Oh The Mistakes You’re Making — 14 Fitness Tips To Workout SMARTER And Maximize Your Results

7. De-Mechanize

See: intensity, #1.

Stop using machines. All of them. They’re the training wheels of the lifting world.

Push yourself to rely exclusively on free weights (dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells), body weight/calisthenics, and cables — they’re significantly more intense. You’ll add an element of stabilization, develop functional movement patterns, burn more fat, and get significantly more muscle activation.

Use our library of exercise ideas if you need a little inspiration.

8. Prepare to Bust Through Plateaus

Once you get past the “newbie phase” and your body becomes more advanced, you’ll hit your first official plateau.

A plateau storms in when your body begins to adapt to the same stimuli. Gains eventually slow down and progress begins to stall. Eventually you’ll need to work harder to achieve the same quantity of results. It’s the law of diminishing returns, it’s very real, and it’s ridiculously frustrating.

Plateaus are a recurring theme during training, and a natural response when your body gets too good at a given workout. If something’s easy or overly repetitive, it’s likely not providing any benefit — CHALLENGE it and change your workouts. System shock and muscular confusion are powerful catalysts to galvanize new growth.

A few ways to work this in practice:

• Do different exercises
• Switch workout routines
• Vary rep, set, and weight schemes — instead of doing 3 sets of 12 nonstop, try a 5×5 protocol or AMRAP sets (as many reps as possible) for a given time.
• Use different types of equipment
• Take classes
• Do supersets, circuit sets, and drop sets

One note — don’t program hop too frequently. Do a plan for 4-12 weeks and then change it up. Your body has to actually learn how to do an exercise effectively before it can excel and perform at a high level. View it as a three-phase process: learning (1) ? performance (2) ? adaptation (3).

Maximal growth occurs during phases 1 & 2; switch it up before you’re deep into phase 3.