There is no doubt that if you’re deep into your career that time is a precious commodity. You’re probably also finding that your focus on yourself has probably started to dip as well.
The teeter-totter between your career and your health has probably tipped drastically in one direction. But what’s the use of having money if you’re not healthy enough to do what you want with it?!
To get the most out of your workout time, you want to make sure you’re doing the most effective and efficient thing for yourself. In my opinion, this should be strength training!
If you’re a beginner or intermediate when it comes to strength training, here are 5 things you can do to better your results in the same [or less] amount of time:
1 – START WITH COMPOUND MOVEMENTS
What is a compound movement? When it comes to strength training compound movement is when you’re using more than one joint at a time. The other option is an isolated movement where you’re only leveraging one joint at a time.
Compound Movement Examples:
- Back Squats — ankles + knees + hips
- Deadlifts — nearly every joint in your body
- Bench Presses — elbows + shoulders
Isolated Movement Examples:
- Bicep Curls — elbows
- Seated Hamstring Curls — knees
- Dumbbell Lateral Raises — shoulders
Compound movements tend to be a bit more challenging to perform, they require more of your body to do them well, and they are also much more effective for every population.
Consequently, see my 2nd tip!
Since time presents a challenge for most people, you want to make sure you’re getting the most bang for your lifting weights buck. Since testosterone and growth hormone are going to help you build muscle, improve your metabolism, and be partly responsible for body fat loss, wouldn’t you want to do the thing that releases good amounts of those hormones?
Bicep curls? Very little testosterone and growth hormone release.
Deadlifts? Heavy deadlifts will do the trick!
2 – FIRST, MOVE WELL
The strength training movements you should be familiar with, and know how to do are:
- Squatting
- Deadlifting
- Lunging
- Pressing (both bench pressing type movements and overhead)
- Pulling (both pullup type and row type pulling movements)
And what do all of these things have in common? They’re all compound movements, of course!
Once you have a grasp on these, you can move onto the next thing.
3 – PROGRESSION
You will want to continue to challenge yourself with your strength training because challenge = results.
In other words, intensity = uncomfortable = results.
So what can you do to increase the intensity of your weight training?
- Add Weight
- This is unsurprisingly the most common way for you to add intensity
- After a while, though, you will find you simply cannot add more weight. Whatever shall we do?!
- Add Sets & Reps
- This can be a good way to go but you also notice by adding more, you are also adding more time to your workout
- If you’re trying to be time efficient, this is not the way to go!
- Subtract Rest Times
- Maybe go from resting 2 minutes down to 1:30 or 1 minute
- This can be effective at increasing the challenge without relying on adding more weight
- Slow Things Down
- This is probably my favorite way to do things though it’s a love/hate for me — my clients hate it but I love it
- You will be surprised at how little weight you actually need to have if you slow things way down
- TRY THIS — the next time you lift, perform all your lifts slowing things down to 3 seconds down and 3 seconds up. You’re welcome!
There are plenty of other ways to challenge yourself without relying on adding weight and if you want more, email me at [email protected]. I’m ready for you!
4 – 3 DAYS PER WEEK
In my experience, the person who performs heavy compound movements a minimum of 3 days per week will get a lot out of their strength training.
This is not to say that less than that is worthless, but 3 days per week (or more) seems to be where the magic happens. By the way, don’t take that as me saying lift heavy every day of the week, this has its’ own issues).
Following the tips and tactics above 3 days per week will be sufficient for improving your bone density, for building muscle, for improving your metabolism, and for changing your body fat and body weight!
And if you’re brand new to strength training, you will be sore. And while I am not a believer that soreness has anything to do with negatively affecting your next workout, I do believe that recovery is vital.
…which brings me to my next tactic!
5 – INTEGRATE REST & RECOVERY
Would it surprise you to learn that your body will build muscle overnight while you sleep? Maybe, maybe not.
Would it surprise you to learn that you probably don’t sleep enough and get poor quality sleep? That one doesn’t surprise you, does it?!
What may surprise you is that by sleeping poorly and for too few hours that you are adding fat to your body, you are stunting your own muscle growth, and you are very much negatively affecting your overall health.
You need to both eat enough and sleep enough. Want some sleep hygiene tips? Check out our blog on SLEEP HYGIENE to learn more.
IN SHORT…
If you’ve got limited time and want to get the best results from your strength training, you need to learn how to lift free weights, perform compound [total body] movements, challenge yourself each time, lift most days of the week, and to sleep.
Any one of these could be their own topic for conversation so if you find you’re needing help in this arena, reach out to us HERE. We’re excited to chat with you!
