Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Change to get change



Many of us fall into routine on a weekly basis at the gym and this lack of change ends up being our downfall. About 99% of the population does chest on Mondays and many coin the term "Bench Mondays" since you can find almost every man alive hitting the bench. For many people the first couple days of the week are their best and most intense workouts and then as Thursday, Friday and Saturday come along their workouts drop off or become non-existent.

Below are some examples of problems you might have and the solutions to change those starting today!





Problem 1- You have no core or your core is generally weak


CHANGE- Start doing your core work at the beginning of your workouts. Almost all of us end our workout will 2 minutes of core work as we are rushing out of the gym and are minds are focused on whats ahead in the day. Make core a priority and do it right when you are fresh in the beginning.



Problem 2- Your incline bench press strength is lagging behind your flat press


CHANGE- Do not always do flat press first and then follow it up with incline. By making the incline press your second exercise every workout you will always be pre-fatigued and therefore not as strong on the lift. Flip things around at start the workout with incline presses first and watch your strength shoot up. This can be done for any lagging exercise.



Problem 3- You have shoulder/rotator cuff issues


CHANGE- Start doing rotator cuff exercises 2-3 times a week for at least 1-2 months and notice the improvement that will occur. If you follow that along with taking some time away from pressing movements your shoulder health will greatly improve as will your pressing strength.




Problem 4- Your legs don't grow like your upper body


CHANGE- This is a problem for most guys and I can say that I fall under this umbrella too. We often put so much intensity into our upper body workouts and then wuss out on our lower body workouts. Next time you do legs don't quit early, don't settle for less, push yourself just as hard if not harder than you do your upper body. Doing legs is more of a mental challenge than anything so stay focused and make it happen.

2 comments:

  1. What kind of rotator cuff exercises do you suggest?

    ReplyDelete
  2. External rotation exericses are best, try using youtube or google to see how to do these exercises. Also check out my blog post on cuban presses which will help as well.

    Hank-

    ReplyDelete