How To Hit The Gym!

(When You Really Don't Want To) Being in possession of a training plan is one thing. The desire to apply it? Quite another. Some days, the toughest thing to lift can be your own glutes, off the couch. That's why we've constructed a series of fail-safe contingency plans for seven of the most commonly copped-to cop-outs. All excuses end here.

- JAMIE MILLAR

Poor 01 Excuse You're Deathly Bored Of Your Training Plan

Structured training plans may not be as exciting as flitting between the latest trends and classes. But they still have a place, even in this workout-of-the-day era. If you have a bona fide programme-and not just a bunch of exercises that you do out of habit you're probably working towards a goal, whether that's as simple as losing weight and boosting fitness, or something more specific such as improving your 10K time.

Mix things up too much and you'll violate two important principles of effective exercise: specificity (if you're improving your 10K, say, you should... er, run) and progressive overload (forcing your body to adapt by applying a greater stimulus than it's used to).

The trick is to tweak your training plan just enough. "Each week, you should be making small increases-lifting slightly heavier, adding a few more reps, running a little faster," says Jonathan Dick, a Tier X coach at Equinox Kensington. "Then, after four to eight weeks, make changes to your plan, so that you move towards more advanced versions of your favourite exercises. This way, you can make consistent progress."

Training for weight loss alone isn't always that motivating, given that it can be slow to show results. But seeing progress in other areas -strength, stamina, skill development should keep you on course. After all, consistency might not be sexy-but progress is.

Or maybe you do need something totally new? In which case, we'd recommend our ultimate bodyweight workout (p.108) right here in this issue. Make a note of your reps, weights and scores as you move along then see how quickly you can better them.

THE QUICK FIX

Make your plan progressive: don't do the same bench and biceps sesh every time.

Tweak that plan every four to eight weeks, changing moves to keep it challenging.