Personal Training

Kicking Your Workouts Up a Notch!

Posted on by Naomi
Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great start to the week! I have been out of the state for the past few days unexpectedly due to some tragic circumstances, but I am back and trying to get my mind back in the game! 


I have been working hard on some Onefitfoodie Nutrition and Fitness Assesments and for those who have purchased and recieved your plans, I hope you are enjoying them thus far. For those who are interested in purchasing a workout and/ore nutrition plan…check out the assesment tab at the top of my page! You can purchase in the righthand column via paypal or google check out!
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I love seeing my clients progress. I love seeing them move better, feel better, get stronger and more importantly, gain more confidence in themselves. One thing I love about teaching proper form and introducing clients to new movements is that there are ALWAYS ways to progress forward. It is so incredibly pointless to walk into the weight room and start deadlifting 200lbs when you aren’t even aware of the body position, if you are doing the movement correctly and most importantly if you are putting yourself at risk for injury.

Improper form when exercising leads you to use certain muscles more than they were intended to be used and other muscles less than they are supposed to be used. This can cause muscular imbalances which will prevent you from moving forward.

With all of this said, there is also something to be said about making progress the proper way. There are progressions, workouts and exercises for ALL fitness levels out there, and one of the most common questions I get is “What can I make this workout or exercise harder and more challenging”

I wanted to share some great tips that I sometimes use myself and with my clients to increase the intensity and difficulty of their workouts, once they have properly mastered form and function.

#1 Increase Range of Motion on Exercises
I sometimes see people in the gym doing an exercise such as a lateral pulldown, and they’re range of motion is about 6 inches. First, I wonder what the point of them doing the exercise is like that, but second of all they usually have no idea what muscles they are even supposed to be working. Tip. Take down the amount of weight and go through a FULL range of motion. When I perform chin ups, I really try to let myself go all the way to the bottom of the movement and pull myself up. This is the most difficult for me, but I know that the more I do it, the greater progression I will make. Do not cheat yourself!

I also love using a larger range of motion when it comes to leg exercises such as single leg deadlifts and high deficit reverse lunges. I find that I can really target my glutes as well as really focus on stability of the opposite leg. Are you used to benching with the barbell? Change it up and try benching with dumbbells which you will find can provide a deeper range of motion on the downward portion of the movement and can result in a higher quality of muscle contraction.

Another example is when performing a push up. If you are holding dumbbells on the floor you can allow your chest to lower farther down and this increased range of motion will create a progressive overload to the muscles, thus making them work harder

#2 Change the Loading of Exercises
Of course we all know that one way to make an exercise more challenging is to add more weight or resistance-this is a no brainer, right? It is a great way to track our own progressions in strength as well. I know I get super pumped when I can go up in weight on certain exercises that I have worked hard to progress properly. There are other ways to make exercises more challenging such as adding medicine balls, weighted vests, resistance bands and dumbbells-these are all tools that can cause our bodies to work harder and feel more challenged thus causing us to get stronger.

With all of this said, there are plenty of OTHER ways that we can change the difficulty of exercises without the added resistance of extra weight or equipment.
  • Change your body angle: For instance, you can perform a standing back row on both feet OR you could hinge from the hips forward, and balance on 1 foot to perform these back rows. Whenever you move your body farther away from your base of support, the exercise automatically becomes harder. 
    • Push Up Progression (1) Push up on smith machine bar (2) Push up on the floor (3) push up, feet elevated on bench (4) Handstand push up. As you can see, each progression, the body angle changes to make it more difficult. 

#3 Try These Simple Techniques
These methods each increase the distance your body travels which increases the load and amount of work that you put in during the exercise itself.

