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4 Mental shifts to get MORE results at the gym
Achieving optimal fitness in the gym is a challenge that many people find difficult to succeed in. Despite putting in hours at the gym and cycling through many workout routines, some gym-goers still struggle to see the results they want. While many factors can impact one’s success in the gym, it’s essential to understand that some common mistakes can prevent people from reaching their fitness goals. These include inconsistent training schedules, poor nutrition choices, underestimating one’s ability to push harder, or lacking mind & muscle connection. These mistakes can easily undermine the results of even the best workout routines.
In this blog, we’ll explore the top four mental shifts that can help you make progress towards building muscle or improving your strength, so you can reach new personal bests. By making these mindset shifts, you can avoid the common pitfalls that hinder progress and optimize your training routine for success.
- Embrace Discomfort
To build strength and muscle, it is essential to push past your limits. When you lift weights, this stress, or tension, is what signals the muscles to adapt and become stronger.
This stress leads to the activation of muscle fibers that are normally inactive when performing exercises. As a result, your body adapts to this increased demand and produce muscle growth, making you stronger and able to lift heavier weights.
Ultimately, for more results at the gym, you have to step outside of your comfort zone. This may mean lifting heavier weights or doing more reps than usual, or even trying new exercises altogether. So, it’s essential to challenge yourself regularly to keep making progress and prevent hitting a plateau in your training.
Pushing past your limits is the process that will allow you to unlock your potential at the gym. What I always tell my clients, this is THE WAY, THE PROCESS, or THE SECRET SAUCE to unlocking your potential at the gym.
2. Progressive Overload is key
In alignment with embracing discomfort, progressive overload is an essential component when navigating through a workout plan. Because, when your muscles adapt to a particular level of stress, they stop producing additional strength or muscle growth as they did before. So, to continue to see progress, you need to continually add more stress to your muscles. This can be done through adjustments such as increasing the weight (load) on the bar, doing more volume or harder sets, increasing the intensity, changing your rep ranges and more.
To maximize your progress and avoid plateauing, it’s essential to implement the concept of progressive overload in your workout routine. Regardless of your plan, consistently challenging yourself and surpassing your current limits is crucial. By doing this, your muscles will constantly adapt and become stronger, resulting in significant improvements over time, as well as giving you feedback to better understand your strengths and weaknesses.
Check out our previous blog that’ll provide more examples of progressive overload, HERE.
3. Intensity over Volume
If you want to surpass your physical limits and promote further muscle growth, it’s essential to prioritize training with high intensity. Rather than solely focusing on workout duration, channel your efforts towards maximizing intensity during your lifts. This approach will help you push past your strength limits and achieve muscle growth.
In fact, a shorter 45-minute workout with high intensity will likely yield better results than a longer 2-hour workout with low intensity. By pushing yourself to work harder during a shorter workout, you can stimulate more muscle fibers and promote greater muscle growth and strength gains.
Ultimately, this could mean spending less time looking at your phone between sets and achieve better results in less time.
4. Consistency over Intensity
Although intensity is important for solid results but it’s consistency in training that is essential for long-term success. Without consistency, even the most intense workouts will not produce great results. You cannot expect to see progress by going to the gym for three days in a row and then taking two weeks off.
It’s essential to prioritize a regular training schedule and a balanced nutrition plan to ensure that your body is getting the fuel and recovery it needs to grow and improve.
I promise you, this is the key to long-term success. As long as you prioritize a regular training schedule and a good nutrition plan, you’ll be able to sustain and support your muscle growth and strength gains over time.
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Did I leave anything out? Let me know in the comments.
If you want to talk to me about your fitness goals, I’m available for in-person or online consultation.
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