It’s possible for your training programme to be spread too thinly between opposing training goals (like trying to improve strength, gain muscle, and improve running all in one programme).
Alternatively, your training may be focussed, but your approach might be too broad. For example, you’re solely working on your strength (one focus), but you’re trying to squat and deadlift heavy within the same week which can be hard to maintain long-term. You could also be trying to fit movements like deadlifts and pullups together which compete by adding extra fatigue to your grip or other supporting muscle groups.
There will be clear signs if your training programme is spread too thinly in these ways – and soreness is only one of them. Here are some others.
1. Your Training Progress Has Slowed Down (or Stalled)
If you’re looking back over the last 4-6 weeks and not seeing much progress, it could be that your training programme isn’t focussed enough. This doesn’t mean you should rewrite your programme as soon as you don’t hit a PB, but it’s an important piece of the puzzle.
2. Your Training Frequency is Low for a Given Goal
You may only train towards a desired goal once a week, or for a low number of sets per week. After your early training adaptations have occurred, this low training frequency might not be enough stimulus to continue delivering results. For example, hypertrophy training tends to benefit from a fairly high volume of sets on a given muscle group each week. While the optimal number of sets varies from person to person, if you’re only doing 3 sets a week for a certain muscle group you’re less likely to see continual improvements.
I’ve talked before about increasing your training frequency without just repeating the same exercise over and over, so I won’t cover that again here.
3. Your Training Programme Doesn’t Dedicate Much Time to Each Goal
Likewise, you might not be spending enough time on a specific goal. Certain cardiovascular goals require prolonged times at certain heart rates. This means a 20-minute HIIT session might not be the best for improving your 5k time (for example).
How to Rebalance Your Gym Training Programme
- Accept that you can’t train everything at once. This can be a tough pill to swallow, but once you accept it your training results will improve.
- Have a think about the next 12 months you have coming up. Break this down into several 2-3 month sections.
- Allocate specific aims to these 2-3 month segments. Preferably these segments will compliment each other, for example hypertrophy before strength.
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