3 Signs You're Sabotaging Your Training Program

When people ask me what I do (I hate that question) and I tell them I'm a fitness coach, their response is usually full of questions they've wanted answers to for such a long time. Some of the most common questions are:

"What is the best diet for fat loss?"

"What should I eat to build more muscle?"

"What supplements should I be taking?"

The list goes on and on.

Although I get questions regarding nearly every aspect of health and fitness, there is one area of fitness that I feel is extremely overlooked, and that area is training programs, or programming. There is a lot of thought that goes into nutrition, diets, and supplements, but not nearly enough when it comes to programming.

What I'd like to do today is go through three signs that you're sabotaging your training in order to give you an opportunity to reflect on your training program and figure out what you need to change.

Let's do this.

SIGN #1: NOT ENOUGH FREQUENCY

Adding frequency to your training routine is hands down one of the best things you can do to increase your strength, build muscle, and lose fat.

Here's why:

The reason we lift weights is to increase protein synthesis. Increased protein synthesis puts our body in an anabolic state, creating an environment where building muscle and losing body fat is much easier.

A majority of the natural population (people that don't use performance enhancing drugs) have protein synthesis that stays elevated for about 48-72 hours after a resistance training session. Once protein synthesis drops it goes all the way back down to baseline, if not, lower.  Because of this, it is best for most of us to train muscle groups more than once per week.

Those that are using performance enhancing drugs can have their protein synthesis stay elevated for far longer. Therefore, they can only train each muscle group once per week without having to worry about protein synthesis dropping.

Since most of these people are jacked and lean, we often go to them for training ideas. And that's where things go wrong.

Just because something works for someone else, that doesn't mean it works for you.

If you are a natural that wants to build muscle and/or burn fat, it is best for you to train body parts multiple times per week. It will be far more beneficial for you to have 3 full body workouts per week, than to train chest on Monday and wait a whole week to come back to it. Not only does this allow you to keep your protein synthesis elevated longer, but it also allows you to spread your volume out throughout the week, which has been shown to improve results. Whatever you're doing, take your volume and spread it out throughout the week.

Let's say you normally have 20 sets when you train your chest. Studies have shown that you will see more results from spreading those 2o sets throughout the week, than to do it all in one day. This obviously changes a lot based on how advanced you are, but here's the takeaway: Increase your training frequency by taking your current volume and spreading it throughout the week.

And with that, we move to number two.

SIGN #2: NO PROGRESSION IN TRAINING VOLUME

Based on all the studies we have available to us, we know that increases to training volume cause our bodies to change and improve.

Training volume is total poundage based on this simple equation: weights x sets x reps = total volume.

Therefore, there are many ways you can increase your training volume. You can increase the amount of weight you lift, the amount of sets you do, the amount of reps you do, or all of the above.

When thinking of how your body changes and adapts, think of a really steep and tall staircase. Imagine a staircase of walls, so to speak. Climbing up the wall in order to get to the flat platform represents your body changing and being challenged by a new stimulus (more volume). When you finally reach the top of the wall and get to the flat platform, your body has adapted, and it's ready for a new change. You can introduce a new change by adding weight, sets, or reps, whatever is best based on what you've been doing. When I say "best", what I mean is finding the sweet spot between having a challenging amount of volume and frequency in your routine, but still having the time and ability to recover for the next workout.

The easiest way to add volume and create an environment where your body must change is by adding sets or reps. If you're challenging yourself properly, changing reps and sets should cause you to naturally adjust your weight properly. Most studies tell us that our bodies take 2-4 weeks to adapt to a new stimulus. Therefore, adding sets, reps, or both every 4 weeks or so would be extremely beneficial.

I'll give you a quick example.

Right now, I'm currently performing 3-5 sets of 3-6 reps on my strength days, and 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps on my muscle building days. The next time I need to add volume to my training routine, I'll add a set to my strength days, and bump my rep range to 10-12 reps on muscle building days. Both of those additions will increase my overall weekly volume, causing my body to change in a positive way.

At this point, you know that training frequency and volume are two of the most important things to manipulate in order to see results. Increasing your training volume and spreading that increase in volume throughout the week will spark a great change, but what if you don't even know what you're currently doing?

