Want Great Fitness Results? Avoid this Common Mistake!

Have you ever felt lost, overwhelmed or lacking confidence when you workout or maybe finding yourself a little bored?  Have you ever started a program and before finishing it for the full prescribed amount of time you find yourself wandering to try something new? You start with a specific strength program but then suddenly jump to try the latest fat-loss program?  When you get back to doing the strength program you realize you've lost your previous level of strength because instead of progressing through your workouts and clearly understanding how to layer and combine them you make a big mistake that prevents you from getting the absolute best results! What's the big mistake?

It's called program hopping! <---- #1 mistake!!!

We all have done it haven't we? Instead of developing and sticking with using a more effective progressive program we hop from program to program because "oh... this looks cool", or "wow... that guy or girl is getting some great results... I wanna do what they are doing."   

Choosing to do "just any random workout program" is better than not doing anything, however, one should consider how each workout program chosen might benefit subsequent workout programs.  The order you do your workout programs is an important factor when choosing which workout program to do. 

Paying attention to the order of workout progression is called PERIODIZATION 

It means setting up training into periods of time with each period focusing on specific fitness outcomes so the outcomes you develop will build upon each another.  Progressive programming ensures each training period becomes more effective because of the ones that came before.  I heard it explained once like this... "progressive programming perpetuates progress". (I love that).

Why is paying attention to periodization so important? Because you want to be sure you are setting yourself up to keep progressing.

I'm not going to pretend I am a wellspring of knowledge and have the best ideas about how to set up a well thought out periodized program.  There are a lot of programs out there you could buy to help you do that and I would highly recommend you do.  What I wanted to do was to get you thinking about it and to give you some ideas about how you might start to set up a program. 

Here's just one example of using periodization in setting up a workout program... 

Start with strength workouts...  (4weeks)
The basics are the BEST!!!  You might do 6 reps for 6 sets of each of the following... Be sure to use a heavy weight... (find your one rep max and perform with 80% of that weight).
Squats or Leg Presses
Bent Over Rows or Reverse Flys
Alternating Reverse Lunges
Overhead Press or Lateral Raises
Dead Lifts or Leg Curls
Chest Press or Chest Flys
Finish with a metabolic set (anaerobic energy system training)... 10 rounds of jump-rope, working each round at maximum all out effort for 30 seconds and resting for 10 seconds. Repeat 10 times...  Do this workout 3-4 days a week on non-consecutive days.

After 4 weeks you would progress to strength endurance training and fat loss workouts. (4 weeks).
Density Training is a great way to accomplish this goal. Density training is working with a set amount of work in a set amount of time, then for the second round doing more work than the first round in the same amount of time.
Choose a combination of 3-5 different exercises. Start with using a lighter weight and perform reps at the normal speed you would go doing as many as you can for 30 seconds of each exercise. The second time around you would increase your weight significantly and try to do more reps than the first round in the same 30 second time period.  
So you might choose...
Overhead Press, Sumo Squats and Chest Flys for your first block. Do each exercise keeping a record of the number reps you do for each exercise in 30 seconds working at a normal pace. Then start over with each exercise, still working for 30 seconds each but this time trying to beat the number of reps you did the first time.  If you did 20 overhead presses with 10 pounds the first time, the second time you would lift 12-15 pounds and shoot for at least 21 or more reps for the same 30 seconds. Record results!  Then choose 3 more exercises and repeat the whole process.  Be sure to do at least 5 blocks of 3 exercises and cover your whole body.
Do this workout 3-4 times a week on non-consecutive days. Also for this phase do cardio on off days... jog at a good aerobic pace for 30 minutes during this phase... During the last phase you were working more on anaerobic energy system conditioning (jump-rope) this month it's aerobic energy system conditioning. You need both!  

Lastly, you would move into a muscle gain phase where you would combine phases one and two... 
Mix it up into strength sets and density sets along with getting cardio in on the days you are not doing either of these...  So the last phase might look like this.... 
Week 1... strength train on MWF, anaerobic cardio T, Th., Sat.
Week 2. density train MWF, aerobic cardio T, Th, Sat.
Week 3... same as week 1
Week 4... same as week 2   

Don't go to the gym without a plan to progress.  

Instead periodize your program and be sure each phase you do builds on the next giving you an ideal way to progressively program your workouts to ensure progress. Choose a combo of periodization techniques that focus on strength, endurance and energy system training and see what new goals you can accomplish in your fitness pursuit!