absolute fitness Tip#8

Strength Training Secrets

When designing your strength training regime, make sure you sit down and thoroughly go through what you want to achieve, and how you are going to do it. Having a written routine will ensure appropriate progression, structure and overall results.

One important strength training fitness tip, is to work around the periodisation technique. This will progress you every week over a 4-6 week timeframe.

Try a plan of starting with lighter weights and more reps, and each week increasing the weight size appropriately and decreasing the number of reps. When you increase the weight, aim to work with a weight that produces fatigue with 2-3 reps to go to the end of the set. So, for example, if you did an exercise that was 20kg x 20 reps, then the next week you would aim to do something like 22kg x 18 reps and so on.

When you have completed a 4-6 week progressive programme and seen improvements, then aim to have a 1 week active rest week. This is where you carry out your training in a much lower state of intensity, try some cross training, or do something different.

The periodisation technique comes into it's own when you restart again after this active rest week... here, you design a new programme with a couple of new exercises, and include some of your old ones too. You will then go back to the start i.e x 20 reps, but this time, your starting weight should be greater than when you started i.e 22kg or 24kg for the same exercise as before. This will be possible due to your significant strength improvements developed during your initial 4-6 week periodised, progressive programme.

Repeat this process during your strength training programming, and you will see some amazing results.

Happy Training... remember, work hard - train harder!

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absolute fitness Tip#7

Balance out the Good and the Not So Good!

When setting out on the long a winding trek of discovering overall wellness, I find it really useful to try to make a list of all the positive benefits exercising has on your life. This can range from giving you more energy to reducing your health ailments and beyond. The list should be pretty long. Once this list has been created, a good tip is to post it somewhere that you will see regularly and can serve as a reminder to you as to why you need to workout.

Another excellent task to carry out on a regular basis which doesn't really take much time - is what I call a 'decisional balance'. This, once completed will outline potentially to you personally what are all the good and less good things of having health and exercise and NO health and exercise in your life!

To do this - simply get a sheet of paper and draw a line across the middle of the paper, and one vertically down the middle of the paper to create a large '+' type sign. Then, title the top left box 'Good things - Exercise', title the top right box 'Good things - NO Exercise', then title the bottom left box ' Less Good things - Exercise' and the bottom right box ' Less Good things - NO Exercise'.

Then sit quitely on your own, and spend as long as you want to complete all the boxes. Write what personally you feel should go in each box. For example: Good - Exercise = Stronger, tone, slimmer etc. and in the box: Good - NO Exercise = More time with family, time for other recreational activity etc.

Once you have completed this task, and all the boxes have been written in, it will show you personally how you tip on a decisional balance scale - and what is important to you or not. If you notice many things swinging in the favour of exercise and health, then this means it is important to you to achieve whatever goals you have set yourself, however, you have also highlighted possible barriers, and negative feelings towards exercise in other boxes.


This isn't a bad thing, as we all have them, it just means you will be able to put into place systems to overcome the barriers and feelings if and when they arise.

Review this decisional balance regularly, and re-write if your goals and ambitions ever change. If you would like to talk over what you end up writing with a fitness professional, then feel free to contact me by phone or email, at absolutefitness@fsmail.net or visit my website for details on how absolute fitness can help you!

Good luck tipping the balance...