Volume turned up to 11

Remember the famous scene from the mockumentary, Spinal Tap, where the guitarist  talks about how his amp’s volume controls go up to 11?

You should be thinking about your workouts in the same way. Many people have set levels in their mind as to what their maximum effort might be. You need to periodically reset these levels “to 11” every now and then if you are going to continue to make gains. Watch the video and think about what Christopher Guest’s character says.

What do YOU need to do to push your workout a little bit over the top? You can do the same workout with the following changes:

• Reduce your rest time from 60 seconds to 45 seconds between sets.
• Perform a bodyweight exercise in between sets (alternate 30 pushups and 30 crunches)
• Add three sets of plyometrics at the end of the workout to finish it off.
• Do antagonistic exercises (e.g., bench press and lat pulldown) back to back with no rest, then rest 30 seconds, repeat
• Add 5% more weight than last time
• Add one more rep per set

There are a limitless array of variations to what you can do to your workout to turn up your workout amp to 11. Try to keep the training time the same, but compress more effort into the workout.