  • Get Elevated: To make a traditional lunge or push up more challenging, place your body farther away from the ground. Prop your back foot on a step when performing split squats, or place your feet on a bench when performing push ups.
  • Change Your Tempo: If you are used to lifting at the same speed, change it! For instance, when performing a push up, try going slower on the way up to really force your muscles to work even harder
  • Burn Outs: I love doing Burn Outs to really fatigue the muscle I am working (especially the legs!). I will perform a set of 10 DB squats, then drop the dumbbells and continue for 10 body weight squats, then get down in a low squat position and pulse for 10, and lastly I will hold the squat position for a count of 10. TRY THAT!
Even More Ways…Hard: Move the floor farther away. For many body-weight exercises — lunges, pushups, situps — your range of motion ends at the floor. The solution: Try placing your front or back foot on a step when doing lunges; position your hands on books or your feet on a chair when doing pushups. You can perform planks on a stability or BOSU ball as well to keep your center of gravity off balance which causes you to use more stabilization in your core

Harder: Half way holds. This technique can be used for many different exercises. For example, for a lunge, push up or squat, get in the ‘down’ position. Now, instead of raising your body all the way back up to the starting position, let your body only raise halfway. Lower again from half way and then continue to push yourself all of the way back up to the start. This halfway “pulsing” technique will really challenge your body and force you to  use your muscles in a new and unique way.

#4 Add High Intensity Intervals.

I love HIIT training when it comes to cardio. I almost never perform steady state cardio anymore because I find it ineffective and a waste of my time, not to mention, too much of it can cause the body to hold onto fat. I digress… What is HIIT? HIIT training consists of short spurts of  intense exercise paired with easier recovery intervals. The combination of the two burns off more calories per minute than doing a longer workout at a continuously moderate pace.  Furthermore, training with HIIT can actually increase the bodies capacity to burn fat during exercise. You can read all about HIIT here.  

I love adding HIIT spurts in between circuits of strength training exercises with my clients. For instance:
  • Circuit 1
    • Band assisted Chin up
    • Standing 1 arm shoulder press
    • Low plank butt kickers
    • ****ADD ON–>20 seconds mountain climbers, 20 seconds burpees.
One of the reasons that HIIT is so effective is the type of muscle fibers that it recruits. HIIT recruits mostly large muscle fibers that can tend to stay somewhat under the surface during steady state work. When utilizing the HIIT training method, these fibers are brought to the surface and cause the body to work harder. You will see more rapid fitness gains and also a more defined, toned bod.  HIIT will keep you on your toes and cause you to avoid the dreaded exercise plateau. Try some of my favorite HIIT workouts here here and here


Check out my leg plyo video for a great lower body HIIT routine!




#5 GO HEAVY (or go home!)
I talk about this all of the time on my blog. I LIFT HEAVY, people. You can read all about my personal fat loss tips here If you work out regularly you KNOW the importance of weight training when it comes to fat loss. Weight training boosts metabolic rate both over the short term as well as over the long term. In the hours after an intense weight-lifting session you will experience an increase in metabolic rate. What’s more, weight lifting will help you maintain your total amount of lean muscle mass, creating a permanent increase in metabolism. I LIFT HEAVY. Yes, I am a woman and I lift weights…not the 3lb plastic coated dumbbells. My goal is to get women away from the cardio which can actually cause a decrease in muscle mass if done too often, but also a decrease in metabolic rate.  
Incorporating heavier weights into your workout routine will not only build the lean muscle needed to see visible definition, but it will also affect growth hormone and testosterone which will increase your overall fat burning potential while you are doing nothing at all! And ladies, I will say it time and time again YOU WILL NOT BULK UP from lifting heavy weights. It is virtually impossibe


There is something so rewarding about being in the weight room, surrounded by men, lifting heavier than them (AND PROPERLY!) You will feel strong, powerful and see such significant changes in your physique. All you need to do is push yourself and grab that heavier weight.


How to lift heavy?

