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Make Every Rep Count

I was at the gym today doing heavy sets of power cleans, when I saw a girl doing tricep pushdowns on the cable machine. Not only did she look utterly bored, but she actually yawned during the set! And of course, she was lifting a weight that required no amount of effort whatsoever.

So I go on to do my next set of cleans, only to glance over and see her yawning again during her next set! Really?

Now this is a girl who I've seen coming to the gym for years...and yet I've seen no change in her body at all. The fact that she is not putting any effort or intensity into her weight training is part of the problem, I'm sure.

The sad thing is, this is all too common with women. Most women don't know what it really means to lift with intensity. They don't really know what it should feel like to lift heavy and to put real effort into it. Therefore, they never get the results out of weight training that they truly could.

Women need to learn how to train like men. If you watch guys lift at the gym, most of them are straining, grunting, breathing heavy, making ugly faces, and definitely NOT yawning in the middle of a set. Why is that? Because they are lifting heavy.



When you lift weights, you should be lifting heavy enough that you might actually have to strain a little, and you might have to make some weird faces! If you're not straining, then you're just going through the motions. And going through the motions does NOT bring you results. Results require effort. REAL effort. Half hearted effort brings half hearted results.

When you are doing a set, whatever exercise it is, you should be extremely focused-not looking around the gym, not just going through the motions.

Instead, you should focus on the muscle you're working. Put you're mind into it. Feel it moving and contracting. Push hard. Don't stop when it starts to feel heavy. Breathe. Strain. Make every rep count.


Comments

  1. AmandaAugust 28, 2011 at 12:07 AM

    Hey lindsay, i'm guilty of yawning at the gym!!! but let me clarify - its 8.30 at night, ive cleaned a couple of 2-storey houses (I have a house cleaning business and i do 2 houses a day), hung out and brought in 2 loads of washing at home, picked up a few groceries, taken kids to either dancing, netball, football, orthodontist (2 of them have braces) cooked dinner and cleaned up then gone to the gym at 6.45pm to get in a workout before i pick the girls up from dancing at 8.30pm. so around the 8pm mark i'm yawning!!!! but i also lift heavy and to failure and do back to back sets with no rest!!! but yeah - i know what you mean about some people - you wonder why they go to the gym at all. good post!!! (sorry about the long comment - are you yawning yet !!!!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 28, 2011 at 7:37 AM

    I can understand that, Amanda! I mean, I may have yawned at the gym before...but not in the middle of a set! I commend you for getting to the gym after all of that AND lifting heavy!

    ReplyDelete

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