Looking to give your bodybuilding training a kick in the pants? Check out these five steps for getting more out of the hours you spend in the gym lifting weight!

Plan every workout

Treat every workout as if it is a special project, unique and extraordinary. Plan your workouts each night for the following day. Spend 5 to 10 minutes analyzing your notes from the previous week’s workout for that body part (and yes, you should be keeping notes) to ensure the new workout irons out any bugs from the week before, and adds variance into the exercise selected.

Variety is the Spice of Life

You need variety in your bodybuilding training. This doesn’t just include mixing in new bodybuilding exercises on training day. This includes catching a workout in different gyms whenever possible. The variance in machines and benches will help keep your muscles guessing, and you personally challenged. Seeing different people train may give you new ideas of different exercises, or at the very least inspire you to train harder to establish yourself as a presence in this new environment.

Talk about it

In order to stay motivated, learn more about training, and above all, solidify the mindset that yes, it is normal to spend so much time lifting weights, you need to spend time with like-minded people. Strike up conversations at the gym with people who seem to have similar goals and backgrounds. Visit the bodybuilding forums online and chat with people from around the world who share your love for iron. Finally, attend as many local information seminars as you can. Local coaches often put on clinics, and if you’re lucky you may be able to find professional athlete seminars in your city. Speaking with a pro bodybuilder about the same exercises you use each day will certainly help your fire stay kindled.

Consistency is key

As kids, we all heard the story of the slow and steady tortoise that outraced the much faster (albeit unfocused) hare to the finish line. In no sport is this truer than with bodybuilding. It’s easy to be an animal in the gym twice a week. It’s much harder to be a consistent performer at your workouts five times each week without fail. Spend time planning your time, and you will find everything fits into a work week if you try hard enough. Train every day and you will grow every day.
 
Attend a bodybuilding show

A full 99% of people you see in the gym will never step foot upon a bodybuilding stage, and it doesn’t mean they’re any less of a bodybuilder, so as long as they train hard, eat right, and improve their physiques. However, there is nothing more inspirational for boosting your training intensity than attending an actual bodybuilding contest. Seeing the great athletes of the sport in person is a much more vivid experience than just seeing their images in magazines or on video. Many a professional bodybuilder touched his first weight only after being inspired by the sight of a superhuman-looking bodybuilder in person.

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