Follow These 3 Tips To Build The Strength Necessary For Any Exercise You Want!

Hold under tension

If you have trouble with the movement of an exercise and feel like you need some help building up your supporting muscles, isometric exercises (ones where you hold a position rather than flexing your muscles) are a great way to build up your strength and muscular endurance. Planks are one of the most common examples, but you can also hang from a pullup bar with your upper back muscles tightened or go into a pushup and hold yourself in the halfway position. This will quickly give you a great burn when you do it right!

Do the negative portion only

The hardest part of any exercise is typically the concentric or active half, but you still get benefits from the eccentric or negative half. If you’re able to do it in a secure and controlled manner (no taking risks!), doing only the negative portion at first can help you gain enough strength to do the whole motion cleanly. With pushups, this means easing yourself down to the ground slowly and resetting without actually pushing up; with pullups, this might involve pushing off from the ground and “cheating” to the apex, then gradually easing yourself back down to the ground.

Remove resistance

This won’t be possible with every exercise, but another option is counterbalancing some of the strain with a resistance band. For example, say you’re doing tricep dips elevated above the ground on a machine — if you can do it safely, try securing a band to one of the handles and resting your foot in the band (or your knee, if the band is smaller). With the right size and amount of resistance, the dips will become slightly easier, giving you more stable reps so you can work up to a fully unassisted exercise!If you want a systematic approach to building the strength and body composition you want most with coaching and support every step of the way, I created a program designed to meet your exact needs and help you finally see the results you’ve been working toward for so long…

Ignore Them At Your Peril..

Overdo it

If you go too hard, boy oh boy will you feel it EVERYWHERE over the next few days. Our legs are some of the longest, largest muscles in the body and they get used every time we walk, let alone when we work them hard in the gym. You can overdo it by pushing yourself to go past the point of total muscle failure, adding on more sets than you need, and even forcing yourself to stick to a higher weight than you’re comfortable with. Go hard, but not TOO hard!

Drop your form

This goes hand in hand with #1 above — push yourself too hard or go too heavy and you’ll be more likely to let your form slip to compensate for the added difficulty and strain. Using “lazy” or improper form can engage the wrong muscles in the wrong ways and leave you feeling sore the next day, even when you technically aren’t overdoing it. Use a mirror every now and then to check on your form and be sure to do your exercises the right way, even when it’s hard!

Skip it

I know how played-out this joke is, but I’m serious here: Don’t skip leg day! Not only is it essential to commit to dedicated leg workouts if you want definition, but the rest of your workouts depend on leg strength too! Most machines require you to dig your feet into the ground and push off slightly, as do weight benches — the stronger your lower body, the more juice you can get out of everything else you do in the gym. Crushing leg day is essential for making every other workout count!Leg day is essential to get right, but what you do outside of the gym is equally important for getting the most mileage possible out of your hard work. To build the body composition you want sustainably and reap the benefits of your nutrition and exercise…

Simple Tips That Deliver Consistent Results Even When Nothing Else Seems To Work

Lift heavy

High repetitions + low weight on any exercise is a solid recipe for physical endurance, but if your goal is to get toned, this isn’t the way to do it. A toned appearance comes from lean muscle, which requires lifting heavy for a limited number of reps. You shouldn’t go minutes on end before feeling the burn!

Don’t rush it

It’s easy to think that you’ll get toned shoulders faster simply by getting out every last rep you possibly can… but nothing could be further from the truth. I would take fewer, slower, more controlled reps at an appropriate (not excessive) weight any day! Otherwise, you’re more likely to swing your arms and rob your shoulders of the most powerful benefits of the exercise.

Getting enough carbs

In order to have the energy to power your lifts, your muscles need the right fuel… and the first place it looks is carbohydrates. Otherwise, your muscles will get their energy internally, reducing your lean muscle mass and making you go backwards! eating enough carbs (especially before working out) helps your muscles get the most out of your workouts and make visible progress!

The most hated word in fitness

It’s not “diet”, “restrictive”, etc… it’s patience. None of us wants to wait, and when you’re in the early stages of a program or plan it’s tough to know whether the results will be worth your time and effort. That’s why it’s so important to have a solid foundation in macronutrients and exercise, which will allow you to have greater certainty over your outcome from the very beginning!If you want to take the next step and secure your spot in a program that’s sustainable, fun, and gives you a clear path to the body you want…