How To Make Your Workouts More Effective

You know that exercising is essential to keep yourself healthy. Incorporating physical activity regularly – whatever that activity may look like – will improve your health, fitness and quality of life.

But let’s be real…you don’t want to put forth your time and effort into working out to get subpar results, right? Yes, any exercise will lead to health benefits simply because you’re moving your body! But I’m sure there’s a little (or big) part of you that wants to see and feel the physical fruits of your labor. And that’s nothing to be ashamed about! You’re working hard and staying committed – you deserve to see results.

In fact, if you don’t, it could discourage you from continuing. Imagine if day after day you push yourself in your workouts and months later you feel and look no different than when you first started…how disappointing! And then you’ll think, “well, what’s the point?” And over time, you’ll start skipping a workout here or there. And that skipping will become more frequent until you end up not doing it at all.

But it doesn’t haven’t to be like this! You can get amazing results (in addition to the great health benefits) from your workouts.

Half of the equation is just showing up, staying committed and putting in the effort. But this will only get you so far. The other half is being strategic to get the most out of your workouts.

In this article I’m going to tell you how to make your workouts more effective so you can get stronger, be fitter, look better and stay motivated to keep going!

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What Makes a Workout Effective?

The first step to make your workouts more effective is to understand how to determine effectiveness!

It’s a problem when you walk away from a workout feeling like it was a waste if you didn’t get sweaty, feel super fatigued, spend more than an hour at the gym or end up really sore. If this sounds like you, you’re basing the effectiveness of your workouts on things that don’t really matter. And you’re also missing the most important point of exercise!

Just because a workout didn’t completely destroy you, doesn’t mean it wasn’t effective. Now that’s not to say you shouldn’t be working hard. Because it’s also an issue if your workout was easy, didn’t require you to push yourself and you were just going through the motions. If you didn’t really feel challenged, well was it effective?

I know…now I’m just confusing you.

This will clear it up – The most important indicator of an effective workout is progress. If you progressed based on your previous performance, then your workout was effective!

Progress comes in many forms (which we’ll get into in more detail in the next section). But some examples include using heavier weight, better form, more reps, advanced variations of exercises, more time under tension.

If you base the effectiveness of your workouts on whether you progressed or not, you’re going to get better results from your training.

Because the point of exercise isn’t to destroy you. It’s also not to just go through the motions for the sake of doing it. The point of exercise is to make progress and get stronger!

So stop trying to get super sweaty or sore or fatigued just to believe you had a good workout. And also stop sandbagging and not putting forth your best effort to make progress.

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Component 1 – Program Continuity

Program continuity is the first component of an effective workout program. If you’re always doing random workouts and jumping from one program to the next, you cannot expect to make progress. And if you don’t make progress, your body isn’t actually going to change!

“But isn’t it good to always change things up & confuse your muscles so your body doesn’t adapt & get used to what you’re doing?”

Nope!

First of all, muscle confusion is not a thing. You can’t shock your muscles into being strong and looking defined. Imagine how complicated training would be if this were true. Always having to switch things up would just be exhausting!

And it’s actually counterproductive. Constantly changing things up doesn’t give your body a chance to adapt, which is the only way you’re going to get stronger. Progress doesn’t just happen in one workout. You don’t magically get stronger in one strength session. It takes time and repetitive tension.

For example, let’s say your training program calls for goblet squats in one of your workouts. But then the next week you decide to try a new training program that doesn’t include goblet squats. How are you going to make any progress on your goblet squats?! The better scenario would be to stick to that same training program that prescribed goblet squats for 4-8 weeks. On week 1, you’re able to get 3 sets of 12 with a 30 lb dumbbell. Then on week 2, you’re able to push yourself to get 3 sets of 8 with a 35 lb dumbbell. Then on week 3, you get 3 sets of 12 with the 35 lb dumbbell. And so on & so forth over the course of 4-8 weeks or until your progress begins to stall.

You’ve given your body the repetitive tension of doing the goblet squats week after week. And as you push yourself to get stronger based on the previous weeks performance, you’re able to actually adapt, make strength progress & track that progress! Versus not being able to do any of those things if you’re constantly changing what you’re doing.

Progress comes from the cumulative effect of your continuous, consistent, repetitive effort in the same workout over the course of weeks & months. It happens over time.

Program continuity is an essential component to make your workouts more effective because it allows for progress to occur!

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Component 2 – Progressive Overload

Now this one is going to sound a bit different than program continuity. I’m going to tell you that things shouldn’t actually stay the same. Just bear with me here.

Yes, you want to stick with the same program for at least 4 weeks. But that doesn’t mean everything should remain identical! Because doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results… sound familiar? It’s Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity.

If you do the same thing over and over again…are you insane for thinking your body is going to change? Maybe.

