Achieve Results Faster at the Gym

Fitness is an obsession for many Americans. Stop by your neighborhood fitness club or YMCA and look at the number of cars in the parking lot on a typical evening. You'll find dozens and dozens of cars in the parking lot and even more people inside trying to lose weight, gain muscle, and improve their overall health. But do they know what they're doing? Or are they just wasting their time?

For many people, their zeal exceeds their technique. They exercise enthusiastically but without the knowledge of how to exercise effectively, their progress will be slow. And nothing is more discouraging than to put a large amount of effort into something and not get the results you'd hoped to see.

The following tips will help you make the most out of your time at the gym. If your goal is to get stronger and add lean muscle to replace the fat you're burning through exercise, these tips will help you immensely.

1. Form over function

Every gym in the country is full of people who are working out hard and with high intensity but who are using very bad form. When an exercise is performed with poor form, the intended muscle groups aren't isolated. When this is the case, those muscles aren't forced to work as hard and they don't experience the tearing down and rebuilding phases that are the foundation of muscle growth.

Another problem with using bad form is the potential risk of injury. For some exercises, bad form isn't just a matter of decreased effectiveness; it's a matter of serious health issues. People doing biceps curls while cheating by violently arching their backs to help pull up the weight is a common sight in most gyms. But many have suffered the consequences of serious back injuries from that very same maneuver. Squats are another exercise that offers the potential for serious injury if not performed correctly. The knees and back are both at risk if bad form is used in order to lift more weight than could be done if proper form was used. It is very important to be educated about the proper technique for each exercise and force yourself to do each movement strictly in order to achieve maximum results and avoid injury.

2. Focus on the negative

The motion of lifting weights involves two movements: the positive and the negative. The positive is the portion of the repetition in which the weight is lifted up against the pull of gravity. The negative involves returning it to its former position. Often, people concentrate on the positive and neglect the negative. But those people are missing out on large amounts of growth potential by doing so.

The negative potion of the exercise should be performed slowly and deliberately, in a very controlled motion. It is not a time for rest; it is just a different resistance with which to challenge your muscles. There are often times when you find yourself unable to complete any more strict, full repetitions. In those instances, you can squeeze more effort out of your muscles by performing exaggerated negative repetitions. This involves lowering the weight down to its starting position as slowly as possible. In essence, you will be trying to hold the weight still. Give this a try and you'll be amazed at how difficult and rewarding it is.

3. Get adequate rest

Contrary to what you might think, lifting weights every day is not the quickest way to achieve maximum strength and size results. If a particular muscle group is worked too frequently, it won't have the opportunity to heal and rebuild itself. In addition to this, not giving your muscles sufficient time to heal will also increase the risk of injury. So, carefully plan your workouts to allow at least two days of rest in between workouts for each muscle group. And remember when you're scheduling your workouts that some muscles will still get worked even if they are not your primary target. For instance, never do triceps exercises the day after you work your chest and shoulders. Your triceps will get a significant amount of work while doing bench and shoulder presses and working them a second day in a row will just overstress them.

While on the subject of rest, it should also be noted that it is very important to take adequate rests in between your sets. Some people try to perform their sets as close together as they can, thinking that they can turn their workout into some type of aerobic event. But all they're really doing is decreasing the amount of energy they'll have to devote to each set. The body needs time to recuperate between sets - between one to three minutes - in order to perform at its maximum capacity for the next set. Performing at your best for each set will allow you to lift heavier weights and force your muscles to grow much more than you would if you worked out faster using lighter weights.

4. Start every workout with squats

I'm sure you're reading this point and thinking, "What? Start my workout with squats? Why?" Squats are one of the most useful exercises you can perform. They involve a dizzying array of different muscle groups including the thighs, hamstrings, calves, back, and many of the stabilizing muscles of the abdomen. Unless you are planning on doing a more advanced, complex exercise like the power clean, the squat is the closest you will come to a full body workout.

Squats are a complex, multi joint exercise. Exercises like these are more difficult than single joint exercises (like biceps curls or leg extensions) but they provide an extra benefit that makes them eminently more valuable: multi joint exercises stimulate the body to produce more testosterone over a very short period of time. This temporary influx of testosterone will increase the effectiveness of all the other exercises done during that workout. Say, for instance, that you start your workout with squats and then move on to bench presses. From there you work your shoulders and then your triceps. Your chest, shoulders, and triceps will all be the beneficiaries of the physiological changes induced by the squats at the beginning of your workout.

To take this tip one step further, you should always put multi joint exercises early in your workout and single joint exercises at the end. The more difficult the exercise and the more body parts it involves, the earlier it should be placed in your workout. The cascading benefits of this workout structure will lead to greatly enhanced strength improvements.

In conclusion, it is important to not only be enthusiastic in your workouts but to be educated, as well. Use strict form, take advantage of both the positive and negative portions of each exercise, make sure you're getting adequate rest, and do all your complex, multi joint exercises - especially squats - at the beginning of your workouts. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how effective your workouts will become.