9 Ways to Get Better in the Gym

byDean Somerset 

Tags:

Powerlifting & Strength

Here's what you need to know...

• You cannot improve your deadlift training it only once per week.
• Shut up about imbalances. Life will create imbalances. Your body is pretty smart and can figure most things out on its own.
• Get mentally prepared for each workout. Compete against others. Test yourself.
• Have long term goals and daily goals for each workout.

1. Deadlift Every Damn Day

A deadlift isn't merely an expression of absolute strength, but a skill-based movement that takes considerable practice to hone and refine.

As such, it's a movement that can be performed daily in order to keep that pattern sharp. It can be in a max or near max modality, a lower intensity version done for a much higher volume, trained for speed, super slow, paused, or with altered stance.

An athlete will train a desired skill for hours each day, in any way possible in order to stay sharp. A deadlift can't conceivably be consistently improved by only training it once a week.

Related:  The Simple Deadlift Program

Here's a simple example of how you could work in deadlifting every day, or involve some sort of deadlifting pattern on a regular basis:

• Monday: Max-tension development, using only 135 pounds. Ten sets of 5. Work on getting as tense and braced up as possible. Envision lifting 1,000 pounds and getting set for it. Take as much rest as you need.
• Tuesday: Max speed: Use 60% of your max weight and work on accelerating the weight from the floor to lockout as fast as possible. Do 8 sets of 3 with a 2-4 minute rest between sets. Westside calls this Dynamic Effort. Olympic weight lifters call it a regular training session.
• Wednesday: Near-max lifts. Use 90% of your max and perform 10 singles after working up through a couple of warm-up sets. Take 3-5 minutes of rest between sets.
• Thursday: 20 x 20 kettlebell swings on the minute. Work on getting the hips to snap the movement fast and hard while keeping the core tense and strong.
• Friday: Pause x 2 deadlifts. On the way up, pause for 3 seconds at 3 inches below the knee, 3 inches above the knee, and then finish at lockout. Lower the weight in one move. Use 75% of max for 6 sets of 5. Rest until you can finally see colors again.
• Saturday: Using 85% of your max, do 1 rep every 30 seconds for 10 minutes.
• Sunday: PR day. See what you can manage, but make sure you don't miss the lift.

2. Get Emotionally Jacked Up

You'll have a significantly better workout by getting mentally prepped before you step onto the weight room floor.

Maybe you have a couple of key motivational words you say to yourself to get into the right mind frame to dominate. Maybe you visualize your end goals, call yourself a pussy, or watch some old training videos of Arnold. Whatever you need to do, do it.

3. Stick to Your Strengths

"If you're bad at it you should do it more."

I hate everything about this statement. It makes no sense and is so meaningless that it should never be uttered again.

For instance, I'm pretty crappy at doing back bends like a Cirque de Soleil contortionist, so by that logic I should do more of them, even though I might wind up crippled. Maybe I should try to play hockey more even though I can't skate to save my life, or perhaps I should run a marathon, barefoot, against a Kenyan.

Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? These are all terrible, terrible ideas and they will all end badly.

Instead of forcing yourself to endure personal and probably public humiliation from floundering around doing stuff you suck at, why not spend more time getting better at the stuff you're really good at? It's a novel concept, but doing stuff that you're good at tends to leave you feeling happy and more likely to partake in said endeavor again.

If you like it, do it every day. If you don't like it, do it when you have nothing better to do and want to give it a shot. Maybe you just had a bad day last time you tried it. You know, the sun was in your eyes and there was sand in your nether regions. It sucked, so try it again, but don't make it your bread and butter unless you really enjoy it this time.

"But what about imbalances?"

Hey, listen. Shut up. Life will create imbalances. Your body is pretty smart and can figure most things out on its own without spending all day trying to figure out how to get your transverse abdominis turned on.

Have you ever tried to walk around all day without letting your diaphragm descend or your ribs flare, or without winding up slightly into anterior head position? It's exhausting and I don't recommend it. Also, most imbalances are only a problem when they become a problem and require specific interventions to address.

4. Compete

One of the main reasons why CrossFit continues to be popular is that it simultaneously creates a sense of community and competition. Everyone doing the same workout inevitably breeds competition and even animosity towards your fellow human being. It's paleo.

Endurance activities also seem to breed this type of competitive community thought process. Marathon runners who train alone tend to suffer more when they get into a group setting or a race as they find the pacing difficult, seeing as how it's not their normal speed. Runners who train in groups tend to be competitive with each other, sometimes pushing themselves harder in training than they would in a race.

