I was working out in the gym. I was waiting for a dumbbell since a young guy was using it. After he finished his set, he put the Dumbell back. “Sir, am I doing it right?” He asked me . “Yes, you are doing it right,” I said to him. “But I am not getting results, I can’t see any changes in my physique. Why is that so?” He asked. “It’s not about the exercises you are doing, it’s about scheduling,” I replied. “If your workout schedule is wrong, if you are doing exercises in wrong sequence, if you are working out with wrong intensity, wrong Inattention, if you are doing very lengthy workout, if you are not focused, if you are not giving enough time to recover your muscle, if you are not getting enough sleep, if you are Overtraining, you won’t be able to get a result you are looking for.” Hearing all this, he got a little confused. You may also have been. Many people spend months- sometimes years- in the gym without seeing the results they expect. They sweat, lift weights, show up regularly, yet progress feels slow or completely stuck. Let’s break down the key things every gym goer should know to unlock real progress. So today we will talk about this. Today, in this article, I will explain all those things one by one. So first, we will start with warming up. You should always start your workout with proper warm up. Now there are two methods of warming up. The first one is walking or running for 10-15 minutes on a treadmill, cycle or elliptical machine. After that you start weight training. This is the most common method used by almost 70 to 80 percent of people in the gym. The second is whatever muscle you are going to train, you warm up that particular muscle with light weights, before you move on to heavy weight for your main set. This is called a specific warm up.

Now the first method, running on a treadmill or doing any aerobic activity before weight training is a wrong method. Because weight training is an anaerobic thing. It has nothing to do with aerobic training. Weight training is strength training. You should be able to put maximum load on your muscles. By doing aerobic exercise before weight training, you are making your body tired. You should be fresh while starting any weight training program. And by the way, both aerobic and anaerobic activity work at different hormone levels, so there is no point mixing both. Suppose you do 10-15 minutes of treadmill, do you think you can lift heavy weights straight away? So what’s the point in doing that?.

So whenever you start weight training, start with light weights. If you are training Chest, start with bench press with an empty barbell or very light dumbbell. Increase the weight by 30 to 40 percent in  the second set, which will be your preparatory set. Then move on to your main set, with maximum weight.

Many people do cardio for 20-30 minutes after their weight training session, this is also wrong. If you are doing cardio after weight training,this means that you have not given 100 percent effort in your weight training session.

The next thing is your workout schedule- How many days do you do weight training in a week? I have seen people doing weight training six days a week, working one muscle every day like  chest, one day back, shoulders on another day, legs one day, arms on a separate day, and so on. This is not a good idea, doing weight training six days a week, because your muscles need rest to grow. Gaining muscle is a process. Muscles are not formed in a gym. You break down the muscle tissue in the gym. After that, when you give proper nutrition and proper rest, the muscle tissue grows. This growth process is called Hypertrophy. Muscle needs 36 to 48 hours to recover. So, you must do weight training 3 times a week, preferably every alternate day. When you train all muscles separately, you actually overtrain small muscles like shoulders, bicep-triceps.

While working out, many people do exercises with random patterns. This mistake was made by most beginners. They exercise randomly, like working out small muscles first like shoulders, biceps or triceps and then move on with back, chest or legs. You should always start your workout with bigger muscles first and then move to small muscles. Random workouts lead to random results. So focus more on bigger muscles which will give you better results.

Next thing is, how focused are you while training? If you are training really hard, you must finish your workout within one hour. If you are not doing so, that means you are fooling around with friends, wasting your time on other things rather than the workout. Even while doing cardio, i have seen people cycling with very less intensity, watching mobile, and just peddling. If you don’t challenge yourself, you won’t get results. Intensity matters a lot. Some people are great while doing the set. But after finishing the set, they sit on their mobile, talking to other members or speaking on the phone. Now these things can break your mind muscle link. Your mind muscle link is very important. Whichever muscle you are working, your focus should be there.

Your goal- you should always stick to the plan. Without a clear plan, your body doesn’t receive consistent signals to grow stronger or leaner. Weight training is purely anaerobic thing. It has nothing to do with aerobics. You must finish your workout within one hour if you are training really hard. Prolonged workout means your intensity is not up to the mark. You may be playing with light weights. Weight training is strength training. It’s not about how long you can workout. It’s about how hard you can workout. You have to put maximum strength in each and every set, each and every rep. It’s not about the length of workout, it’s about the quality of workout. Train hard, go home & relax.

Intensity matters a lot. Your rep range should be between 8 to 12 reps. You have to lift the weight that allows you to perform only 8 to 10 reps, not more than that. There is no point in taking less weight and doing 25-30 reps. If the weights or intensity stay the same every week, your body has no reason to adapt, progress requires gradual challenge.

Next thing is Overtraining. Most of the people do Overtraining while working out. There is a thin line between training and Overtraining. You should understand where to stop. Sometimes we target for say 8 to 10 reps, but we fail to do it. We end up doing 6-7 reps. Then we add one more set to make up this. It’s a big mistake. You need to forget that set and move on to the next set.

Another mistake people do is range of motion. Every exercise should be done in full range of motion, so that maximum muscle fibers will recruit. But a lot of people do short range. It’s not going to work.

Speed of the movement is also very important. There are three phases in every rep. Three contractions- Eccentric, Concentric and peak. Weight works against  gravity. So whenever you are lifting the weight against the gravity, your muscle is contracting. This phase is called Concentric contraction. This should be fast. At the top of the movement is peak contraction. You should hold your movement at this point. When you are lowering the weight, this phase is called eccentric contraction. This should be very slow.

• FINAL THOUGHTS

Success in fitness comes from awareness. Lack of results usually isn’t due to effort- but due to lack of planning, Nutrition, recovery, wrong scheduling which leads to Overtraining, patience, intensity. These are small things which fail to give you the results you are looking for. Some people overtrain arms and chest while ignoring legs or back. Balance is essential for strength, symmetry and injury prevention. 

Muscle growth or fat loss don’t happen in the gym. It happens during recovery. Lack of sleep limits the results. One week of consistency followed by inconsistency won’t produce results. Fitness is a slow process. Jumping from one routine to another prevents your body from adapting. Stick to the plan long enough to measure real progress. Results don’t come from doing more. It comes from doing things right. 

• STAY AWAY FROM STEROIDS. 
• SAY NO TO DRUGS.