Yet I see this scenario happen all the time:

– Go to the gym

– Pick up the [insert number preference here] pound weights

– Do the standard routine of exercises

– Put down the [insert number preference here] pound weights

– Go home

– Repeat day after day, week after week, month after month…

And eventually frustration sets in because despite your effort, your body doesn’t look any different.

But how can you expect your body to change if you aren’t giving it a reason to?

The human body is smart – it adapts. It wants to become more efficient at doing what you ask it to. So if you want your body to change, you have to give it a reason to. And the way to do that isn’t by doing the exact same thing repeatedly. Your program stays the same, but you utilize the principle of progressive overload.

Progressive overload means forcing your body to do more over time. And it’s a requirement to make progress, get results from your training and to make your workouts more effective.

Through the process of progressive overload, you introduce a new stimulus to your body. Your body adapts to that stimulus by getting stronger. Then you give it a new stimulus and it adapts and gets stronger. And the cycle continues. This cycle is what leads to progress and improvements in your fitness and your physique.

How To Use Progressive Overload

There are many ways to apply the principle of progressive overload – none of which include changing your program too often & not limited to just more reps or more weight like you might be thinking (although those are quite effective). Here are multiple ways to push yourself to progress over time in your workouts:

1. Improve your movement quality by performing exercises with better form, more control and less effort (beginners will get a lot out of simply learning great form & performing exercises with more control).
2. Use a bigger range of motion to increase the number of muscle fibers you recruit to perform an exercise.
3. Increase time under tension by slowing down the tempo at which you perform an exercise.
4. Lift the same weight for more reps or sets to increase your total training volume.
5. Lift the same weight with more speed to increase the power you’re generating.
6. Lift heavier weight.
7. Perform more difficult variations of exercises.

Some important things to keep in mind about progressive overload –

1. It is a requirement for progress. Without it, you simply will not improve. So in order to make your workouts more effective, this component is a must!
2. Your progress won’t always be linear. There will be ups and downs. But as long as you keep pushing yourself, you will improve over time.
3. Your progress will slow down. When you first start strength training, your progress will be the fastest it will ever be. Those newbie gains are real! Just keep in mind that this rate of progress will slow down and it’s normal.
4. Good form should be your priority. Never sacrifice your form for more weight/reps/etc. Get strong with a weight or variation and only when you’ve mastered it do you make things more challenging.

You don’t have to progress in every exercise in every workout. As long as you’re continuously increasing how much demand you’re placing on your body, you will progress. And progress is the indicator of an effective workout!

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Component 3 – Exercise Selection & Form

I’m always getting asked, “What are the most effective exercises and and workouts?” And I’m always met with surprise when I answer. Turns out the the most effective exercises are the most basic ones. And the most effective workout programs are the ones that are primarily made up of these exercises.

To make your workouts more effective, you should prioritize the exercises that resemble your body’s natural movement patterns – the way you move in daily life for all activities you perform. These are the:

You need to be strengthening your entire body with mostly these exercises if you want to want to see real change and prevent injury.

These exercises also happen to be compound exercises – meaning, they work multiple muscle groups at one time – more bang for your buck compared to isolation exercises that only train one muscle group at once. There’s nothing wrong with including isolation exercises in your program. In fact, they can play an important role in a well-designed program. But they definitely shouldn’t make up the majority of your training.

It’s more effective and efficient to focus on building strength in compound exercises. They engage multiple muscle groups at the same time. Which means you can generally lift more or train at a higher intensity in these exercises. This will lead to more consistent progression in your strength over time and more and bigger changes in your body.

These exercises, again, are the ones that strengthen your body’s basic movement patterns. Which means they have a huge carryover into your daily life, as well. The result is an improved quality of life!

Compound exercises will be responsible for the majority of your strength progress, as well as building endurance, preventing injury and improving the quality of your life!

But it would be irresponsible for me to tell you to just do a bunch of compound exercises. I’d be leaving out a huge factor that will determine if these exercises will indeed make your workouts more effective.

And that is form. If you don’t perform these exercises with proper form, you’re just wasting your time. Because you’ll either not get the most out of the exercises, not make progress, get injured or all the above. Invest the time and effort into learning the proper form of all these exercises to get the most benefit out of them and be able to progress safely!

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Component 4 – Training Intensity

One of the major missing links holding you back from getting results from your training is intensity. There’s too much focus placed on volume (number of exercises, number of reps, etc). Believe it or not, there is a such thing as unproductive volume!

It’s one thing to just go through the motions in a workout and just kinda sorta do it. And another thing to actually push yourself, perform every single rep with purpose & take every single working set to within a few reps of failure.

If you’re training intensely enough, all you need to be doing is 8-15 sets per muscle group per week to make your workouts effective. You’re probably thinking, “that’s it?!” And I bet if you tried this right now, you’d still think, “that’s it?!” But again, what’s missing is the intensity. These sets must be intense in order to be productive. They don’t include warmup sets, sets that you don’t get to within a few reps of failure on or sets that just feel easy.