SIGN #3: YOU'RE NOT TRACKING

Everyone knows about tracking food intake, but no one seems to care about tracking a training program. Tracking your weights, sets, and reps is just as important as tracking your protein, carbs, and fats.

Based on what you've read up to this point, you know that increasing your training volume and spreading it out throughout the week with more frequency is one of the best things you can do for your goals. But, how good is that information if you don't know what you're currently doing?

Just like most things in health and fitness, figuring out the best way to track your programming and make proper adjustments will take some trial and error.

There are a few pieces of advice I can give when it comes to tracking your training.

First off, start somewhere. I'm guessing you have some sort of usual rhythm or routine you're in. Start with what you know, and take notes. Whether it's on your phone, in your notebook, or through your online coach, record your usual workouts. Write down your exercises, how may sets you do, how many reps you do in each set, and how much weight you use for those reps. From there, figure out where you'd like to add volume based on your goals.

Second, identify your weak points. Weak points can be areas of your body that are underdeveloped, as well as movements that are not utilized enough. Let's say you have shoulders that are rolled forward from your desk job. Adding volume to your back muscles can help you improve your posture by awakening and strengthening those muscle fibers. Maybe you have a strong squat but your bench is weak. Increase your volume and frequency by practicing your bench press three times per week as opposed to once per week. There are so many things you can do to change your body, and identifying weak points is a great start.

Third, have a vision. Does your dream body need more bicep and tricep work in order to make your arms stand out? Do you dream of having a 400-pound squat? Well, it's time to create a path for that to happen by adding volume and increasing frequency in your training routine. Tracking and adjusting your training program is great, but it's potential isn't fully utilized until you have a vision of what you want to achieve.

Whatever changes you make to your routine, track them. Take notes and make observations on how your body changes. You'll learn more about your body than you ever have before, and you'll save yourself years of fooling around because you took some time to figure out what causes your body to make the change you desire.

THE TAKEAWAY

There are three signs that will tell you you're sabotaging your training, and three solutions to make sure you're headed in the right direction.

Sign #1: Not Enough Frequency - You're training everything once per week.

Solution #1: Improve your results by training body parts and movements multiple times per week.

Sign #2: No Progression in Training Volume - You've been doing the same amount of volume for over 4 weeks

Solution #2: Once you begin to see your body adapt to the routine you've been doing, add some volume by increasing weights, sets, and reps. Switch up some exercises if you'd like.

Sign#3: No Tracking - You're not tracking your workouts

Solution #3: Track your workouts, and identify what changes lead to the best results. Learn more about your body and what's best for you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life. If you’re interested in hiring Adam as your coach, fill out an application here.

3 Signs You're Sabotaging Your Training

Have you noticed that we idolize nutrition?

We think it's the end all be all. We pretend that it's the only thing that matters when it comes to reaching all of our health and fitness goals. Don't get me wrong, nutrition is extremely important, but because we've put nutrition on such a high pedestal, we've completely forgotten about the importance of proper training.

Don't believe me?

How many times have you heard this: Abs are made in the kitchen.

Fun fact, they're not made in the kitchen. Abs are made in the gym, but because we've assumed a great physique is only made in the kitchen, we've made training an afterthought that is unworthy of our undivided attention.

Let's fix that.

In this article, I've outlined and discussed in detail THREE signs that you're sabotaging your goals, by underestimating the importance of your training.

Let's do this.

SIGN #1: YOU'RE MOVING WEIGHTS, BUT NOT THE RIGHT WAY

Whether your goal is fat loss or muscle building, resistance training should ALWAYS be a staple in your workouts. In fact, it is the thing that you should give all of your time and attention to. Forget the rowers, bikes, stairmasters, and treadmills. You need to put all of your focus on your weight training.

Unfortunately, there are some that do prioritize resistance training, but they don't do it properly.

The reason we do resistance training is because it sends a signal to our body that we need to build strength and muscle. However, that signal only comes when a certain stimulus is applied to the body. Just because you have weights in your hand doesn't mean you're performing resistance training.

