Are you feeling a little complacent in your fitness journey and not seeing the results that you had perhaps hoped for? Training a couple of times a week alongside other physical activities may not be challenging you in the way that you had hoped it would. A lot of the time, you have to look at your activity from a different lens, switch it up, change the format, or do something as simple as adding more advanced resistance training exercises to your existing program to help boost your fitness.
Everyone responds differently to exercise; some need more volume while others need more intensity. Any changes the body makes will be specific to the stimuli you expose it to. In the fitness industry, this is described as the SAID principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand). The body adapts specifically to the stress you put it under. This principle is what we are trying to achieve with our training. If we want to boost our fitness to gain specific physical changes, i.e., stronger legs, then we need to impose a stress that will invoke the adaptation to gain the increased leg strength.
When we look at resistance training, it’s easy to just look at the exercises and try to implement them into your programming, but we should also take into consideration techniques such as tempo, supersets, drop sets, complex training, pyramids, pauses, and negatives. When we are lifting weights, our intent and both mind-muscle connection consciously thinking about the muscle being worked is absolutely key and is the first step in maximizing your training.
Here are my 10 tips to boost your fitness through advanced resistance training:
- Incorporate resistance training x3- x4 times a week to build strength and muscle mass. Your resistance program should be challenging; you can use bands, kettlebells, dumbbells, barbells, or even stationary machines.
- Increase the intensity of your workouts by adding exercises that you find challenging such as unilateral exercises, and work on adding more weight, reps, or sets as you become stronger.
- Focus on compound exercises that use several muscle groups collaboratively such as squats, deadlifts, push-ups, and pull-ups.
- Include cardiovascular exercises such as running, rowing cycling, swimming, skipping, boxing even power walking can help you stay active and improve your endurance and overall fitness level.
- Try high-intensity interval training (HIIT) alternating short periods of intense or explosive anaerobic exercise with short recovery periods to challenge your body and burn more calories in a shorter amount of time.
- Make sure to get enough (R&R) rest and recovery between workouts to allow your muscles to repair and grow.
- Stay consistent with your routine & workouts set specific, achievable goals to measure your progress.
- Do not ignore your nutrition, remember this is fuel your body needs in order to gain the best results to support your fitness goals.
- Stay hydrated and drink plenty of water before, during, and after your workouts.
- Everyone needs accountability work with a personal trainer to create a customized workout plan tailored to your specific fitness goals and needs.
