PART 1: POWER

For many of us, the routine of training every day becomes a way of life. And it’s no surprise why. Fitness can be addictive – but at what point does motivation let slide to habit. When did putting in the time stop amounting to results?

Habitual training is the act of exercising out of habit rather than training for results. And the problem with this? We run the risk of looking back in twelve months’ time and asking ourselves, was it really all worthwhile? Humans are creatures of habit, it’s in our blood, so don’t feel bad if you can relate – we’ve all been there!

If you’re training consistently but your results don’t reflect this, the reason might be your program design. Are you training specifically to meet your fitness goals?

Strength, hypertrophy, power, and endurance – each of these different elements of fitness have their own specific training style, their own unique exercises, and a set of specifics around load, reps, sets, rest, duration, speed and number of sessions. There’s a lot to think about. Over the next few months, I’ll be taking you through each of the four core training styles, to help you train smarter and adopt a program that will help you make the most of your gym sessions, converting your hard work into solid results and keeping you on track to meet your fitness goals.

The benefits of strength training are wide-ranging. Not only does it make you stronger, it can also help you lose weight, tone your muscles, boost your metabolism and leave you looking and feeling great.

Check out my key points for strength training below:

Start with your heavy barbell lifts first, before moving to dumbbell and bodyweight. These lifts help you to gain strength quicker, and you’ll need the most energy in your tank for them.

Keep the sessions short, with one big lift at the beginning, followed by your assistance lifts and conditioning to keep the body balanced.

Load up! Strength training requires lifting a heavy weight, 80-90% of your 1RM (rep max). If you’re not sure what your 1RM is, the Anytime Workouts app can calculate this for you.

Keep your reps low, in the 1-5 range, and then depending on how many reps you choose, vary your sets from 4-7.

Rest is vital for lifting heavy weights so take what you need, anywhere between 2 and 6 minutes between each set.

Keep the tempo of each rep steady and controlled. No need to mess around with slow tempo – we’ll talk about that when we cover hypertrophy and the principles of time under tension.

To ensure you are increasing your strength, you’ll need at least 3 strength sessions per week.

Keep track of your numbers and increase slowly over time to avoid the dreaded plateau.

If you’re looking for a strength workout or plan to get your started, check out the Anytime Workouts app.

National Fitness Manager, Anytime Fitness – Kate Allott 

With a career spanning 10 years as a dancer, Kate has always been fascinated by human body movement. This active background launched her into a new career in personal training, before moving into the position of National Fitness Manager at Anytime Fitness Australia. Kate’s holistic view of health and fitness is driven by her passion to educate Australians about the link between physical fitness and mental health. For Kate, it’s all about wellness, movement, and doing what you love.