I am often asked what it takes to get results in the gym.  After asking the question people just stare.  They expect you to come up with some complex answer.  However, the answer is much simpler than people expect.  I have come up with 3 important points that will lead to success in the gym for anyone who listens—Focus, Intensity and Consistency.

What is Intensity?

Intensity in the context of working out can mean alot of things.  It can refer to the volume of your training or it can refer to how you train.  I am referring to how you train.  To me, intensity is taking sets to absolute failure.  It is about working harder every single time you hit the gym.  To me, progression won’t happen without intensity.

For maximum growth your muscles need maximum stimulation.  A high level of intensity while working out will bring about that maximum stimulation. 

How to Boost Intensity

You can do several things to boost the intensity of your workouts.

Shorten the Rest Period

If you shorten the rest period the lifts become harder.  You have to dig down deeper to complete your repetitions.  Your muscles are pushed beyond their normal failure point.  Your heart races as your body struggles to adapt to the stress placed upon it.

Increase the Repetition Target

If you do more repetitions you will find that the intensity of your workout goes up naturally.  A 20 rep squat scheme is much more intense in alot of ways.  The hard work will pay off in the long run.

Increase the Weigh Lifted

If you up the weight you are pushing you will find that intensity increases as well.  It is not easy to push around heavy weights.  The extra load will stress your muscles out more than anything you’ve ever experienced.

How Intensity Determines Success

Nobody achieves amazing results by phoning in their workouts.  Nobody achieves amazing results by taking things easy.  Only through massive effort will you bring about massive results.  This is where intensity comes into play.  Intensity will cause you to push yourself to the edge.  Intensity will take you beyond.   Beyond is where you want to be.  Beyond is that place just past the discomfort you experience when lifting heavy.  Beyond is where you think you will never arrive.

This one single element will change your results more than anything else.  Most people that hit the gym don’t do so with intensity.  They fail to understand this concept.  They go in the gym with a plan (if they are smart) and plan to hit 10 repetitions on their bench press.  They attempt to estimate what weight they will need to hit 10 reps on the bench press and then proceed to crank out 10 reps, stopping after the 10th rep.  Honestly, should they have stopped at 10 if there was more in the tank?  My message to you is that they should have gone all the way.  Yes, the plan called for 10 reps, but the body called for more so they should have done more.

Stop thinking about it and start doing something about it.  Get into the gym and increase your intensity.  Be warned that just like everything else, you will eventually adapt to the level of intensity you are using, so you will need to increase it after a time.  Keep upping the intensity and you will keep seeing incredible results!

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I am often asked what it takes to get results in the gym.  After asking the question people just stare.  They expect you to come up with some complex answer.  However, the answer is much simpler than people expect.  I have come up with 3 important points that will lead to success in the gym for anyone who listens—Focus, Intensity and Consistency.

What is Focus?

Anything worth doing is worth doing right.  When it comes to something like fitness, something that is not an overnight endeavour, you need to do some careful planning.  You get out of it what you put into it.  The more time and effort you give to planning for your success the better you will do.  This is what focus is all about.  You create a plan and then you work the plan.  You don’t let anything distract you from the plan.

Nutritional Planning

Tom Venuto, author of The Body Fat Solution has stated that counting calories is essential to the success of any nutritional program.  I hear you all groaning at once!  Nobody likes to count calories.  It is time-consuming and dull.  You have to write down everything you eat and track the calories from that food.  It gets pretty complicated.  But does it have to be so complicated?

Planning in Advance – The Secret to Calorie Counting

The best way to count your calories is to create a menu and then stick to it.  What I do is sit down on Saturday and plan the next week’s meals.  I then do my absolute best to stick to that menu for the entire week.  In doing so, I am able to count my calories as I plan the menu.  I don’t have to track everything I eat.  I don’t have to carry around a log with me.  All I do is plan and eat.  If something happens to change in my menu, I just go back and add that little change and recalculate the calories.  It is alot less stressful this way and it helps me insure I am eating enough, but not too much.

Exercise Planning

It is extremely important to be focused with your training.  Take the time to plan your workouts well in advance.  Carry a log into the gym and write down everything you do.  You are collecting some very important information that will help you with the Experiment of One at a later date.  If you are unsure what the Experiment of One is, please sign up for the Fitness Expose eNewsletter and free Fitness Basics eCourse.  You will learn some valuable information that will help you with your exercise planning.  Some of the topics covered are where to start, the Experiment of One, repetition inroad, and High Intensity Training.  It is completely free when you sign up for our mailing list.  We never sell your information to anyone ever.

Make Changes

Use your log and make changes as necessary.  Maintain an intense focus in the gym and you will get intense results.  Take measurements regularly to assist you in determining how you are doing with your planning.  Don’t let your results get you down.   We produce results 100% of the time.  Sometimes those results are what we want and other times they are not. Either way, use the feedback you get to fix anything that is wrong with your plan.

