Change Up Your Program to Get Results

I get it, you’ve found a routine that works for you and you like it. That may is fine if you are looking to maintain, but you should be switching things up every 4-6 weeks if you want to see improvement in strength, muscle growth or endurance.

1️⃣ Change up your rep range. Rep range affects your ability to load. You can’t do the same weight for 15 reps as what you could lift for six. The attribute they you are training (whether it be strength, endurance or muscle size) is hugely impacted by your rep range. In general it’s lower reps for strength 4-6 for most (a trained individual could go lower), 6-12 reps for hypertrophy (or muscle gain) and 15+ reps for endurance.

2️⃣ Change up your tempo (speed of rep). Depending on your focus you can really tailor your tempo. Slow eccentric (muscle lengthening) for muscle building, fast / explosive tempo for power, or pause before concentric (muscle shortening) to build strength.

3️⃣ Switch your exercise order. Putting exercises at the beginning of your program prioritizes them. That may be what you are trying to achieve with an exercise, but every now and then something else needs to be moved ahead. This is especially true if you are starting to plateau in an exercise. Fatigue plays a role in your performance and when you switch things around you will often surprise yourself.

Of course there are many other variables that will influence the result from your program. They all matter, but what matters most is that you follow a plan. Following a program will ensure that you get enough exposure to your priority exercises to yield the results you want to get from a program.

A word of advice. Hire a coach. While not 100% necessary, if you have the resources it’s a no brainer. There is so much bad info available that it is hard to know what to do.