A Weight training routine is an important part of your strength training and in fact your overall fitness regimen.
When we get started with our workouts we have one training routine and that is to make sure that we are working every muscle group for 8-12 reps for three sets.
Usually the training routine does not change for a long time and eventually we may get tired of it and skip a couple and next thing we know we are not doing any training at all.
Well I am hoping to change that here. You can have many different types of training routine and I have found that one of the important things to do with your muscles is to not overtrain them and to alter your training routine as much as possible.
I am going to give you lots of choices for changing up your training routine and make in sure that it works for you and makes you stick with it by avoiding boredom and overtraining.
Altering Weights in a Weight Training Routine
To alter the weight you just need to alter your reps. If you use 50 pounds for some exercises then change it up by adding and going to 60 pounds for less reps or by reducing to 40 pounds and doing more reps. This is really good for confusing your muscles. I have actually taken this to the extreme for complex exercises like bench press or lat pulldowns.
I have gone as hi as 50 or 100 reps for a set. An extreme the other way is to go for max lifts doing just 3 reps for each set and really pushing for that last rep with everything you’ve got.
Changing pace of reps in Your Weight Training Routine
You can change the pace of your reps and make your reps go slower or more quickly. Remember that you want to make sure that you are stressing the right muscles for your sets so do not go too quickly or you will mess up your set by cheating and using leverage of stronger muscles or whipping weights around.
If you do want to try this also try using negatives. Negatives are when you take longer in the dropping part of the rep, so going down on bench, curls or military press, or when letting the up on your lat pulldowns or tricep extensions.
Overtraining one weight workout
Although we avoid overtraining every now and then it feels great to get one muscle group and take it to the max.
You can do what they say in Muscle and Fitness for a single muscle group for one workout, although it would be the only workout for the week for that muscle group. For chest you could do four sets of bench, flyes, cable crossovers, and even cross bench pullovers.
How many sets for your weight training routine?
I try to keep my sets around 3-5 for each muscle group on a regular day but why not kick the crap out of them once in a while. You will be really sore later but by the next week your muscles will be healed again.
Do not try doing this for more than one muscle group in any given week as the amount of recovery needed may be more than your body can really handle.
You can see here that a training routine can vary according to your own schedule to keep them interesting and to avoid muscle confusion.
None of these strategies is for everyone at all times but try making some changes every now and then and more so make some kind of change every week just to keep muscle confusion up and to keep your muscles and mind guessing as to what they will get hit with in your next workout
I find that no matter how often that you workout or how long you have been training that it is very important for you to always alter your training routine.
For the past 3 months I have been switching up my routine doing 4 sets of 8 reps the first month, 4 sets of 4 reps the second month working to roughly 90% of my 1RM and doing prymid sets the third month. I have found vast improvements in both strengh and size compaired to previous training programs of repeated routines and would recomend the same to anyone, both beginners and experienced lifters.
Good post. I’ve been focusing on pyramid sets the past few weeks. The goal is to slightly increase the for each set of a particular exercise you complete. Beginners should aim for 3 sets per exercise, while the more advanced may want to include 4-5 sets per. Keep in mind if you are completing 4-5 sets per exercise you need to reduce the number of exercises to avoid overtraining. Gotta keep switching up the routine!
Nice I’ll try it out. And I agree with Aaron up there: periodization is important for sure!
Good tips!
Two other great methods for avoiding over-training are periodization, and active recovery. One week of active recovery should always be incorporated into a training routine, with the frequency determined by the ultimate training goal.
These two methods are also great for avoiding staleness and boredom, critical for keeping enthusiasm for high.
good one 🙂 i will try them out 😛