10 Ways To Boost Your Workout For Greater Results

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Everyone wants to be fit and look a certain way but after weeks or months of training, things just aren’t progressing the way you want. So how can we make the most out of our workout?

​Here are 10 ways on how you can effectively boost your workout for greater results.

1. Keep A Log Book

Keeping track of your workout routine, be it digitally or in hard-copy, which includes the weight you use, repetitions and sets, allows you to visually see and plan your progress. It also acts as a reminder, especially on your “bad days”, to push yourself to reach at least the intensity level of your previous workout or if not, more intense. The main goal when you enter the gym is to beat your previous workout to achieve constant stimulation for your body to grow and adapt. However, that cannot be done if you don’t even remember how much weight you used, how many repetitions and sets you did or even the exercises you did previously. So start keeping track of your workout and aim to out-perform your previous workout be it by weight use, repetitions, sets or even rest time.

2. Pre-Plan Your Workout

Planning what are the exercises that you are going to do and at what intensity before a session allows you to have a clear goal when you work out as well as the awareness of your program efficiency and how your body reacts to it. This enables you to refine your workout program in the future, based on your experience, to achieve better results. I do understand that most people skip this step mainly due to the unexpected demand of certain equipment which results in you not able to complete your planned workout in sequence. However, you will be surprise at how most of the gym-goers are really friendly and if you were to ask politely to share the equipment and practice proper gym ethics, there is no reason for them to reject you. After all, it’s meant to be shared. Subsequently, you can also skip to your next planned exercise and come back to the previous one after the demand subsides. 

3. Do The Compound First

​It is often recommended to do exercises that includes multiple muscle groups and joints first, aka compound exercises, mainly due to the energy required to perform them as well as the safety aspect. These exercises require a large amount of energy to perform due to the amount of muscle group involvement as well as a greater intensity which you would be able to perform at as compared to an isolated exercise thus would be best to tackle them when you are at your freshest during a workout session. Subsequently after you are fatigue from the compound exercises, you can always finish off your workout with isolated exercises to greater fatigue muscle groups which might not have been recruited as much during the compound exercises and burn off remaining energy in a safe manner.

4. Work On Your Weaknesses First

​If you have a good grasp on your body’s strengths and weaknesses, a good tactic to improve those weaknesses is to start your workout targeting your them first as you would have the most energy to perform those exercises at a higher intensity to stimulate them better for growth.

5. Use Different Repetition Ranges

This point has often been explained very generally as one would want to train a muscle more holistically thus varying different repetition ranges would help to achieve all 4 key aspects of muscle growth which are power, strength, hypertrophy and endurance. Diving deeper down on a more scientific aspect, all our muscles contain mainly 2 types of muscle fibres – Type I which are slim and long in general and have high endurance, and Type II which give us greater power and strength and are larger in size compared to the Type I. Thus from the different muscle fibre’s properties and the fact that ALL muscles contain both Type I and II fibres, you would now understand the importance of using different repetition ranges to bring out the full potential of your muscles. 

For your general information, the different repetition ranges for different types of training is shown below.

6. Focus On Mind-Muscle Connection

​British researchers discovered that people who focused on their biceps while doing biceps curls had more muscle recruitment activity than those who were focusing on other things. More muscle recruitment can result in more muscle growth in the long run. This concentration is commonly known as the mind-muscle connection. The trick is to feel the muscle that you are working on stretch and contract which leads to the reason why the word “squeeze” is commonly heard in the gym. With proper form and movement tempo, it is not hard to “feel” the muscle in action thus building this connection also enables you to identify if you are doing the exercise right or if there are any flaws in your posture and possible muscular deviations.

7. Incorporate Advance Repetition Techniques

You may not have a training partner with you all the time, spotting and pushing you past your limit during training thus it is important to know some techniques to help you push yourself past failure to stimulate your muscles enough for growth, be it through heavier loading, greater volume, long tension etc. Here are some of the advance repetition techniques that you can incorporate into your workout to increase your training intensity especially when training alone.

Drop Set – After finishing your normal set of workout, proceed onto a lighter weight immediately and continue performing the same exercise to a specific repetition or failure.

Super Set – Complete two exercises back to back before resting.

Giant Set – Similar to Super Set, but with three exercises.

Rest Pause – If you aim to do 10 repetitions but could not complete it, take a break that is around 10 to 15 seconds and continue the exercises till you reach your goal. But do note that this technique should normally be used only in your final set of a particular exercise, when you are at your most fatigue state for that exercise. If it is being used in your first few sets, when you are still fresh, chances are that the weight you have chosen is too heavy for you so dropping the weight would be a better idea.

Partial Repetition – Instead of completing a full range of motion, you might feel that at a specific range, you are weaker or might “feel” a certain muscle better thus this is the time where you can incorporate partial repetition, where you do a smaller range of motion, to train and/or exhaust the portion of the muscle used during the partial movement.

Isometric Contraction – Hold the weight stationary for a given duration. Usually employed during peak contraction or “sticking point” where the load feels the heaviest for a particular movement.

8. Watch Your Rest Time

Depending on different training goals, your rest time may differ. However, that does not give you the excuse to not watch it. When you are tired, your body perceive time to be slower resulting in a longer rest time than you should if you are not tracking it. For example, you might feel that you only rested for 60 seconds when it’s already 90 seconds. So start watching your rest time.

9. Listen To Music

​A research from Weider Research Group concluded that when trained individuals performed a shoulder workout while listening to music, they were able to perform an average of 1-2 more repetitions per set for all exercises. So start creating a playlist of your favourite songs, invest in a good earpiece that would not drop when you train, and bring your workout intensity to the next level.

10. Have Enough Food And Sleep

As stated in the Ideal Workout Duration article, consuming enough food allows you to perform better when training, providing you with energy to lift heavier and last longer. Another factor that can aid in better performance during training is your sleep. Ensure that you have adequate amount of sleep (7 to 9 hours for adults) before your workout as it can affect your energy level and focus if it’s insufficient, resulting in the increase chance for accidents and injuries to happen.