Are you tired of having good and bad workout days? Some days you feel unstoppable, while on others, you feel as if the weight is crushing you…
In this article, I wanted to share with you my three best strategies to help you hit consistent strength gains from workout to workout.
For example, recently I hit a 315 pound bench press for 3 reps at a body weight of 173 pounds.
Now, I haven’t done much flat benching in the last 1 to 2 yeas of my training (I mainly focus on incline pressing).
Regardless, I felt as if I had the strength to hit 4 reps in that session, but I stopped at 3 reps…
Why did I do this?
I’ve been training for 10 years and my workouts have stayed pretty consistent with making strength gains.
Of course, there are the extreme situations if perhaps you didn’t get good sleep or had a lot of activity the previous day.
But for the most part, my strength gains always stay very consistent.
If you’ve been following Kinobody for sometime now, you should understand the importance of the need to push yourself and leave everything you’ve got on the table.
And on the other hand, I also say not go to failure or to a point where you’re grinding out your last few reps on an exercise. What’s with this paradox? How should you actually be training?
Here’s the three strategies I use that will help you hit more strength gains on a more consistent basis.
Turn On Your True Power For Massive Strength Gains
The goal of each of your workouts needs to build upon the last.
Building a truly muscular physique is a matter of getting very strong (while maintaining a low body fat) on a handful of key exercises that promote a well proportioned body.
Moreover, strength gains translate to muscle growth.
If you want to build a bigger chest, it’s not about how many chest exercises you’re doing in a workout. It’s about building your bench up (I prefer incline) to heavy weight within the 4 to 10 rep range.
When you start pushing and pulling heavy weight, that’s giving your muscles a reason to grow bigger and stronger.
Are you coming in the gym like a beast? Ready to kill every workout?
The next strategy you need to keep in mind is to learn how to get yourself fired up before hitting your heavy set on an exercise. That’s one of the main drivers of making consistent strength gains.
You get yourself fired up and connect with your true inner power by being fully present in the workout for strength.
Don’t think about any problems or worries you have. Or let a bad day get the best of you…
You’re in the gym, focus on what needs to be done – wondering aimlessly through the gym (if you’re not on a solid plan) or working through half-assed sets won’t help you accomplish your fitness goals.
Finish Your Last Rep Strong
It’s very, very rare that you’ll see me grinding out or truly struggling to get my last rep on an exercise.
This is the max I push myself. And I push hard.
You need to know your limits. You’re not going to make consistent strength gains if you’re grinding out your last reps – this is just going to lead you into hitting a plateau/burnout much quicker.
This is why I stopped at 3 reps instead of trying to squeeze out 4 reps even though I most likely could. By doing so, next workout session I’ll hit the gym feeling strong and powerful – increasing my chances of hitting a solid 4 reps without any struggle. Hence, consistent strength gains.
A good rule of thumb is, if your last rep is a struggle, stop there. Don’t try for another. That’s going to have you grinding the rep or needing help from a spotter because you pushed it to failure.
Again, this is where being present in the moment comes in. If you’re not focused on what you’re doing, you’re most likely lifting under your true potential. Then it’s about finding that balance and learning more about when you’re going to have a smooth last rep or know when to stop.
Lastly, make sure you have the proper warm up in place before going into your heavy sets. That will also help “turn on” your strength and power.
Drop Weight Or Change The Exercise
My third and final strategy to help you make consistent strength gains each workout is to drop the weight or change the exercise with exercise rotation.
If you’re at the point in your workouts like we just talked about and you’re grinding and fighting for reps. I recommend you drop the weight by about 10% and really focus on hitting the reps clean and practicing good form.
You’ll then set yourself up for consistent strength gains, because you know not to push yourself that close to failure again…
Allowing you to enter each workout session feeling confident in each exercise.
And remember, personal records and strength gains come in many different forms. Maybe you didn’t add weight or a rep to your first set, but you improved on your other sets or another exercises. Maybe your form got much smoother. These little gains add up over time.
After hitting the same workouts for about 6 weeks, I like to use exercise rotation to give my body a new challenge.
The goal of exercise rotation is to switch an exercise out for another that still works the same muscle group.
Think, going from incline barbell press to incline dumbbell press. That exercise still hits the chest but it will offer a fresh stimulus to further progress on.
I built up to a 275 pound incline barbell press and wanted to switch the exercise before it got too taxing on my body – now I’m going to build up my flat bench.
Final Thoughts On Making Consistent Strength Gains
There you have it! Three solid strategies to implement that will help you create consistent and predicable strength gains in your training routine.
That’s our underlying goal in order to build a strong and muscular physique – getting very strong on key exercises.
Your main takeaways:
- Train hard – but not too hard
- Turn on your strength (be in the moment)
- Don’t grind out reps
- Drop the weight and practice form if needed
- Exercise rotation every 6 weeks or so if needed
If you implement these strategies, you should be right on your way to hitting bigger personal records much faster and more consistently.
These strategies are exactly what I’ve been using to build up to elite levels of strength – and I can’t wait to see them work for you as well.