Let’s say you’re doing goblet squats for sets of 12. If reps 10, 11 and 12 were pretty easy and you walk away feeling like you had another 5, 6, 7 reps left in the tank, you’re not working hard enough.

This is why it’s so important to stick with the same training program for at least 4 weeks and track your progress from week to week. That way you can work really hard to get that extra rep in or use a heavier weight to perform better than you did the previous week.

Mind to Muscle Connection

Also take the time to learn what muscles the exercises you’re performing should be working. The mind to muscle connection is an incredibly underrated piece of training. Getting your head into it and focusing on the muscles you’re using in an exercise can improve your form and make your workouts more effective… rather than just going through the motions without a thought.

Let’s take the example of bodyweight squats. You can quite easily knock out 15 reps by bouncing up & down without paying any attention to what muscles are working, how your feet are driving into the ground, holding a lot of tension in the bottom position, etc. Or you can make that same set of bodyweight squats really intense by actually making a mind to muscle connection, working to drive your knees away from each other, maintaining a neutral spine by engaging your core & hips, pushing the ground away from you with your feet & contracting your quads & glutes as hard as possible.

So intensity can look like many different things. What matters most is how you feel at the end of your sets. If your heart rate is elevated, appropriate muscles are tired & you could only push out a few more reps, that’s when you know you’re working hard enough to make progress.

Intensity makes a huge difference. Don’t just workout to say you worked out. Make every rep of every set of every exercise of every workout worth it. Make it productive by pushing yourself hard and I guarantee your workouts will be more effective!

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Component 5 – Program Structure

Warning – this isn’t the most exciting topic, but it is incredibly important!

The structure of your training program plays a big role in the effectiveness of it. And by structure I mean how many days per week you’re working out (and how many rest days you have), your training split and the specific structure of your individual workouts.

Days Per Week & Rest Days

For the majority of people, training 3 to 4 times per week is the sweet spot. That’s right… you don’t have to workout every single day. In fact, you shouldn’t because it’ll hinder your results. If you’re not resting, you’re not allowing your body to actually get stronger. Building strength is a 2 part process. And neither part will work without the other. Without working out, your body doesn’t have any stimulus to change. And without rest days, there’s never any adaptation to that stimulus. Therefore…no change in your body.

Taking enough rest days is also important to your training longevity. If you’re never resting, there’s a chance you’ll end up associating working out with always feeling tired, sore and burned out. And that is enough to lead you to inconsistency & even not wanting to continue at all.

And further, if you are feeling the need to workout everyday and not feeling the need for rest days, it’s a pretty good indication that you aren’t working hard enough in your workouts. Scroll on back up and read component 4, training intensity 😉

Training Split & Workout Design

Based on how many days per week you’ll be working out, you’ll decide on a training split – which is just a fancy way of saying how your workouts are divided up over the week based on body parts or movements. There are many ways to structure an effective training split and you can read more about that here.

The next part of program structure is how your individual workout sessions are structured. I won’t go into too much depth about this here because you can read all about how to structure your workouts to be most effective in my article here. Briefly, a workout should generally have 4 different phases – the warmup, your main strength exercises, accessory movements & core, posterior chain & locomotion exercises. Again, click that link to read about this in detail because it makes a big difference in the effectiveness of your workouts!

Guidelines for Effective Program Structure

And in this program structure component, I’ll leave you with some general guidelines to keep in mind when structuring your training to make your workouts more effective. The first is to make sure you’re including all movement patterns in a balanced manner over the week. Again, these movements are the squat, hinge, upper body push, upper body pull, lunge & carry. In addition to training all 6 of them, you should also perform the same volume of opposing movements (upper body vertical push & upper body vertical pull, upper body horizontal push & upper body horizontal pull, squat & hinge or quad dominant & hip/hamstring dominant). I’d even argue that rather than training them in a 1:1 ratio over the course of a week, you should be doing more pulling than pushing. This will help you avoid strength & muscle imbalances, which could eventually lead to injury. Learn more detail about this guideline here.

The second guideline is to prioritize exercises for large muscle groups, compound movements & free weight exercises and to train them first in your workouts. As mentioned above in component 3, compound exercises (which generally are free weight exercises that train larger muscle groups) are going to be responsible for the majority of your progress. And for this reason, they tend to be more technical, require more energy & effort and require more muscle groups to be working at the same time. Which is why these exercises are better done at the beginning of your workouts when you’re fresh! Learn more about this guideline here.

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And there you have it. The 5 most important components to make your workouts more effective. To sum up it up, an effective workout program is one that allows you to make progress. And to make progress, you need program continuity, progressive overload, compound exercises & good form, training intensity & proper program structure.

I hope this article helps you maximize the effectiveness of your training so you can get stronger, be fitter, look better, stay motivated to keep going and simply get the results you want!

As always, if you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to drop them in the comments below or send me an email. I’ll be happy to help however I can!