Twenty Quick Tips For Strength Training

They almost all boil down to know thyself.

• Be consistent-a week off here and there isn’t going to hurt your progress, and might actually help it. But a month will set you back. Know what motivates you and gets your ass in the gym, whether it’s a personal trainer or trying a new exercise.
• Do enough of a variety of exercises that you don’t get repetitive stress injuries (RSIs), but not so much that you aren’t doing the most effective exercises. Doing 5 different exercises for back is a lot better than 1, but 5 might be better than 15, as those 15 probably include a lot of less effective ones. Know which movements work for you.
• Learn how to train to failure, but don’t always do it. This is a nice tool in the toolbox and you should mentally develop this skill, but using it too often can lead to stagnation for most people. Know where you stand on that is important.
• Compare yourself to other people…but in a positive way. The worst situation is if you are the strongest person in your gym. Always seek out people to learn from-with the internet this is so easy that you have no excuses, even if you are already very strong. Every man or woman is your better in some way.
• Find how much volume you can tolerate for a particular body part, and then do a bit less. That might be 15 sets per week for chest and 20 for back. It will also vary based on which exercises you choose. Often people will do low volume programs and stagnate, then wonder why. The volume drives the progress, for some people. Find out if you are one of them.
• Vary your volume. That might seem to fly in the face of #5, so let me explain. You can’t train at your max volume all the time. Find it, and then do 40–50% volume some weeks, 50–75% other weeks, and 75–100% volume other weeks. Find out how much you have to undulate your volume, and how.
• Vary your rep ranges. Doing all of 1–5, 6–12 and 13+ will be better for long term progress than just one. Even if your goal is only strength, doing some work in the high reps will build a good base to build off of, especially on accessory exercises. Some people find that higher reps make them stronger at the lower reps, others find they actually make them weaker temporarily. So find out which you are.
• Speaking of which, find which accessory lifts work for you. Let’s say you want to build your deadlift. One guy says that bent over rows are the key, another says paused deadlifts are the best way, yet another points to Romanian deadlifts as being essential. Your other friend says that you need to be doing back extensions, while you read on a website that the front squat will help the most. One online coach is a big proponent of speed deadlifts, while yet another says that you won’t get anywhere without good mornings. What to do? Try them all out at different times, then find out which helps you the most. Be prepared to add the others back in later if your weak points change-you don’t train in a vacuum and your training should be ever-evolving.
• Find your frequency. This also varies a lot-some people can get better on just two workouts a week, others prefer two a day. As with almost everything on this list, experiment to find what is ideal for you.
• Be familiar with your signs of overreaching-when you’ve trained just a bit too much, for too long, for your own good. For me, this is restless sleep and slight water retention. For other people it might be irritability and weight loss. Find your signs. There are dozens of them.
• This might seem obvious, but if you don’t have a progression, how do you expect you make progress? Find out how to do that. For some people, they need those heavy 1–3 reps to advance. Others do fine with 5–10. Still others do best on higher reps. Others need heavy partials, partner-assisted eccentrics, with more than their 1 rep max.
• Find your prehab movements. Almost every injury in the gym is avoidable. Most injuries are chronic ones-they appear over weeks and months. Know what injuries YOU are prone to. For me, too much volume or load on wide grip pullups, wide grip pulldowns, behind the neck presses, etc will definitely leave my shoulders feeling a bit unhappy, but if I do face pulls, they’re fine. If I do too much deep squatting or sumo deadlifting along with sitting all day, my hip labrums will get achy. But, side planks with leg raises usually fixes that pretty quick.
• Keep your shoulders happy. Face pulls, rear delt raises, dumbbell external rotations and lots of rowing is usually the key, but you might discover other exercises. Balance out all that bench pressing with scapular retraction and upward rotation work.
• Keep your knees happy. Don’t dive-bomb squats. Don’t overdo volume on squats. Don’t let your knees cave in. Too much Olympic lifting can do it too, especially the jerk phase. Strengthen your hips, especially your glute medius, adductors and abductors. Do light leg curls before squats.
• Keep your lower back happy. Don’t round over on deadlifts. Don’t round over on squats. Don’t arch back on curls or overhead presses. Keep your abs strong-do hanging leg raises, planks, ab wheel. Keep your lower back strong-do back extensions. Keep your glutes strong-do split squats, lunges and hip thrusts for high reps.
• Don’t do stupid shit. This is different for every person-for a trained Olympic lifter, maxing out on snatches is a typical Tuesday. For me, that’s a potential trip to an orthopedist to chip in for his new Ferrari fund.
• Run your own race. There will always be people better than you at some lift or another. Don’t tear people down because they are better than you; build yourself up to try to match or beat them.
• Focus on health as well as strength. In the long term, they go hand in hand.
• Track your progress. This is best done with a training log of some kind. If you don’t have a written (or typed) record of your training, you might find it difficult to progress. You wouldn’t go sailing across the ocean without a map, so don’t plot a training course without a training log.
• Enjoy it!

With those tips, you are armed with the knowledge to get great results!