Fit and fine by Kamal Singh CSCS: How to ensure you keep progressing in the gym

A rut many who frequent the gym find themselves in, making progress in your techniques and being regular are crucial. Here are some tips to get you out of that funk

This is a situation that many fitness enthusiasts run into. They are super diligent in getting to the gym, watch their diet like a hawk but getting stronger or putting on muscular weight grinds to a halt. They change programs, eat more protein but nothing seems to have an effect. The reasons for their lack of progress can be divided into two parts – inside the gym and outside the gym. Let’s start with:

Even if you’re a regular at the gym, there may be many reasons why you could feel unmotivated (Shutterstock)

Reasons outside the gym:

•Lack of sleep: Do not expect to make progress if you are not getting 8 hours of sleep every night. Netflix, social media and late-night parties are the leading causes for chronic sleep deprivation. If you are an athlete or a fitness-oriented person then you cannot compromise on sleep. Do not ask me about methods of recovery if you cannot get eight hours of sleep at night. There are quite a few that do get sleep for eight hours but the quality of sleep is severely challenged. If you wake up tired then obviously, you did not get enough sleep. Put away your handheld electronic devices at least an hour before you sleep, read a boring book.

•Quality of food: Supplements are not a substitute for wholesome, good quality food. Most gym goers think that if they dunk down protein shakes, mass gainers etc then they do not need to eat regular food. Like how you cannot out-train a bad diet, similarly you cannot out supplement a bad diet. If your day to day is full of fast food, as well as alcohol then supplements will not be able to do much for you. For the diet, old school is the way to go – eggs, meat, milk, cheese, vegetables, fruits should be what you consume. Additional protein needs can be covered from protein shakes. Also, if you are a vegetarian, then protein shakes are a great boon.

•Antioxidant supplementation: We know that eating too many antioxidants like Vitamin A, C and E can blunt muscle growth. As antioxidants cut down the impact of exercise on muscle, adaptation can be affected. Similarly ingesting anti-inflammatory medicines to cut down on muscle soreness post exercise also affects muscle growth and hypertrophy.

Loss of sleep due to late night bingewatching sessions could be also be why you feel exhausted at the gym (Shutterstock)

Reasons inside the gym:

•Using the inappropriate training split: Most gym goers are put on to a body part split programs too early by gym trainers. For most trainees, a full body program thrice a week is sufficient for the initial 6-8 months of their training life, followed by an upper/lower split four times a week. A body part split should be done by somebody who has about 2-3 years of regular training under their belt. Body part splits lead to training a muscle only once a week. This frequency is inadequate for muscle growth for beginners and intermediate trainees.

•Too much volume: This ties in with the above point. Most gym goers end up doing way too many exercises. Everybody thinks that doing more exercises, piling on more weight is always better. People end up doing 4-6 exercises per body part. Such a large number of exercises are unnecessary and would lead to an overly long workout. And no matter how advanced you think are, you do not need 6 exercises for your biceps! The workout should be done in 60-75 minutes maximum, including warm ups and cool downs.

•Lifting too much weight: Progressive overload is the name of the game but just increasing the weight on the bar while the form becomes sloppy is not progressive overload. If your training partner is helping you lift the bar, then obviously its too heavy. Also use smaller jumps while adding weight to the bar. For hypertrophy, it’s important to have a mind-muscle link while lifting weights. Try to feel the muscle while moving the weight. When the weight becomes too heavy, the mind muscle link is difficult to establish.

•Copying an experienced lifter’s program: Doing Usain Bolt’s sprint training program will not turn anyone into Usain Bolt. Similarly, blindly copying Mr Olympia lifting program will not turn you into Mr Olympia. ‘Nuff said.

Progress stalling in the gym could be because of many reasons. Doubling up on working harder, changing programs are the easy answers but as always it could be more complicated than that. It would be a good idea to look at the big picture and then make the required changes, rather than go with the low hanging fruit. Now go and do it.

Kamal Singh is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist who has been coaching for 15 years

From HT Brunch, March 21, 2021

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