You could also compete against known standards, much like the CrossFit Open. I know, I just said standards and CrossFit in the same sentence. Sorry, but it's true. If 10,000 people do a workout and their results get tallied and ranked, you can see where you wind up based on your performance, much like an endurance athlete who runs the same course as everyone else.

In short, find a way to compete.

5. Test Yourself

Tests tend to bring out the best in people. Every now and then I'll throw a surprise test day at my athletes to get them amped up and focused on what they're doing. It could be a cardio test, 1RM test, work capacity test, timed sled sprint series, or some measurable variable that determines their specific capabilities in a movement or load.

Recently, CrossFit did their Open 14.X series, which amounted to tests to see who could complete the most reps or best time at a given activity or series. These were workouts that would make most trainers absolutely cringe if they saw them in someone's program, but the point wasn't for them to be training sessions, but tests to see what people could do.

The kettlebell snatch test in the RKC and SFG certification – 100 reps in 5 minutes with a 24 kilogram bell for men and a 16 kilogram bell for women – is another example. They're not something you want to do on a regular basis, but to see what you can do, once, maybe twice.

There are a lot of standards to measure yourself against to see if you have what it takes. Here are a few:

• 100 kettlebell snatches in 5 minutes.
• Squat and deadlift twice your body weight; bench press 1.5 times your body weight; overhead press your bodyweight.
• Run a 6-minute mile.
• Dan John's 10,000 Kettlebell Swing Workout.
• Back squat your body weight so low that you touch a 4-inch box or yoga block:

6. Pick a Daily GoalLong-term goals are great, and they're always important to understand how to make big things happen.

A mortgage is a great example of a long-term goal. Most people can't pay off an entire house in one shot, so chipping away at it one payment at a time is analogous to a workout leading towards an end goal. But each workout should be its own specific entity, and each workout should have its own goals.

You don't have to hit a personal best every workout, but you should have a specific outcome in mind each time you walk through the door. It could be a quantitative outcome such as lifting more weight or increasing the total volume lifted (weight x reps x sets).

Or it could be a qualitative goal such as getting a better catch during a power clean, feeling like you have solid co-contraction through the glutes and abs during your deadlift lockout, or getting a pump through your lats that makes your shirt feel like it's going to split at the seams.

You might, occasionally, have some workouts where you just don't have any energy or will to get after it, and that's fine too. These workouts can be devoted to recovery, breathing techniques, foam rolling, or trying something new and funky that wouldn't normally be part of your workouts.

7. Train with a Plan

Going to the gym and just expecting to wing it never produces the kind of benefits you're looking for. Having a plan keeps you on point and lets you focus on just the workout and not on any of the sideshows running around in the gym.

It could be as simple as writing things out on a Post-It note before you head into the gym, or you could use a logbook to track how you're progressing.

8. Ratchet Up Intensity

Intensity is as much a mindset as a quantitative expression. Most people view intensity as just adding more weight to the bar, but to move that weight you have to get your mind right. If the weight is relatively light, lift it hard and fast and see how much more tension you can develop through the entire body to help move the weight faster and more violently.

If the weight is heavy, get jacked up to a level of uncomfortable energy that will make small children cry and large women quake when they see you get after it. I'm not talking about getting to the point where you're getting kicked out of a Planet Fitness, but get excited and lift with some emotion, dammit! You need to occasionally get to a state of blind rage in order to see significant strength gains.

Related:  4 Training Challenges You Must Conquer

If maximum-weight lifts aren't your thing, try to double the volume of your workouts through either increasing your number of sets or the number of reps, and try to do the workout in the same amount of time.

For instance, let's say you're doing a squat-focused day and you usually do 5 sets of 8 reps, taking 4 minutes of rest between sets, and the whole thing takes 25 minutes. Try to perform a workout of 10 sets of 8 within the same timeframe.

9. Find a Workout Partner

This one is often overlooked due to convenience, or lack of it. Sure, it's always easier to work out on your own, and scheduling someone else to come to the gym with you could act as an obstacle, but it doesn't have to be that complicated.

Each gym has its regulars who always show up at specific times of the day, simply because that's when they have the time to train. You can find others in the gym that train at the same time as you and then strike up a conversation with them.

There's no one who can push themselves as hard on their own as they could with someone else right beside them, urging them on and monitoring rest time. This is one reason why training in groups or in teams is so effective.

There's nothing like the atmosphere of a hard practice where everyone is jacked up and busting their butts to outwork each other.