Change happens when your body is challenged and instructed to build muscle and gain strength to adapt to the stimulus it's given. The signal that your body gets from using 10 pounds for 10 reps is NOT the same as the signal that your body gets from using 50 pounds for 10 reps. We all tend to get far too focused on the amount of reps we're doing, and we complete forget that the reason we're in the gym is to challenge the abilities of our body (especially our strength). The reason we lift is to FORCE our body to change and grow. We must put the body in a situation where it has no choice but to grow, adapt, and change.

When you're training, do you focus on completing the amount of reps assigned, or do you focus on pushing your body's strength? Turns out, you can push your body's strength by using a certain amount weight for a certain amount of reps as long as the weight is challenging enough.

Repetitions are not magic numbers. It's all about the tension and stress we apply in order to tell our body to change and improve. We simply use repetitions as a tool to measure the time we apply tension to our muscles.

When you're training in the gym, think about how hard you're working. Are you pushing your tank a couple reps shy of empty, or are you just coasting with light weights just to say you did 10 reps?

Use this scale to help you.

SIGN #2: YOUR INTENTION IS POO POO

This ties in with sign number one.

I overheard a conversation the other day between a trainer and a potential client. They just got done going through a free workout, and the trainer was talking to the member about a game plan to help them get to their goals. After the trainer walked them through their ideas, the member said something that I thought was very interesting.

"That sounds nice and all, but what workout can I do to get in, get the workout over with, and get out as fast as possible?"

Thankfully, the trainer to some extra time to explain exactly why that would not be beneficial for them.

You see, those that don't see change in their health and fitness usually think in one of two ways. The first way is the "Get In and Get Out" mindset.

This person squeezes their workout in to their schedule, rather than blocking time out of their schedule to lift some weights. The two are completely different. This person does a workout just to check it off the list. It doesn't matter what weights they used, how long they rested, how good their form was, all that matters is that they got it done and could say "check" as they looked at their to-do list. This person treats training as a chore. As a result, this person does half-assed workouts and doesn't see consistent change over a long period of time.

The second way is the "Sweaty and Sore" mindset.

This person treats their workout as an absolute punishment. The workout doesn't count if they didn't drench their shirt in sweat. The workout doesn't count and wasn't good enough if they're not painfully sore the next day. This person tries to run their body completely into the ground every time they set foot in the gym.

The problem with both of these examples is that the reason for resistance training isn't behind their intention when they train.

After being in the fitness industry for years, I can tell you one thing is consistent and true. The people that easily make positive changes to their health and body time and time again are those that understand why they're going to the gym, and that "why" is behind their intention. They train to improve one thing that day, and then build from there. They train to test their body's limits in a safe and mechanically sound manner. They take proper rest between sets. They challenge themselves to get out of their comfort zone in some way each and every day. They seek to improve just a bit in every single workout. As they do those things, they learn to enjoy the process.

Those that succeed don't treat their workout as an opportunity to sweat and get sore. They don't treat it as something that needs to get checked off the list. Rather, they treat their workout as an important piece of the puzzle that will help them build and shape their dream body.

When you're in the gym doing your workout, are you thinking about how much time you have left? Are you thinking about how fast you can get to the next exercise? Or, are you thinking about one set, the set that is just ahead of you, and what you can do to improve in that one set?

Be intentional.

SIGN #3 YOUR WARM-UP IS ALSO POO POO

Sign number three also ties in with sign number two. I'm just over here tying everything together. Crazy how things workout sometimes.

Yes, warming up is a part of your intention. Ask yourself what warming up means to you. I bet that if you compare your answer to your goals, it seems silly to be warming up that way. I'm guessing most of your goals are either burn fat, build muscle, or both, and you probably said the reason you warm up is to get your heart rate up and sweat a bit before you train.

Well, that makes no sense, right?

Remember how I said that your priority should always be resistance training, no matter what your goal is? Well, maybe that means your warm up should be something that helps you perform your weight training a bit better. There are some different things that can allow you to do that, but I'll go through the two most important in my opinion.