  • No matter what repetition zone you are working in (5, 10, 15 or 20..etc), you know that you are lifting enough weight if your last 2-3 reps are very challenging and you cannot perform another repetition without breaking form. That’s right! You need to push yourself and feel a little uncomfortable to get results!
  • NEVER sacrifice your form in favor of lifting heavy ‘just to lift heavy’ This is the worst idea, not to mention you are certainly not impressing anyone but yourself. Your posture and form needs to be maintained until your very last repetition. Trust me when I say you will NOT build muscle by cheating, not to mention you will put unwanted stress on your body and most likely injure yourself. So if you want to do that, go for it! If you want to stay strong, lean and have that killer physique..TRAIN SMART  
  • If you are currently bored with your program, performing 3 sets of 12 reps, try one week switching to 4 sets of 6 or 8 reps and increase weight! Just by switching up your reps and sets, this alone will shock the body, cause it to adapt and you will feel STRONGER

#6 Add Different Planes of Motion
Human movement primarily occurs in 3 planes of motion, 

  • Frontal Plane (Side to side)
  • Transverse Plane (rotational)
  • Sagittal Plane (forwards and backwards, up and down))
Many of us, unknowingly train via only 1 plane of motion, however there are numerous amounts of exercises and ways to incorporate all planes whether it being lateral, backwards, diagonal or change of elevation. Our bodies are designed to naturally move in all 3 planes of motion so why not use this to our advantage and train our bodies in the gym this way.

When we beging to incorporate mutli plane movements into your training regimen, chances are you will use more multi joint movements to do so which creates a greater challenge as well as teaches the body to train functionally (in the way it is DESIGNED to move) which will help you in all aspects of daily life from work to play.  
Training in multiple planes will:

  1. Teaches the entire body to work as one unit, making your body a more efficient fat burning machine.
  2. Focuses on stabilizer muscles, forcing them to get stronger, thus preventing you from injury AND making your body overall stronger. 
  3. Recruits more muscle fibers, thus forcing the muscles to hypertrophy and grow stronger.
  4. Train your joints with a more equalized approached so as to ensure there are no muscular imbalances.

Try it today with the LUNGE

  • Sagittal Plane (Frontward and backwards Lunges)
  • Frontal Plane (Left and Right Lateral Lunges)
  • Transverse Plane (Rotational Lunges) 




You can also COMBINE the planes of motion into one movement.

  • Perform a backwards lunge, go right into a frontward lunge, go right into a lateral lunge (This is ONE REPETITION) complete 3 sets of 12 total

#7 Keep Time on YOURSELF
When you train, how often do you really time yourself during your ‘rest periods’ I know that I am a victim to saying I rested for 30 or 45 seconds, but yadda yadda and before I know it a couple of minutes go by. One way to really kick up the intensity of your workouts and make them more challenging is to truly stick to the time periods of ‘rest’ This does not mean you have to carry a silly stop watch around your neck each time you go to workout, HOWEVER you should keep a close eye on a clock or your own watch when you are training. Better yet, download a timer app on your iphone to help you out! 


I have downloaded the tabata pro app on my iphone. It looks like this below:

I LOVE this app and use it almost everyday when I am doing some sort of inteverval training or cardio conditioning circuits.  You can set it for an alotted amout of ‘work’ time and alotted amount of ‘rest’ time. You can set a desired number of cycles.


KILLER CONDITIONING CIRCUIT                                                                                           ***Set Tabata Timer for 45 seconds of work, 15 seconds of rest. Go through the 8 exercise cycle 3 times for a total of 24 minutes!

  • Kettlebell swings
  • Burpees with push up at bottom
  • TRX Row
  • Jump Rope
  • 1 arm Kettlebell back row (left)
  • 1 arm Kettlebell back row (right)
  • Goblet squat
  • Jump squat alternate with bodyweight squat

The benefits of timing yourself when exercising boasts so many benefits. 

  • First of all it will keep your body moving, thus constantly working hard. 
  • You will remain focused throughout the entire workout
  • Your training will be more intense because of the efficient speed you are working at
  • Timing yourself will take away that ‘cheat’ option and thus optimize the load on your muscle AND save you time

Hope you enjoyed these tips!
QUESTION:
What are some of your tips to really maximize your time in the gym and/or make exercises even harder?

Naomi
Naomi