Strong mind + heavy weights + lower reps = STRENGTH

I just realised it has been a while since I wrote my last blog....oops....I've been super exhausted since coming back from holiday, so my priorities were all over the place. This week is a different story, I feel more balanced and focused, so I decided to write a new blog. I don't want this blog to feel like a chore or something that has to be forced, I want it to be as natural as possible, so I will only write one when it feels right to.

Anyways, back to this blog. This past week I've changed up my training and added in an extra rest day, to ensure I get the adequate rest that I need to prevent me feeling constantly exhausted.

So, my training goals as of this week is to build my strength, specifically my upper body strength, which I feel is really lacking. What people don't realise is that training for strength requires a different type of training to hypertrophy (muscle gain), although it is possible to include both types of training into your routine.

How do you train for strength?!?! Firstly, you need to be lifting HEAVY, it's said that the reps should remain between 1-5, although I'd say 1-8 will do the trick. The reps tend to be pretty low because the idea is that the weight should be as heavy as possible, the reps should be until failure and the rest periods tend to be longer. While training for strength I ensure I include the 3 main benches, which are, squats, deadlifts and chest bench. When I train legs I do mix a bit of hypertrophy and strength training, so I tend to do up to 8 reps and have started doing tri-sets (3 exercises back to back), the last exercise is always an isolation exercise to completely exhaust my muscles. I find this type of training the most effective for my legs because they always feel like they can keep on going, so this way of training tends to do the trick in exhausting them. My upper body sessions had become pretty tedious, but since changing up my training and focusing more on increasing my strength, I've started to love them again. I've been concentrating on using compound exercises, including, chest bench, bent over row, overhead press, lateral pulldown and chin ups, while also slipping in a few isolation exercises here and there. I am really motivated and excited to start seeing an increase in my strength.

Whenever your sessions start to feel tedious, change it up, try exercises you haven't tried before, change the order of your exercises, try different techniques etc. Changing things up always re-ignites my love and passion for lifting, it gives me a new lease of life and keeps me motivated.

The past couple of weeks I've learnt the control your mind has over your body. I had begun telling myself "I'm so tired....I can't lift that much....I can't do that....I have no control etc" and I noticed that it was having a really destructive effect on my work/personal/training life. So, this week I've been trying a new strategy, telling myself "I've got this...I CAN do this...I WILL do this...Today is going to be a GOOD day...I CAN lift that...I can do whatever I put my mind to...I'm in control of my own future." So far, this has completely changed my mood and my training has stepped up a notch, I feel nothing but positivity no matter what set backs I've had. Everyone experiences down days and set backs in life, but it's definitely how we deal with it thats important, a positive mind holds so much strength.

Until the next blog.....keep lifting dudes and dolls:)