The first is activation. Next time you're in the gym, watch someone do a row of some sort. My guess is that their shoulder blades are rolled forward and their shoulder blades are not retracting/squeezing together. I bet their arms are doing 99% of the work. Take a look next time and make observations.

Situations like that are unfortunate, because it defeats the whole purpose of the exercise. The purpose of a row is to work your upper and mid back muscles. This can't be done if your shoulder blades are rolled forward and not retracting. So, taking time before your workout to activate the muscles back there and make sure they're working will make a MASSIVE difference in your workouts and results.

Not only are most people's backs inactive, but so are their glutes. This happens from countless hours in a desk day after day. Those muscles basically go to sleep and are never used properly during a workout. This is why most people feel squats in their quads, and nothing in their glutes. For those people in this situation, doing a few sets of glute bridges and squeezing for a couple seconds at the top will allow them to activate and use the proper muscles (their sweet cheeks) during a movement, leading to more effective workouts and greater results.

The next important step to better workouts is mobility. The more mobility and stability you have in a movement, the more room there is to improve. I'll be the example for this one.

In college, our strength coach would have me squat a broomsitck every single day to practice, because I simply couldn't squat. My hips were stiff, and so were my ankles. Because of this, getting my thighs to parallel seemed harder than trying to throw a fastball 100 miles per hour. Thankfully, my coach gave me a mobility routine to do before each lifting session with the team. I'd come 15 minutes early each day, and work on my hips and ankles. Id improve my range of motion and stability in a squat by hooking a band to an anchor, resting the band around my waist, and sitting in a low squat. While sitting in the low squat, i'd do some isometric tension holds to increase stability and control in that new range of motion. I'd also do a combat stretch, working on improving the range of motion in my ankle. I'd practice bringing my knee forward without letting my heel leave the ground. Once I reached my max, i'd pull my toes up as hard as I could to create stability and control in that new range of motion. I'd do this over and over and over before every single session. Over time, my squats improved a ton, and I was able to create more strength in a greater range of motion. Because of that, my squat strength has continually progressed, and my legs have grown during each phase of my programming.

Are you able to perform a movement in a full range of motion with complete stability and control? If not, take the time to work on your mobility before and after your training session.

Get your body ready to perform the best it can during your workout.

THE TAKEAWAYS

#1: Push yourself with your weights. Use the RPE scale to gauge whether or not you're pushing your body to change for the better.

#2: Be intentional. Get your mind right. Go to the gym with a plan to make one small improvement, and build from there. Sweaty and sore is not the goal, and working out is not a chore. It is a process that is meant to be enjoyed.

#3. Activate. Don't just warm up, but prepare your body to perform the best it possibly can depending on what kind of workout you have ahead of you.

BONUS: Still not quite sure what you can be doing to make your workouts better? Let's talk. I'm here to help however I can.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life. If you’re interested in hiring Adam as your coach, fill out an application here.

5 Tips for Easier Fat Loss

Do a Google search for "how to lose fat." I dare you.

You will find thousands upon thousands of different sources, with tons of different answers. If you took the time to compare and contrast all of those different answers, you'd find tons of similarities, and tons of differences. The problem is...

Since you have other important things to do, I'd like to make your life a bit easier. Below is a list of 5 things you should be doing to lose fat easier. If you turn these items into habits, the fat will stay off easier, too.

LIFT WEIGHTS

Lifting weights is going to be one of the best things you can do for your health and fitness no matter what your goal is. I don't care if your goal is fat loss, muscle building, or getting out of your car without groaning. You should be lifting weights.

When we introduce something to our body, it sends a signal telling our body to adapt. If you perform endurance running, your body will receive a signal telling it to adapt by improving its energy efficiency (your metabolism will slow down). If you perform mobility and stretching consistently, your body will receive a signal telling it to adapt my improving the muscles' ability to lengthen and create stability in those lengthened positions. The same concept applies for resistance training. When you lift weights, you send a signal to your body telling it to gain strength and build muscle. As a result, you will become stronger, and carry more lean tissue. This is beneficial for fat loss for one major reason. Resistance training promotes a faster metabolism, as well as muscle building. Muscle takes a lot of energy to maintain, so your metabolism will increase as a result of your increased muscle mass as well. In short, you'll build a fast metabolism, and as you know, fat loss is much easier with a faster metabolism.

