Routine intensifiers: when the advanced fitness aficionado gets stuck in a workout rut, it's time to shake things up and take your training to the next level

Muscle & Fitness/Hers, July, 2003 by Sharon Kaufman-Athanasiou

after a few years of training, you may find that your workouts are missing that extra "oomph" that used to make your time at the gym more interesting and the changes in your body more exciting. Instead of becoming complacent in your routine, use the suggestions below to get the most from each workout--they just may make your old routine seem new again.

The Core of the Matter

With each weightlifting exercise, tighten your ab muscles and stabilize your hips to engage your core. You know that you should always do this when lifting, but do you? You'll benefit from this small addition because you'll be able to maintain better balance--your central muscles will act as a supportive anchor. The extra stabilization will allow you to increase mobility with each movement, resulting in repetitions with more precision, and fuller extension and contraction.

During each rep, exhale from your center at the end of the contraction, then inhale on the release of the movement. You'll not only be able to fully concentrate on working each specific muscle, but by engaging your core, you'll be using your whole body during the exercise. Overall, your muscles will be trained more intensively and completely, so you'll feel some serious burn.

Seeing Is Believing

To advance your progress in the gym, clear your head and take a good look at your workout, before it even happens.

Alex Cohen, a certified personal trainer and fitness instructor in Hollywood, Florida, suggests closing your eyes and visualizing the movements of the exercises you are about to do. Then, start breathing deeply to take in more oxygen, and to ready your muscles for the tasks you've just seen in your head.

"Visualization is all about programming," explains Cohen. "If you program yourself for a specific training routine, you will push yourself to the next level of intensity and master your workout."

Change Is Good

"I never ever have the same workout twice," says fitness competitor Allison Bookless. "Whether it's the actual exercise, amount of reps, or order of your routine, if your body--or your mind--gets used to something, it just won't respond as well as it could." To take her training to the extreme, Allison insists it's all about change.

"For example, I always switch off my cardio sessions. One day I'll run sprints at the track, and the next day I'll run the Hoover Dam stairs, or use the elliptical machine," she explains. "If I keep changing, then my workouts feel new and exciting. But when the activity becomes monotonous, I'm not able to put a high level of intensity into the effort."

Allison also likes to give herself a boost by getting a different training partner each year. "When you're too comfortable with the person you work out with, you tend to relax," she says. "Since I want to be fired up 100% of the time, a new perspective is always a great jump-start for me."

A More Serious Set

"The body always wants to move heavy objects in the easiest way possible, which means using momentum instead of working the muscle in the most intense way possible," says fitness competitor DJ Wallis.

To ensure that her muscles work to the max, DJ trains using "the ultimate intensity set," which allows an increase in contraction per square inch. "The procedure is the same for any bodypart," she says. "For instance, a biceps set using a barbell would start with arms straightened all the way out [hanging in front, shoulders erect and slightly back]. Then, without any swing forward [momentum], and concentrating every thought on contracting every muscle fiber in the biceps, slowly bring the weight up to about a 45-degree angle. Do not come past that point or lean back at all, as this will release the tension off the bicep." You'll know that you're properly focusing on the contraction when you feel the same tension even if you do a rep without any weight.

Sharon Kaufman-Athanasiou has been an internationally published writer for 12 years. She's also been editor of two national health, beauty and fitness magazines: Natural Living Today and Natural Glow. Sharon is based in South Florida, where she lives with the three loves of her life--her husband, and their two puppies. And she definitely likes a challenge when it comes to her own personal fitness regimen: The tougher, the better!