Stay Tuned

My next article will discuss the role of intensity in achieving your success.

Related Posts:

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I was just reviewing my email and found a great article from Tom Venuto on the importance of form.  Reading this article got me thinking about how many different things I’ve read about form and how this article applies to what I’ve read.  I am going to take Tom’s 6 techniques for using better form and expand on them here.

1.  Eliminate extraneous body movement and momentum

There used to be an older guy at my gym who would do his bicep barbell curls in the power rack.  He would put the pins at his knee level and load up the bar.  He would curl like a monster.  Everyone in the gym was extremely impressed with how much he could “curl” except me.  I was watching his form and was amazed that he didn’t throw out his back.  Every rep involved rocking back and forth inside the power rack to get the bar up.  He would barely keep the bar at the top of the movement before dropping it (literally) down to his thighs.  Was he working his biceps or his back?  In Tom’s article he gives you a test to see how much you can really curl.  He tells you to “stand against a post with your heels, butt, and upper back all touching the post. Now see how much you can curl without losing contact with the post. Don’t be surprised if those 45lb plates get reduced to 25s or even 10s!” 

This is so true!  In my current routine I am doing something called wall curls.  This article I found on eHow explains how to do wall curls properly.  When I first did this routine I felt like crying every single time I had to do my biceps.  The pain was incredible and hit me very early in the set (3-4 repetitions).  I couldn’t believe how hard it was to curl small 20 lb. dumbbells using correct wall curl form.  The reason it is so hard is that the wall eliminates the extraneous body movement and momentum.

One caveat I will now add to all of this—biomechanically correct form is the true form you should use.  The Experiment of One tells us that everyone is different and it applies to lifting technique as well.  It is natural to have your shoulders get pulled a little bit forward during a curl, so don’t fight it too much.  What you want to avoid is using momentum to get the weight up.

2.  Think “Squeeze” and “Contract”

I recently relearned how to do bent over rows and the results have been amazing.  I was taught that a little upward movement (natural upward movement that is) is fine as long as you lead off the movement with contracting (squeezing) your shoulder blades together.  I found that much lighter weight fatigued my muscles than previously possible.  It is the same with the lat pulldown movement.  You have to let the weight stack pull your muscles to full extension before starting the downward contraction movement.  It hurts, but it is the most effective way to see growth.

3.  Leave your ego at the door

I loved this quotation in Tom Venuto’s article from Australian strength coach, Ian King:  “I would say that most load selection in strength training is based upon what impact it will have on those watching, not what impact it will have on the body. If you were more serious about your body than your short-term ego, you would take off 75% of the load and perform the movement in a manner that had some lasting impact on your body!”

I learned this when returning to weight training after my back surgery 4 years ago.  I quickly learned that using correct form was far more important than being macho.  It all started to make sense to me when I read that consistency was the best way to see gains at the gym.  I remember thinking “If I get injured I can’t be very consistent, can I?”  It was about that time that I read a quotation from Charles Poliquin (also quoted in Tom Venuto’s article), “ Successful bodybuilders feel the muscle not the weight.”

Lifting heavy is something I advocate, but it is important to remember that lifting heavy is defined as lifting as much weight as you can handle with proper form.

4.  Always think “more tension”

Time under tension is another principle that I learned a long time ago that is repeated in Tom Venuto’s article.  One thing Tom mentions is avoiding lockout and it is something I am going to consciously put to the test in my next upper body workout.  Tom said “[t]he next time you do biceps or shoulders, try a few sets of barbell curls and dumbbell lateral raises with no pause whatsoever. Do not stop moving until the set is finished. You will be forced to reduce your weight substantially, but remember, form is more important than weight. The combination of continuous motion with not locking out will give you a killer workout you won’t forget!”  Check out my accountability blog in a few days to find out how this experiment goes.

5.  Use a slower negative (eccentric movement)

My mentor, Carlos DeJesus, taught me that slow repetitions generate great intensity and great intensity generates intense muscular growth.  When I first tried the Full Body Slam (as Carlos calls it) I did so with 3 seconds up and 3 seconds down repetitions.  It blew my mind how hard the workout was.  I have actually tried the 1 minute chin up Tom mentions and found it to be brutal.  Most people don’t have the ability to stick it out because of the extreme intensity.  Slow things down and you will see growth.

6.  Use a slower positive (concentric) movement

I generally combine this advice with number 5 above.  It works to keep the muscle under tension during the entire movement.  It really is quite incredible.  I have even read some people describe the “perfect repetition” as a very slow, controlled, time under tension repetition.  I can personally attest to the fact that this type of movement definitely works.

Conclusion

If you want to see changes in your body, pay attention to your form.  Lift correctly and at all times.  Not only will you be working harder with less weight, you will be avoiding injury at the same time.  I’m going to really focus on this in the coming weeks.  Visit my accountability blog for more on how this works for me.

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