Three Ways to Add Variety to Your Weight Training Regimen

Benefits of Strength Training

Strength/resistance training is beneficial to both men and women of all ages! It has been shown to increase bone density, relieve arthritis pain, improve the body’s regulation of blood sugar levels, reduce obesity, prevent back pain, and increase metabolism. Muscle is an active tissue that requires energy all the time. So the higher the percentage of muscle you have in your body, the more energy you will be burning. In other words, a person who has a high proportion of muscle relative to body fat will burn more calories at rest than someone who has a lower muscle percentage. Strength training is an integral part of almost every workout plan and is very useful in obtaining one’s fitness goals!

Variety

Variety is crucial to obtaining your fitness goals in the gym. If you do the same workout over and over, your body will adapt and plateau and you won’t see the gains that you desire. There are a few ways to add diversity to your strength training regimen..

1. Diversity of Exercise and Location: Be sure to utilize all equipment and free weights in the gym. A lot of exercises that may seem difficult, can actually be modified to fit your particular needs. Hire a personal trainer to help you understand correct form and technique necessary for the use of free weights and other gym equipment. Also, don’t be afraid to take the weights outside. Lately, the weather has been perfect. Last Friday, I took a couple 60lb weights outside along with my TRX and perfect pushups and got a great back and chest workout. I also met a couple new friends who were interested in joining me in my next outdoor workout!
2. Tempo: Tempo is important in lifting weights and can definitely add a new dimension to your weight training regimen. In order to understand tempo, we should first discuss the various muscle contractions. There are three types of muscle contraction. Concentric contraction is when muscles shorten when generating force. Eccentric contraction (negative) is when muscles lengthen when generating force. Isometric contraction is when muscle length remains constant when force is being generated. For example, if you were to do a bicep curl, curling the weight up would be considered concentric contraction of the bicep muscle. Holding the weight at the top of the repetition would be considered isometric contraction. Lowering the weight back to its starting position would be an eccentric contraction of the bicep. Tempo is essentially how long you hold each of these contractions for. A tempo of (1,1,3) would indicate 1 second concentric, 1 second isometric, and 3 seconds eccentric. There are various benefits of different tempos, which may be another blog topic in the future…
3. Sets: So you have the exercise that you want to do, you determined a good tempo to do it at, now you have one more level of diversity: you must decide how many repetitions of each exercise to do and how you will group these reps into sets. Here are a few different sets that you can use when lifting:
   1. Straight Sets:  This is the traditional type of weight lifting set. It is a set that requires you to perform a certain number of sets with the same amount of weight and the same number of repetitions. For example 3 sets of 10 with 20lb weights.
   2. Pyramid Sets: In this set, you start with high repetitions and low weight and increase weight and decrease reps with each subsequent set. Once you reach the “peak” you can repeat the sets in the opposite direction. For example: 12 reps of 50lbs, 10 reps of 60lbs, 8 reps of 70lbs, 10 reps of 60lbs, 12 reps of 50lbs.
   3. Super Sets: “Killing two birds with one stone” A combination of 3 or more exercises in one set. These can be useful to maximize your efficiency in the gym. Instead of doing the traditional 3 sets of 10 for one exercise and resting between each set, try working two unrelated muscle groups back to back. For example, if you don’t have time for a 1 hour workout, you could do pull-ups and then squats one right after the next. This will increase the intensity of your workout by reducing the time for rest.
   4. Drop Sets: (My personal Favorite): Get the most bang for your buck with this set. This set is used to increase muscle mass and increase muscular endurance. Normally when you lift weights you do a certain number of repetitions and then you stop because your muscles get tired. However, the only reason you stop is because you are too tired to lift any more of that particular weight. In a drop set, you lift a certain weight until failure, and then immediately drop the weight and do another set until failure, and then continue the process. For example: bicep curl 10 reps at 40lbs, 10 reps at 35, 12 reps at 25, etc.

The possibilities are endless in the weight room! Remember to do you research and/or contact a certified personal trainer for advice on how to maximize your workout routine in the safest and most effective way possible!