McFerran

What's up fellow blog readers?
Sorry for not writing soon, but I have been a little under the weather, but I am back to it. Now that it is spring and contest time is quickly approaching, I got a little spring in my step.

Hope training is going well For ALL. For all my fellow friends and competitors prepping for Vancouver and then the Mack Daddy E-Cup, you are in the HOMESTRETCH. So stay tight on your cardio and diet, this is not time for slip ups, even if you think it is not gonna hurt ya. Because it is!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, enough said about that. So today I am going to talk about keeping your training fresh in order to prevent the dreaded plateaus, as well as BOREDOM. Because let's face it, you see those people in the gym day in and day out that do the exact same routine. If I was doing that, I would get soooo bored that it would make me not want to wake my ass up to get to the gym.

So if you are a newbie to training, it will take a lot longer for your body to adapt to a certain routine. So this might not be the best blog for you, but keep it on file and in a year or two, it will provide you with some valuable insight. TRUST ME ON THIS ONE.

Ok for you intermediates and advances, in order for your body to be constantly growing, developing, and most importantly obtaining a DRUM ROLL PLEASE......

TRAINING EFFECT, you need to be switching up your workouts constantly. You can change up sooo many variables. Bu just changing one variable you can change your workout completely. So I am going to give you some variable that you can manipulate like a match problem to prevent stagnation like a glacier in your workouts.

Here are some: You know you love the bullet points (easy for us muscle heads)

* Rep Range-
There are tons of different rep ranges. I know all the "experts" say to build muscle you need to stay within the 8 to 10 range. But that can get boring if you ask me. So what do I do? I am constantly changing up my rep range from workout to workout. Or even during the workout. I might start off trying to hit 15, but then I might move onto 20 or down to 10 depending on how my muscles are feeling. Then sometimes when I am nearing the end of the workout, I might try some high rep stuff of 40, 50, or even 100 reps. By utilizing different rep ranges, you can workout the muscles in a totally different fashion. Of course, you will not be able to push as much weight doing 50 reps as 10 reps, but you will have to concentrate more on form. But more importantly, utilizing different rep ranges is just another way to create a drum roll please.... TRAINING EFFECT.

* Lifting Tempo
Sometimes I don't think people think about lifting tempo, instead they are too busy thinking about doing their workout at a tempo just to get it over with. But it is just another variable that can cause a training effect. Think about it if you lift at the same tempo all the time, then your muscles will get use to it. So if you are doing dumbell chest presses and lifting super fast, then your muscles are getting use to that motion. But if you change the tempo and start lifting super slow, then Ladies and Gentleman, you will get muscle contraction and nipples poppin to no end. Just trust me on this one. By slowing down your tempo, you can get a lot more contraction from the muscles. Plus is also FORCES you to focus on working the muscle. SO try it out and tell me how you feel.

* Add some Body Weight exercises
Don't underestimate the power of body weight exercises. They can be great finishers and in my opinion a good pain in the ass at the end of a hard workout. Plus, you don't need any weight for them because trust me, you will not need it. Some good body weight exercises for Chest and Legs.
Chest: Push ups- But you can put a lot of variety on push ups, you can manipulate the grip length. You can put your feet on the bench and make them incline push ups. You can pause on the bottom, then bring yourself back up. The possibilities are endless, you just need to be creative.

Legs: The MACK DADDY and one of my staples in my leg workouts is WALL SITS. These babies are brutal. You can also change it up by changing how wide you stance is, you can play around with the length of time you site on the wall for, you can even do wall sits with one leg, and these ones are a challenge.
*Then you can always do some ABS with your own body in between sets to create more of a BURN......

* Other intensity techniques
OK Ladies and Gentlemen, you can also incorporate some intensity techniques in order to create a training effect as well. Some of my personal favorites include SUPER SETTING, which is you do one set of one exercise, then immediately hop into another set of a different exercise WITHOUT ANY REST IN BETWEEN. This can help work your muscles longer and harder. Another one of my favorites is drop sets or also known as running the rack. Basically lets say for leg extensions you start doing 10 reps for 100lbs, then you drop down and do 10 reps for 90lbs, then 10 reps for 80lbs, until your legs are screaming in pain. That is another way to keep your training interesting. Also you can incorporate different rep ranges into these as well. You can do ascending and descending sets. If you don't know what that means, browse through the glossary terms on www.bodybuilding.com to get a better feel.

My main point is the possibilites for what you can do with weight training are endless. YOu should not be stuck in the same boring routines. I ahve been lifting since I was in high school and I feel I ahve not even scratched the surface of what is out tehre to do. There are sooo many different exercises and variations that the possiblites are LIMITLESS>

So don't get like Stale Bread in Your Training, incorporate and manipulate some of these variations and you will never get bored in the gym. If you need more ideas, shoot me an email and I can give you more stuff to play around with to get those nipples poppin again.

AYO AYO AYO Ladies and Gentleman. Keep training hard and your eye on the prize.