Sometimes you got to throw a wrench into your training system!

Nothing always works how you want it to…

Do you ever feel like you’re doing everything you can possibly do to get results and still nothing?

You ever feel as if you’re following a solid program but still either going backwards or not moving anywhere?

I feel this every once in a while but I’ve got 7 different things you can be doing now to ensure your results will come!

In part 1 here, I’m going to take you through 4 of my top tips that you can implement into your training system now to increase your results.

Here they are:

1)  Plyometrics with Bodyweight.

Everyone focuses on doing bodyweight STRENGTH exercises.

The big problem with this is there NO explosiveness.

Most athletes and trainees go till failure and go for the “pump”when doing bodyweight exercises (if their even doing bodyweight exercises…)

What you need to focus on here is being 100% EXPLOSIVE!

So doing multiple sets of 5-8 reps max and being as explosive as possible should be your main focus on these exercies.

  • plyo push ups
  • explosive pull ups
  • squat jumps
  • lunge jumps
  • throws with rocks or med balls or plates
  • hops, skips, and bounds

Another important aspect to remember is to try and be 100% recovered before each set so you can go ALL OUT on each rep.

Unless of course your a FIGHTER or WRESTLER and looking to increase conditioning, you’ll do plyos when tired…

For strength, you’ll want to be close to fully recovered to reap the benefits.

2) STOP going to failure or you’ll be a FAILURE!

Too many athletes and trainees are training every set till failure.

This is the norm for any trainee or athlete training out of a popular magazine.

The mass majority of people think that going to failure and blasting your muscle every set is the key to getting stronger and bigger where this is actually the opposite!

You want to destroy your muscle to a point….

Let me explain…  You should focus on leaving 2-3 reps “in the tank” to keep your body fresh.

Beat your body up just enough so you leave the gym wanting more.

It will allow you to recover much quicker and when you hit your training up again, you’ll be ready to go harder.

If you just completely annihilate yourself every session, you’ll over train yourself and start taking steps backwards.

A good mindset to adopt is to do just ENOUGH and avoid OVER DOING IT …

3) Use band Tension To BUST through Plateaus

Your bench stalling out?  Your squat lacking?  Deadlift seem not to be improving??

Add in bands to bust through these barriers!

It surprises me how many athletes and trainees don’t ever use bands!

I’m not talking about the fitness bands you typically see in most gyms…  I’m talking about perfomax bands, AKA “real bands”.

These babies are versatile and help increase POWER, STRENGTH, and MUSCLE!

You can add them into most of your basic lifts.

Squats w/ bands, bench with bands, and deadlifts with bands.

They force you to accelerate through the sticking point of the lifts.

If you go slow, you’ll get barried!

You want to focus on using a significant amount of lower weight when using bands but your main focus while using band tension in your lifts is SPEED.

If you increase the amount of speed you can develop during a lift, your overall strength and power will significantly increase as well!

4)  Implement Odd Object Lifting

If you haven’t done so yet (which you should have by now…), you need to be lifting odd objects.

Lift, carry, throw, press, row, squat, lunge, and twist with various odd object to increase overall body strength.

It’s amazing how different a 150 lbs sandbag feels against a 150 lbs barbell.  Even a 180 lbs barbell feels light than a 150 lbs sandbag!

There’s a ton of different objects you can be using for odd object training which include:

  • kegs
  • sandbags
  • atlas stones
  • logs
  • concrete blocks
  • rocks
  • long slosh pipes

These are just a few…

The great thing about odd object training is it challenges you whole body differently than normal training with dumbells, barbells, and kettlebells do.

Many times its a challenge just to pick up some of the objects you work with.

For instance, with sandbags, the bags shift and move on their own which really force you to adjust on the fly.

The bags get unbalanced and you have to work even harder to keep the bag balanced which forces you to use your core a whole lot more!

In the end, you’ll increase overall strength and stability which will help increase overall RESULTS!

Those are just 4 of my 7 tips!

Stay tuned for the next 3!

Live Aggressive and Get Strong!

Travis

PS – Leave your comments and be heard!