Spring Clean Your Gym Routine With These Four Training Styles

You've been following a gym plan you found online for a few months and so far so good, you've been showing up and getting your workouts done. There's just one problem. You're BORED.

You're not looking forward to the sessions anymore you're just going through the motions and the longer you feel like that, the less you feel like going to the gym for a workout at all.

Sound familiar?

I know I have been there myself. But what should you do to get yourself out of a potential training slump?

Perhaps its time you gave your workout routine a spring clean? In this blog post I am going to share some alternative styles of workout that will help you get your training mojo back.

The best thing about utilising a different style of workout is that you don't have to completely change the exercises you've already been working at and getting stronger with. We're just mixing up the format. Winning.

Ready for a spruce up? Lets go!

SUPER SETS

A super set is where you do two exercises performed one after the other with no rest in between. Super Sets are a great way to increase your workout difficulty by overloading your muscles and therefore get you better results. They're a really smart way to train and get the best use of the time you have in the gym.

There are two ways to approach super setting exercises together, either overloading your muscles with similar targeted exercises or pairing exercises that work opposing muscle groups and therefore hitting more areas of the body in the workout. These are known as Antagonistic or Agonist Super Sets.

ANTAGONIST SUPER SETS

This format is where you're working a muscle and then its opposite, for example biceps and triceps or quads and hamstrings. These are a great time saver because as one muscle group is working the other is relaxing which improves recovery.

AGONIST SUPER SETS

This is where you pair exercises together to work a single muscle group, this style works better with your larger muscle groups. An example of this would be pairing a hamstring curl with a deadlift, both exercises are targeting the hamstrings.

GIANT SETS

A giant set is where you perform three to five exercises one after the other without rest. This is another great style of training for anyone who struggles to find time to get their workouts in across the week.

Put simply a Giant set is a big super set. You're looking at grouping together more exercises without any rest in between. Giant sets can either be focused on one particular area of the body (upper body / lower body) or you can use a range of exercises as a great way to train the entire body.

A giant set is a very time effective way to train both for burning calories and building muscle.

DROP SETS

Drop sets are all about exercising to failure by dropping the weight each round and performing the same exercises with multiple weight loads going from low to high reps and high to low weight.

You start a drop set with a heavy weight where you're only able to perform 6-8 reps, then with little to no rest, drop the weight to where you can perform 10-12 reps, again with little to no rest drop the weight and aim to perform 12 - 15 reps.

This is an advanced training technique where you focus on completing a set until failure or the inability to do another repetition. Paying attention to good form is really key during a drop set to avoid any potential injuries.

PYRAMID SETS

In a pyramid set you can start heavy and gradually decrease the weights or reps or you start light and gradually increase the weight or reps.

Pyramid training works by overloading the muscles and creating metabolic stress in the muscle tissue to make the muscle grow bigger.

There are a few variations of a pyramid set but the two most common are the standard and the reverse.

Standard: Increase the weight and decrease the reps for each set

Reverse: Decrease the weight and increase the reps with each set

One of the most common reasons I see clients fall out of love with their training is due to boredom with their workouts.

Over time our training needs to adapt to meet our needs, this means we need to pay attention to the weights we are using and make sure we are keeping things challenging enough. It also means it can be good to adapt the style and format of your workouts to keep things interesting for you.

Variety is the spice of life and all that.

So if your gym program isn't inspiring you anymore, why not look at implementing one of these training styles into your routine to keep things fresh.

Want a new gym program to help you get results and keep things interesting in the gym? Why not get in touch.