We're well into the year 2020?

How are you progressing on your fitness goals? If you're like most, you're likely to have waned in your workout motivation. You used to jump up at 5.30 am to pump some iron. But now,  you're likely snoozing the alarm and snoozing till it's time to head to work.

Sounds familiar? Not to worry. We’re going to outline several quick-and-easy tips that’ll help get your ass back in the gym, crushing your #fitnessresolutions once again.

Start small

Jumping right back into the workout you were on before you, um, fell off the fitness wagon could send you right back into bed and completely burnt out. Instead, slowly build up to where you were at.

If you were lifting five times a week, for example, commit to going to the gym two or three times for the first week. Increase the frequency gradually. Make sure that you’re really getting back into the groove before you ramp it back up.

Doing so keeps you from feeling overwhelmed by the idea of working out hard five days a week when you first jump back in.

It’d also be a wise idea to decrease the intensity of your workouts. Let’s say you were training at approximately 80% to 90% of your 1 RM (One-rep max). What you want to do when you first get back to the gym is, therefore, to drop the load.

Get started with 50% to 60% of your 1 RM. This is the time to leave your ego at the door. Since you’ve been away, you’re likely to have lost some strength and endurance. Decreasing your lifting intensity is, therefore, a necessity.

Set a performance-based goal

Here's the truth. You're more likely to achieve a fitness goal if it's based on something physical you want to achieve. Like increasing the number of strict pull-ups you can do, from 10 to 20, for example. Or – getting strong enough on the deadlifts that you can hoist 2 times your body weight from the ground.

So, be sure to scrap that vague fitness goal – like, 'I want to look good by year-end,' for example – you set for yourself at the beginning of the year. Instead, set a performance-based goal. Don't be afraid to get specific.

The more specific you get, the more measurable your results are. And you'll then be able to craft a workout plan that'll help get you there. More likely than not, you'll start looking forward to training for that particular goal and stick with it for the long-term.

Tag along with a friend

As you’ve probably realized, sometimes the motivation to work out can be found the moment you get to the gym. The only problem? Actually getting to the gym!

If this sounds like you, you can 'hack' the getting-there process by tagging along with a friend who's already in the habit of regularly going (you probably know just the one). Just remember, though – this friend is likely to be more advanced in the fitness game than you.

Don't be too eager to replicate whatever he or she is doing at the gym. Doing so can set you up for some severe injuries, which are then likely to take you out of the gym for months at a time. And you don't want that now, do you?

So, just get to the gym, and follow your individual training plan (preferably one that’s calculated by the GymStreak app, of course – wink wink).

Change your program

Another problem you may have is that you're getting tired of doing the same old routine in the gym. To judge if this could be your issue, ask yourself: have you been doing the same exact workout split for the past year (or worse, years)?

Continually switching between training programs can be detrimental to your progress in the gym – how else can you track if you're progressively overloading on your weights?

But on the other hand, you also need a degree of change to stimulate your growth further.

If you've always stuck to the full-body workout split, for example, it may be time for you to consider transitioning into either the upper- and lower-body training split, or the push-pull legs routine. Because you'll be training each muscle group more frequently, your weekly workout volume increases. And we all know what that means: increased muscle growth!

Besides, it’ll be a ‘change of scenery’ for both you and your muscles too!

Visualize success

This tip, ‘visualize success,’ might sound like a scam. But it's not!

In fact, visualization is an athletic tool that’s been used for decades. The mind is an incredibly powerful tool when it comes to achieving what you’ve set out to do. So, the next time you wake up in the morning, be sure to dedicate 5 minutes to a ‘visualization exercise.’

Close your eyes and imagine yourself in the gym, repeatedly pushing through every single leg press rep. See yourself straining, pushing, and sweating. Perhaps more crucially – visualize yourself successfully ticking off every workout set on your workout plan.

You'll find that by carving out a few minutes in the morning to this mental exercise, you'd be better prepared (both physically and psychologically) for the task at hand.

Keep a workout log

This may seem like a no-brainer to some of you, but you might just be surprised at how few people actually log down their numbers!

So, if you’re one of those people who’ve never gotten around to putting those training numbers down on paper, it’s high time you did. Suddenly, your progress in the gym becomes that much more quantifiable.

Squatted 2 times your body weight last week but couldn’t even manage half of that weight this morning? There must be something wrong. Having all the numbers laid out in front of you makes it easy to fine-tune your training program so you can progress at a much, much faster rate.

Now, not to toot our own horn, but we just wanted to let you know that – in addition to offering you AI-calculated, individually-tailored workout plans, GymStreak is also fully capable of serving as a workout log app.

Frustrated with how some of the other apps available in the market simply weren’t user-friendly enough, we designed GymStreak to be one of the most intuitive workout log apps ever. Just try it. You’ll see the difference. Promise.

References

Clarey, C. (2014, February 22). Olympians Use Imagery as Mental Training. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/sports/olympics/olympians-use-imagery-as-mental-training.html

Krieger, J. W. (2010). Single vs. multiple sets of resistance exercise for muscle hypertrophy: A meta-analysis. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 24(4), 1150–1159. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181d4d436

Radaelli, R., Fleck, S. J., Leite, T., Leite, R. D., Pinto, R. S., Fernandes, L., & Simão, R. (2015). Dose-response of 1, 3, and 5 sets of resistance exercise on strength, local muscular endurance, and hypertrophy. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 29(5), 1349–1358. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000000758