New resistance and weight training plan

For the past 12 weeks, I have been working on the Hypertrophy I workout plan from New Rules of Lifting, but that plan officially ended this morning. (Actually, I should have started the new plan this morning, but I ran out of time over the weekend, and never got around to setting up the new one.)

So on Wednesday, I’m planning on kicking off the Hypertrophy II plan from NROL. The concepts of this plan are similar to Hypertrophy I (upper body in one workout, lower body in the next, vary the amount of weight and the reps, etc.). However, this plan takes that concept to a whole new level - there are actually 3 separate workouts, each of which you do 8 times, so you go through the whole plan in 8 weeks if you lift 3 times a week, like I do. In the previous plan, you had three different set/rep/weight combinations; in this plan you have 4 combinations. For instance, in one week, you might do 2 sets of 25 reps with a lower weight; in the next week, you might do 6 sets of 3 reps each with very heavy weights. The other difference is the tempo - in the previous plan, you kept a steady ‘311′ flow, which meant you took 3 seconds to perform the first part of the move, then 1 second fully extended, then one second to take the weight back to the starting position. In this workout, it varies each week - one week may have a 3-second lift, with no pause, and then 1 second to recover.

All of this complexity (which really isn’t that complex, if you copy the pages from the book or put them on a spreadsheet and take them with you to the gym) basically means that you’re giving your body a lot of variety, which in turn forces your body to recover differently after each workout. That’s a good thing, because if you keep your body off-guard, so to speak, you maximize the amount of muscle growth you’re going to achieve. You see, our bodies were designed to reach a certain threshold of musculature based on the activity performed; if we change that activity up, the body has to constantly act and react, which keeps your muscle constantly repairing, and that leads to muscle growth.

All of this post basically points to one thing - depending on your fitness level, your body learns to adapt to the exercise it’s being provided. As a result, it’s important to develop variety in your workouts if you are wanting to lose weight or increase your strength. That’s why the NROL plan recommends changing your workout routine at least every 8-12 weeks. It not only maximizes the return from the lifting you do, but it also helps keep you motivated to do more.

So, what do YOU do to keep motivated in the gym, and to keep your weight-loss or fitness goals fresh?