Stretching Doesn't Work

by Dean Somerset – 12/28/2012
I spend most of my day working with sedentary office workers who toil in cubicle mines for an average of 8-12 hours a day. Not surprisingly, most arrive at my door with the mobility of a clam, which makes training them to do even simple things like hip hinges, squats, and other staples of a training program a challenging endeavor.
However, static stretching alone is not the answer. In fact, it barely provides any benefit at all.
No matter how much time a client spends stretching, they typically see only transient improvements in flexibility and negligible improvement in motor control when performing any movement using that new range of motion.
As a result, I've dropped almost all static stretching from my programs in favor of some more advanced mobility methods I'll discuss here.

Banana Hammock Splits

Let's start with the basics. "Mobility" means increasing the usable range of motion at a joint or joints in the hope that this increased range of motion allows for performance benefits and injury prevention.
This new range of motion should stick, or at least be something you can get back relatively quickly, as the only limiting factor should be the joint structure itself.
Everyone should theoretically be able to do the splits. The hip joint can get to 170 degrees of flexion, and in some angles outside of the saggital plane it can get to more than 200 degrees flexion. It can also extend to between 40-60 degrees, which adds up to way more than the necessary 180 degrees to do a split.
This leaves soft tissue restrictions as the reason most people can't tea bag the floor. Sure, some have structural issues with the shape of their hip joints, but that can't be something that could account for the entire population.
Flex Wheeler used to hit the splits on stage, carb depleted and dehydrated while packing more muscle than 95% of the population, proving the concept of being "muscle bound" to be complete and utter horse shit.

Why "Stretching" Won't Make you Stretchy

The common thought process regarding static stretching is to hold an elongated position for 20-30 seconds to create additional length within a muscle to allow for a greater range of motion.
This is good in theory, but in practice it doesn't seem to happen. If stretching is supposed to increase range of motion, why do people keep stretching while remaining chronically "tight"?
A better question would be why is that muscle or tissues so tight that they require stretching in the first place? Muscles are stupid creatures and they only do what they're told to do. The nervous system calls the shots and if it says contract, the muscle contracts.
If the brain tells a muscle "get tight," it's for a reason, usually to produce movement (eccentric or concentric action), provide stability, or to protect joints during novel movements or ranges of motion.
The muscles of the hips are getting tight to try to provide some level of stability for another area of the body that doesn't have it, so you can move efficiently and without pain.
This means that simply stretching a muscle without figuring out why it's tight will just result in it getting tight again.
Below is a video to show the thought process in action with a live assessment and corrective strategy. Watch what happens with her left hip internal rotation:

She didn't have to move her hip through any kind of range of motion to gain that new mobility, so we know stretching wasn't going to be the answer.
Some people claim that static stretching helps increase the length of the muscle, which is almost as possible as me caring about Kim Kardashian or not being glued to the TV when the movie, Blood Sport,is playing.
If you grab a rope and pull it, it gets longer for as long as the tension is applied, but then when you let it go it returns to its normal length. That is unless you start ripping fibers and causing some irreparable damage.
Gymnasts and dancers have crazy mobility for life because they tend to go through deformational changes as children to help them get deeper stretches and more range of motion through alterations to their femoral head and neck, hip capsule, and almost every other joint where freaky mobility is necessary for their sport.
Static stretching a muscle is the same. Sure, it changes length for a little while, but returns quickly. There's no way stretching will add sarcomeres in series – which would actually increase the length of the muscle – without long sustained holds of about 20-30 minutes, as shown by some studies.
Additionally, static stretching reduces your ability to produce muscular force, meaning you're less likely to push massive weights and catch the attention of someone who may want to see you naked. Who would want to limit themselves like that?

What Else Could You Do?

While many people think foam rolling is a method of stretching, it's not. The length of the muscle or tissue isn't undergoing any kind of length change, but rather a neural down-regulation that reduces resting tone in prime movers, meaning you can move more easily and with a better chance of having balanced tension around the joint.
It's a testament to how resetting the neural tone of a tissue can help increase range of motion faster than simply stretching.
But again, un-gluing a chronically tight area without restoring stability to the tissues it's trying to help stabilize will only result in it getting tight again.
Chronic IT band pain? Look at how your hips and feet are moving, how your knees are positioned during your squats, and also your lateral core stability on that side.
Start off by gripping the floor and trying to form an arch in your foot whenever you have it in contact with the ground. You should be thinking of using your heel and the ball of your foot to shorten your sock without curling your toes.
From there, drive the knees out when squatting and deadlifting, so you keep the knees vertical over the feet instead of letting it cave in a valgus stress.
Foam rolling should be the first step to regaining lost mobility, specifically for the hips, typically occupying the first 5 minutes or so of any training session. Go super slow through all the tight spots, slow enough to make glaciers say, "Slow down!"
Traction is another form of mobility that can be applied to anyone and is a very effective form of mobilization to help un-glue sticky joints. I picked up a version of a dynamic traction movement with a thick elastic band from Kelly Starrett.
This involves having the band up high on the thigh, close to the hip joint, and rocking side to side. The elastic is pulling the hip joint slightly apart, while the action of the rocking helps to get the muscles working around the hip while in the new joint position.

