Get it, repeat it, beat it!

Today I would like to recommend a simple training philosophy that you can incorporate into your workouts to help you achieve your fitness goals.  As a personal trainer, a large percentage of how I help clients reach their goals is by motivating them to stay on course.  Another large percentage is by bringing the appropriate knowledge to the proverbial table.   There are a lot of people who commendably get into the gym to work on their health and fitness; but many of these people don’t know how to appropriately exercise.  They either have little clue, such as simply lifting the weights that are on the rack, and / or they have done only a little bit of research and are trying the exercises that they picked up from the latest internet post or fitness magazine.  While I do believe doing something is better than nothing, as long as it’s done safely, I also strongly believe that doing the appropriate exercises efficiently will be much more rewarding both physically and mentally.  And all it usually takes to make the exercises you are doing better is to add some sound training principle.

Dean is in his twenties; when he was in high school, he was an athlete familiar with training.  But now out of school, the majority of his physical activity comes from working out in the gym.  Although he is no stranger to work outs, he has never really studied the training principles necessary to achieve his current fitness goals.  So, his workouts change every few weeks and are usually based off of whatever the latest action movie’s star had done in preparation for the film.  Following these

fad-type of workouts, he has grown frustrated with never seeing the results he is aiming for.  When he came to me for advice, I told him to ditch these fad workouts, and start training using sound principle.

Many efficient training programs involve the principle of progression, where you need to keep pushing the body to its limits by either increasing weights and / or repetitions, so the muscles are adequately challenged.  Good personal trainers will base your workouts using this principle.  But without proper technique, it can be confusing and even unsafe figuring out how and when to progress.  So here is an easy saying that you can use in your own training programs to help you get a handle on simple progression:  Get it, Repeat it, Beat it. 

         I use this saying in my own training when I start a new training routine.  Here is how to use it.  When you have chosen an appropriate exercise, such as squats to improve lower body strength, select a weight and repetition combination that you can “get it”, meaning you can actually do it.  Use that weight for at least one workout.  The weight should be enough that you can perform the exercise with proper form for the appropriate reps.  Then, in your next workout, see if you can “repeat it”.  Your goal should be to do the same weight for the same repetitions.  Repeating it allows your muscles the time and opportunity to adapt to that stress.  The final step is to “beat it.”  You can beat what you were already doing by either doing the same weight for more reps, or doing a heavier weight for the same number of reps.  Either way you “beat” what you already had been doing, allows for the progression that your muscles need to develop. 

The best ways to efficiently achieve your fitness goals is to follow sound training principles as opposed to the latest fad-type workouts.  While you might not need a full physiology class to understand how muscle works, a simple understanding and implementation of training progression will efficiently get you to a fit new you!