Navigating the gym can feel like a minefield, right? I totally get that and to be honest it’s not just beginners who feel this way. The reason we always advocate for having a good quality coach is because not only does it give you accountability and support with your progress at the gym but having someone else plan your workouts also takes a lot of barriers out of the way when it comes to keeping a consistent exercise habit. 

But let’s say having a coach isn’t accessible to you right now for whatever reason and you’d love to know how to progress at the gym on your own, here are some of my top tips and are both obvious and not so much! I hope they help!

Add weight (progressive overload) 

When you are looking to build strength one of the most important things you want to think about in your training is a concept called “progressive overload”. Without boring you too much with the specifics, it’s basically a fancy term for adding more weight or ensuring your workout feels physically harder each session. There is a whole science behind this and it’s not as simple as whacking extra weight on every session but in the initial stages or when you are not working with a coach, one of the simplest ways to progress is to lift a heavy thing and then make that heavy thing heavier as soon as you can. That might start out as week to week and when you start to plateau that’s when you’d want to add in other training modalities like: 

Time under tension 

Time under tension refers to the amount of time a particular part of your body is held under tension. A simple example is in a bodyweight movement like a plank - but you probably already know that to progress at planks the best thing to do is to practice them for a slightly longer period of time each time you do them! A more complex approach to time under tension is to add a pause or a tempo to your reps. For example - adding a pause at the bottom of your back squats allows you to increase the time under tension of your rep as does taking 5 seconds to move to the bottom position and 5 seconds to come back up. If you want to get really spicy you could take 5 seconds to go down, 2 to pause and 5 to come back up. This will get challenging quickly and as a training modality is a great way to get stronger through a wider range of motion when you either don’t want to or can’t add more weight to the bar. It can be applied to lots of different movements and is particularly useful in progressing things like push-ups and chin-ups! 

Keep a log

A log or tracker is one of the less obvious but simplest things to add to your training regime to help you progress. So many people rock up to the gym without a plan, don’t record what they did or what weights they lifted, and then rock up to the next session with nothing to work from. Keeping a log of what you’ve done makes it easier to monitor your progress and increase your capabilities. This can be as simple as pen and paper or using an app! At SLAM all of our members have access to our unique programming app where they can log their progress, record their max lifts, and be celebrated for PB’s! Better still is our app also tells them which percentages to work from each session so that they are constantly being challenged even in uncoached sessions! (Like the sound of that? Try our no-obligation 4-week trial here) 

Eat enough fuel 

You cannot get stronger if you don’t fuel your body well. You might to a point but you’ll very quickly find yourself burnt out, feeling like crap and will either stop exercising or put yourself at risk of injury or other health problems. It’s SO important to get enough protein, carbs, fat and fibre in your diet. The quantities of these will vary depending on your goals but in our industry we typically find that most women do not meet their protein requirements. Protein is an essential nutrient for building muscle mass, getting stronger and recovering from exercise and without it your progress will not be as good as it could be. Whilst quantities vary person to person a good guide for active women who strength train is 1.6-1.7g per kilo of body weight. Try to get all of your protein from whole foods spread out throughout the day. 

Hydrate 

Muscles need hydration to work at their best. Without it you're asking a lot of your body. A hydrated body is a happy one! If you are a very active person 2-3 litres of water a day is ideal. I’d only count the water you drink and not tea/coffee or juice as these are absorbed in different ways. 

Focus on Sleep/Recovery 

I’ve left this until last but it is perhaps the single most important thing to focus on when you want to get stronger. When we strength train we are creating new pathways in our brain and body and in order for those to improve we need adequate recovery. Training every day is useless if your body isn’t recovered. Our bodies see all stress the same way - they can’t differentiate between life stress and exercise stress and so if you aren’t giving your body enough sleep or recovery aids you’ll end up in a perpetual state of stress which is not conducive for building strength. So if you are looking to progress at the gym then give yourself a sleep-health overhall. Aim for 7-9 hours per night, take naps where you can to top up on sleep debt and try to avoid screens so close to bedtime so that you get as deep a sleep as possible. 

I hope that helps and I’d love to know if you’d add any tips of your own!