Before I move on, I want to clarify something. When I say building muscle, I specifically mean adding ANY amount of lean muscle to your body. This applies for women wanting to increase tone and definition, as well as men wanting to get jacked. Any sort of increase in lean tissue (even if it's a small increase) will lead to a faster metabolism. You'll also look great, too. So that's nice.

TRACK YOUR FOOD

Tracking your food intake is something I believe EVERYONE should do. It is the best way you can get an extremely good idea of how food affects your internal health as well as fat loss. Tracking gives you an opportunity to know what and how much you're currently intaking, and also allows you to see what tweaks you need to make in order to lose more fat. We've been trained to mindlessly eat since we were kids. You'll be astonished by what you discover when you finally decide to keep a log of your food.

Here's the thing. Fat loss and finances are similar in many ways. If you want to know how to save money, you're going to want to track your spending and create a budget in order to save more money. Similarly, if you want to lose fat, you're going to want to track your eating and create a "budget" in order to burn more energy than you consume in a day. In both scenarios, playing the guessing game is dangerous and will most likely put you in a bigger hole than you're in now. Take responsibility, get determined, and take note of what you do so you can make accurate and beneficial changes.

BOOST YOUR METABOLISM

I briefly discussed this before, but I'll go over it in more detail.

In the context of modern life, speeding up your metabolism is one of the best things you can do. It will make getting lean and staying lean much easier. Why? For starters, we are more sedentary than ever. In addition, food is more readily available than ever before. Simply put, we are moving less and eating more. So, having a faster metabolism will make it easier for you to burn more calories without sacrificing your lifestyle.

Two things you can do to boost your metabolism include eating more food and performing resistance training. If you do things the right way, you'll see your body's ability to burn through calories increase like crazy. While performing your resistance training program, slowly add volume to your workouts once your body begins to adapt. Increases in volume have been proven to enhance strength and muscle mass, which are going to help your metabolism. You can add volume to your training by adding weight, sets, reps, or a combination of the three. While tracking your nutrition, make sure you're eating enough protein, carbs, and fat for your desired outcome. The goal is to maintain your current weight week after week as you eat more food and add volume to your training.

STAY CONSISTENT

This one is simple. If you're consistent, you'll see positive change. If you're inconsistent, you won't. It is better to be 90% consistent consistently than to be 100% consistent inconsistently. Don't stress too much about the BEST workout ever. Don't stress too much about the BEST nutrition protocol ever. Instead, focus on eating well 80% of the time, and getting all your workouts in. Even if that's too much, find ONE simple change in your training and ONE simple change in your nutrition that you can be consistent with. Once those changes have turned into habits, build from there.

HAVE YOUR EYES SET ON THE LONG TERM

Can you lose 20 pounds in two weeks? Yup. But you don't want to go down that road. Short-term, get fit quick routes will lead you to hole that will take years and years to dig yourself out of. If you want to build a lean body and be able to easily maintain it down the road, have your eyes set on the long term. If you want that kind of change, you need to accept the fact that you are going to make a lifestyle change. Lifestyle changes are no joke, and they take time. Once you have your long term goal and you've accepted the fact that you're making a lifestyle change, break things down a bit. Make daily, weekly, and monthly goals. Also, it may be a good idea to create behavior-based short-term goals for your outcome-based goals. Let's say your outcome-based goal is losing 50 pounds of body fat in a healthy way over the course of the next 2 years. Your behavior-based goals can be things like getting all your workouts in, meeting your macronutrient goals each day, and getting your body composition tested every month. Whatever you choose to do, create some behavior change. Outcome-based goals are achieved far more often when there are detailed behavior-based goals to go along with them.

THE TAKEAWAY

If you want to lose fat and keep it off, make sure you implement these five things into your life.

1. Lift weights

2. Track your food

3. Boost your metabolism

4. Stay consistent

5. Have your eyes set on the long term

If you do these things (even on a small scale) and slowly build, you will see great change in your health and fitness.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life. If you’re interested in hiring Adam as your coach, fill out an application here.