Breaking personal goals, each and every gym visit.

Are you the type that comes into the gym and does the same thing every time your in the gym and can't figure out why you aren't getting results? Or maybe you got results in the beginning and now can't figure out why you stopped? It's because your doing the same thing every time you come into the gym.
You shouldn't ever do the same workout two gym trips in a row. Ever. No exceptions. The whole point of working out is to confuse your muscles. If you keep doing the saaaame cardio routine or the saaaaaaame lifting routine your muscles are going to learn what you are doing and they will quickly adapt and they wont grow or your body will adapt and you won't shed any more pounds regardless of caloric expenditure. And for the love of all things workout and results STOP DOING ISOLATION EXERCISES! Your body doesn't move isometrically so you won't get great results isometrically. And no more leg days, arm days, back days, etc. etc. etc. Work your whole body in a circuit every time you come to the gym and you will get MUCH better, balanced results. This concept should make sense to everybody: The more muscles you work the harder your body works so you burn more calories and you will see desired results much more quickly. Easy concept yes?
The whole point of your workout is to set personal bests. What I mean is you should always be exercising to reach a new goal. So you should always be going harder, lifting heavier, jumping higher, reaching further, etc. If you aren't then, of course, you probably aren't seeing results or you aren't seeing the results that you think you should be seeing. Now that doesn't necessarily mean you have to increase your weight each time you visit the gym. Sometimes that increase is in reps which possibly might mean you use a little less weight. That's perfectly good! That's muscle confusion in action. That is what will give you the body you want!
Quickly I want to end this with a little lecture about your core, specifically your rectus abdominus (the ever so longed for 6 pack). Just because you see someone with a 6 pack doesn't necessarily mean they have great core strength. That definitely isn't what that means. Some of the weakest athletes I've seen in my career have the abs but don't have stability or core strength worth anything. And let's think about the magazines you see where every model and celebrity has a 6 pack, how much do you think they starved themselves the day before to look like that? A LOT of them do. Just because they 'appear' fit and healthy doesn't necessarily mean they are.
Stay tuned in the near future for a whole blog entry dedicated to nothing but the core! Everything you wanted to know and all the things you didn't even think of. Now get into the gym and show yourself your personal best!