Are you looking for a few simple ideas for mixing up your workout routine? Now and then, you may catch yourself stuck in the same routine. As a result, your workout may become boring. Thus, this happens when it gets easy to skip your workout, and you no longer see results from your workout. The key to success in bodybuilding is consistency and compliance. We know you have heard the saying – winners do not quit, and quitters do not win.
You may have noticed how easily you talked yourself out of going to the gym for a few days. Something needs to change. So here are three ideas that you can use to spice up your workout and regain your drive to win. Try them, and you’ll find some new excitement in your workout.
Change Your Grip!
Changing your grip is a slight change compared to most of the others you can do, but one way to spice up your workout from time to time is to change the way you’re gripping the bar when doing barbell or machine exercises.
One of my favorite grips is the palm grip. However, we’ve read several articles from fitness trainers and other professional athletes that suggest that you should only use a palm grip on exercises like the bench press.
So what is a palm grip? Let’s use the bench press as an example for the palm grip. Many of us have been guilty of using a standard grip on this exercise. A standard grip would be where you wrap your hand around the bar as if you were holding a baseball bat.
If you want a more effective bench press, try not wrapping your thumb around the bar. You might think you’ll lose some stability by doing this, but most never have that problem. Instead, you might have to bend your wrist to compensate or lower the weight.
The primary benefit of using a palm grip on this type of exercise is that putting your thumb in this position reduces your forearms’ effort in the exercise. Therefore, your chest and tricep muscles will have to work even harder to do the lift. Try this and notice a difference the next time you perform a bench press.
Try Tri-Sets!
You’ve probably heard of supersets, where you do two exercises consecutively without resting in between. Have you ever tried doing three different exercises? Also, this works exceptionally well with bicep exercises. The benefit of doing a tri-set with a bicep workout is it allows you to hit the bicep hard in three different ways.
Here is an example of a bicep tri-set: standing barbell curls, hammer curls, and reverse barbell curls. In this sequence, change your grip with each set of the tri-set. Thus, this is the best way to use a tri-set.
Here’s an example of a tri-set with triceps: straight bar cable pushdowns, rope cable pushdowns, and reverse cable pushdowns. Again, the key here is to change the grip on each exercise. Give these a try to feel a new pump in whatever muscle you use them with!
Change Your Split!
Have you been following the same split routine for too long? Has your split routine comprised chest and triceps, back and biceps, or something similar for several months? Try reversing your split or doing a five-day split instead of a three-day split. Do chest and biceps, back and triceps to mix it up slightly.
These are just a few basic ideas, but it’s always a good idea to mix up your routine continually. That way, you can keep your body guessing and growing to adapt to the changes in stress that you place on your muscles.
The Last Word on Three Simple Ideas to Mix Up Your Routine
If you’re looking for a few easy ways to mix up your routine, we hope these three simple ideas have given you some inspiration. Mixing things up can help keep your workouts exciting and motivating, key to sticking with them in the long run.
Experiment until you find something that works for you and makes you happy. What is the one slight change you can make today to shake up your routine?
Whether you decide to try out one or all of them, we encourage you to have fun with them and see what works best for you. And if you come up with any other great ideas along the way, be sure to share them with us!
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