5 tips to get the most out of your workouts and make them harder

Sometimes you can be under time pressure with your training and you don’t have enough time to complete your full workout. Here are some tips to get the most out of your workouts if that is the case. I often find these workouts the most satisfying as you really push yourself and you feel a combination of satisfaction, euphoria and impending death afterwards. Embrace the pain.

1. Use Supersets

A Superset is is performed when two exercises are performed one after the other without any rest. You can superset with the same body part or you can use two different body parts. Supersetting Chest and Back is one of my favourites. Try 4 Sets of 15 reps on the Barbell Bench Press followed by 15 reps of Dumbbell Rows. Feel that burn! You can make up your own combination of favourite exercises but its best to start off with the most difficult exercise first. 

2. Use Rest-Pause

This is a training technique that has been around for a while and it is a technique that I use for training Chest and Legs. It is great for building size and strength. Rest-Pause is completing several mini-sets with very brief rest in between each. For example on the Barbell Bench Press if 80kg is your 8-10 rep max it would look like this:

Two main sets of 8 x 80kg

2 minute rest between these sets

Rest-pause Set 1: 8 x 80kg

15-20 second Rest

Rest-pause Set 2: 6 x 80kg

15-20 second Rest

Rest-pause Set 3: 4 x 80kg

15-20 second Rest

Remember to keep your form as strict as possible. If the weight is too heavy then drop it. Do as many good reps as you can until just short of failure. 

3. Do HIIT after your Workout

I love doing a quick HIIT - High-Intensity Interval Training after a workout. This is a great way of building fitness and finishing off a training session. There are muscle-building and fat-burning benefits that are beyound the scope of this article but have you ever seen the difference in physiques between a long distance runner and a sprinter? Thats good enough for me to continue doing it seeing as I play football every week as well. I usually do 10 minutes at the end of a workout on a treadmill as follows:

1 minute gentle jog at 10mph followed by 1 minute sprint at 15-18mph

Repeat 5 times

4. Use Drop Sets

Dropsetting is a technique that requires you to drop the weights after your last set and a grind out a few more sets. I like to use this when training legs. For example lets say im on my last set of 100kg and I'm struggling to finish my set. I immediately drop the weight by around 20kg and do as many sets until failure. Then I take a 30 second rest and drop the weight by another 20kg and again do as many reps until failure. I do this 3 times until Im walking like John Wayne. Highly recommended.

5. Drop the Machines

Machines can be handy for novices or drop sets to really burn out the muscle but if you want to get the most out of your workouts then drop the machines. You use more of your muscles trying to stablilize and control the weight. The muscles you use to assist you controlling the weight makes the exercise more difficult and therfore you burn more calories. Its a win win situation.

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