Top 5 Tips to Maximize your Metabolic Workout
At Metabolic, we all come from different backgrounds. We are different ages, different sizes, have different fitness levels, and possess our own injury histories.
Although our coaches are highly trained to recognize these differences, and provide the best experience possible, the reality is that we have up to 36 clients training at one time, and sometimes, we miss things!
I am open about freely admitting this, because our programming is top notch, our community is top notch, and frankly, the other option is our clients could simply do the workouts alone, with no supervision at all.
There are millions of dollars made per year by coaches providing online programming (or online coaching) that provide guidance with no supervision, so I would like to think the environment, energy, and support that we are able to provide on a daily basis clearly counteracts the occasional unobserved set.
With all of that said, it has dawned on me that if YOU, the client at Metabolic, are more armed with knowledge to enhance your experience in the gym, you will be better for it, as you will achieve better results in the gym, and will walk out of our doors each day having had a more impactful training session.
Without further adieu, here are my top 5 tips that will allow you to kick butt and take names in the gym each and every day:
- Invest your “money” wisely
When you first start working out at Metabolic, you may only have “$24” to “invest” in a given session.
Bear with me, I am known by staff for my metaphors.
If you invest $4 at each of the 6 sessions, that is a decent start, but is that really going to get you stronger? Is there a significant return to be had?
Probably not.
We would rather see you invest that money a little more strategically, investing $12 on the indicator lift, perhaps $6 on an accessory movement, and the remaining $6 on the other exercises for that day.
Train with intention and intensity on your money makers, which will always yield the greatest return. As your fitness level improves, and you acquire more capital to invest, THEN you may spread it out amongst all of the stations, including the cardiovascular ones, for that day.
However, if you invest that capital too soon, before your fitness level has “caught up” to your physical strength, you will end up broke, discouraged, and disappointed.
Have patience in the process, and place a premium on your investments with the highest return, which are your strength movements. Proficiency in the other movements will come in time, but watch your effort and intensity here.
- Pay attention to your RIT
“RIT” simply means “Reps in the Tank”. If I was to give you an all expenses paid trip to anywhere in the world if you got 2 more reps when your set was over, could you have? What about 3? 7?
This is your RIT level.
The newer you are to Metabolic, the higher your RIT should be. However, as you gain experience, you want the RIT to be lower on your “premium” working sets. I am not talking about any ramping sets, or warmup sets.
I am talking about the sets where you are trying to get after it..
Pay close attention to that RIT, and if you have a little more to give, bump up your load slightly. If you have an RIT of “0”, or are running out of has before the set is over, of course, bump down.
- Watch that rep speed
By rep speed I am talking about your rep speed on the concentric portion of each exercise. When you squat “up”, when you push “up”, when you curl “up”, etc.
While your form should be identical from one set to the next, your rep speed should not. You should see a significant drop in rep speed as you near the end of the set. In some ways, this concept does tie directly into the concept of RIT, as a fast concentric rep speed clearly indicates that you have a lot of RIT to go.
Keep your form clean, but if the rep speed on your last rep is the same as your first, then we need to do something about this by adjusting the load and/or body position on that movement.
- Run your Race.
Group training is amazing, and if you are like me, and have participated in it for a while now, training by yourself has been ruined. The energy, camaraderie, and motivation you receive from the effort and achievement of others is truly remarkable!
With that said, I have seen instances where clients want to bump up in load because their neighbor did. This is a huge mistake, and one that at best could lead to suboptimal results, and at worst will lead to injury.
This is where you need to remind yourself that we are all our own individual people, we have all had different stresses in our lives this week, come from all different backgrounds, and have different body types that favor certain lifts, and place us at a mechanical disadvantage in others.
- Be honest with yourself.
These first 4 tips mean nothing if you aren’t honest with yourself. Is your rep speed “really” smooth on the last rep? Do you “really” have 5 RIT, or on the flip side do you “really” have 0 RIT?
Training integrity is a slippery slope for many people, because those who take their physical fitness seriously tend to be driven, motivated, and yes, competitive.
Don’t convince yourself that you are, or are not, doing some of these things if you are.
I can’t tell you how many times I have to get out of my own head, or check myself during a workout, but I most certainly do my best to be completely honest with myself.
So there you have it. Use this information to get the most out of your workout. Feel free to increase your load slightly mid workout once you feel comfortable that you are doing these things, there is nothing wrong with that.
You may even read this and decide that there are times when mid workout the load is too heavy, and need to drop it down a shade. That is ok too!
We want you to take control, but we REALLY want you to understand the thought process that goes into programming, progression, and keeping all of you safe, healthy, and achieving the results you seek.
Remember, when you walk through our doors, that is your time. By educating you, we seek to empower you. Please keep these tips in mind, and we hope that this helps out this year!
