Shake It Up To Shape It Up!

Posted by Valerie Waters on Nov 09, 2009 in Uncategorized Pin It

There you are, you’ve started a training program and you’re seeing fantastic progress..  your arms are starting to show some tone, the number on the scale is getting smaller, your butt is lifting up, your waistline is getting tighter and tighter..  and everything is well and good!

Then all of a sudden, your results slow down dramatically.. or even come to a screeching halt!..  OH NO!

What do you do?  Workout harder?  Workout longer?  What if that’s not an option?  Cut your calories even more?  Deprive yourself of more of your favorite things?

Well, you’ll be happy to hear that you probably don’t have to do any of these things!  Making a few changes to your workout plan just might do the trick.

The best way to kick this plateau is to incorporate some form of progression into your workouts.  You can do this in a slew of different ways, but i’ll discuss a few of them in this article.

1.  More weight: Often implemented & overdone by many women – leading to an undesirable result:  excess “bulk.”

WARNING :: Don’t listen to the trainers that tell you “women can’t get too bulky.”  I’ve discussed this in previous posts on my blog but it can’t be stressed enough.  The key word here is “too.”  I’ve seen it happen time and time again.. I’m often the one who gets the call when someone needs to undo excess bulkiness from other trainers and workout programs. :: WARNING

2.  More reps :: simple enough.  Adding more repetitions per set to an existing training program.  If you did 10 last week, do 12 this week.  And so on and so on.

3.  Same work, less time ::  Time how long it takes you to complete a circuit and/or workout.  If it took you 45 minutes last week, try to complete it in 43 minutes this time.

4.  Repetition Speed :: This can be done in a few different ways :: the most effective is to increase the time it takes you to LOWER the weight (the eccentric phase) and decrease the time it takes you to complete the lifting portion (the concentric phase).  So on a Dumbbell press, for example, try taking 5 seconds to lower the weight and press it back up more explosively..

5.  Change angles :: You can achieve this by changing the angle of your benches, increasing the height of your steps (on step-ups)..  taking longer strides on your lunges, etc.

6.  Increased time on “holding” exercises :: often times much harder than it sounds.  An example would be increasing the duration you’re holding your plank exercises from week to week.

An example of one of my favorite plank progressions:

Plank -> Plank on Stability Ball -> Valslide 1-arm Slide

So you’re going from the standard “stable” version of the plank, into a slightly less stable version on the Valslides..  into the most difficult version on the stability ball.

These can be performed for 2-3 weeks each.. ensuring your body doesn’t adapt.  It might look like this:

Week 1:  Plank:  30 seconds
Week 2:  Plank:  60 seconds
Week 3:  Plank:  75 seconds
Week 4:  Stability Ball Plank:  45 seconds
Week 5:  Stability Ball Plank:  60 seconds
Week 6:  VS 1-Arm Slide:  10 each side
Week 7:  VS 1-Arm Slide:  12 each side
Week 8:  VS 1-Arm Slide:  15 each side

No matter what you do, you can’t continue to do the same exact workout and expect the same result you may have seen in the beginning.  Your body is an amazing machine and will continue to adapt to whatever you throw at it..  so keep it guessing!

My Action Hero Babe Training System incorporates my most effective body transformation progressions, in a done-for-you system that requires no extra thought!  You simply pop the DVDs in your player and off you go!  Just follow along with me for 60 days as I take you through some of the most fun and effective workouts you will ever do!

Build Burn & Sculpt Your New Body in 60 Days or Less!