How To Get The Most Out Of Your Resistance Training Program

Most people are missing the full potential of their weight training program because they’re just hitting the gym, getting in the lift and leaving. The biggest problem with this “mindless training” is it impacts your body more than you’d think. And typically, in a negative way because, the more you continue to train without caring for your muscles, the more at risk you are for injury, pain, and imbalances.

It’s imperative you take care of your muscles and joints. Not stretching for long enough, doing any self-rehab (SMR/foam rolling) or utilizing massage therapists and chiropractic care on a regular basis makes muscle growth not only much harder, but it also increases your likelihood for injury.

Here are some tips for making the most of your training routine.

Warm up your muscles

Getting the muscles activated and joints warmed up is vital for a healthier mind-muscle connection. It’s imperative to warm up with exercises written out in programs so that your joints are more prepared with proper blood flow. Going in cold means greatest risk of injury. Cardio alone doesn’t prime joints, it just gets your heart rate up.

Focus on the tempo of each move.

The concentric (contraction or shortening of the muscle) of the movement should be quick and controlled – around one to two seconds. The contracted pause doesn’t require locked joints but also isn’t typically advised. Locking the joint out (think end range of a squat) takes the weight off the muscle.

By stopping just shy of that, you keep the muscle switched on. The eccentric (lengthening) aspect of the move should be slow and controlled – about three to five seconds. Then pause for 1-2 seconds at the stretch point, before finishing the rep.

– RELATED: Do You Always Need A Straight Back In Weight Training? –

Get stable

Stabilizing the joints basically means keeping them in proper alignment, and holding them steady against outside force of the weight or move. Knees should track with middle toe, not being allowed to dip toward each other or swing out to the side. Even in wide or sumo stance. Knees follow toe alignment.

For that to happen, activating glutes and outer hips are key. For hips, you want to keep the pelvis in a neutral position and focus on the hinge movement in your posterior lifts. For shoulders, never allow the head of the shoulder to round toward the chest in any exercise. The shoulder blades must be pulled down and toward each other to properly align and stabilize your exercises.

Go ahead and let them fully stretch when you hit the end of the eccentric move in your back exercises, but fully retract and depress the shoulders prior to pulling the weight back to you.

Stretch it out

People underestimate the importance of post-exercise stretching. It takes two minutes for soft tissue to fully release. Stretching for 30 seconds usually, doesn’t do that much. If you’re not fully stretching the muscle after lifting, they stay more fired up and adhesions will form much more easily.

Some people are naturally tenser muscularly. These people have certain muscle groups that stay more “switched-on” than others. Chronically tonic muscles will pull on other muscle groups and force them out of alignment and cause injury over time.

This chronic tension means your body stays more stressed, more likely to be injured, inflammation is higher, and fat loss and muscle gain will be harder as well.

Identifying which muscles are chronically switched-on in your body will make a world of difference if you’re stretching them for two minutes each muscle, each day. Over time your body will allow those muscles to relax and your central nervous system will thank you!

Doing things properly, you might find that you have to lift lighter for a while, but that only means you’ll finally be hitting the muscle at its proper level of movement, contraction, strength and the intensity it can safely handle.