(Just watch out so you don't get your junk caught in the action.)
This can help reduce the resting tension of the muscles around the joint as it reduces the compressive signaling in the muscles supporting the joint.
An additional benefit is that the mild compression on the adductor muscles of the inner thigh can help increase activation and provide a better chance of total joint stability rather than simply addressing hamstrings and glutes.
The adductor magnus also causes a degree of hip extension, so spend some time on that as well when you're trying to build your posterior chain.
Traction has commonly been used in therapeutic settings to provide a decreased stimulus to overactive muscles and receptors, and encourages an increase of fluid delivery into the joint spaces. Decompression tables for disc injuries are a common method of traction.
In passive settings it's effective, but again doesn't address the muscular stabilization component mentioned earlier. Having the dynamic rocking as shown here helps clean this up nicely.
Active mobility comes into play with the newly unlocked joints and tissues. The role of active mobility is to train the body to use the range of motion in the most effective way possible so that the likelihood of maintaining this new range is higher than simply rolling in to the gym at peak hour, squatting heavy, high fiving everyone in the gym and then going home.
The major directions that tend to be lacking in hip mobility are full hip flexion (bringing the knee to the chest), abduction (legs wide apart), external rotation (crossing an ankle over your knee), and even hip extension.
When doing any active mobility, it's best to try to get all the movements down as fast as possible while focusing on getting the movement to come from the hip and not from the lumbar spine.
Focus on keeping the spine tense and the core active while sinking deep into the stretches, hold each for a single breath per rep, and continue on to the next one.

Putting it all Together

So to outline a plan of attack to get your hips going in the right direction:

1. Foam rolling: Super slow, hips, IT band and adductors – 5-10 minutes
2. Traction: Super slow and concentrated – 2 sets x 15 reps
3. Active Mobility: Core tense and focus on breathing – 2 x 8-12 reps each side

The total time needed to get the hips singing a happy tune should only be about 15 minutes. If this 15 minutes means the difference between squatting deep into the hole and developing a bigger and better squat, or getting your hips back in a deadlift without having your low back flex to compensate, you'll have a greater chance of pulling big numbers and not getting injured.
I should also say that having more hip mobility opens up more possibilities for exercises you can do, which will help reduce boredom and monotony in the gym. It can also increase the number of, ahem, positions you can get into outside of the gym.
You're welcome.

References

Winchester et al (2009). A single 30-s stretch is sufficient to inhibit maximal voluntary strength. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. Vol 80 (2) pp. 257-261.

Liebenson C: Rehabilitation of the Spine Ð A Practitioners Manual. 2^nd edition Williams and Wilkins. 2006.

10 Ways to Make Your Routine Not So Routine

by Dean Somerset – 12/30/2011

You know that guy you see in the gym every Thursday night, and every time he's doing the same exercises and the same reps? He's been there as long as you can remember, doing the same thing on the samenight, year after year. And when you think back on how he looked when you first noticed him way back when, he looks...the same.
Yeah, let's not turn into that guy.
Consistency is good – it's essential – but if you've been doing exactly the same workouts for a bit too long, it's time to switch things up. Sure, you may have had some decent results while lifting the same weights in the same movements through the same range of motion at the same speed, but come on, man, it's the 21st century.
Don't be the guy who still has a picture of Jessica Simpson circa 2005 in his locker. Be the guy who tossed that picture out when you learned who Adriana Lima was, and then tossed her picture out when you learned who Gina Carano was. See? It's consistent, but evolving.
Many of the methods we're going to discuss play upon the concept of neural engram remodeling, where a well-known pattern with some added variables has to be relearned as if it were a totally new pattern. An example of this would be running on concrete compared to running through sand.
The movement is basically the same – run real fast-like – but in sand, the difference in ground reaction forces applied to the body to propel it forward cause the muscle activity to change, the response time of the stretch-shortening cycle elongates, and the person doing the running wants to puke blood sooner, compared to running on flat, solid concrete.
By introducing just one or two variables to a familiar exercise, you can create a new stimulus out of a movement that's already well practiced, which can prevent you from plateauing and even spark some new progress. Here are 10 suggestions:

1. Get a (Different) Grip

Grip is something that many people don't seem to like to mess with. They see a bar, they grab the bar, and they start their lift. Most people want their grip and hand position to be as familiar, reliable, and uncomplicated as their daily bowel movement. Any deviation, to either, makes them feel anxious and totally ruins the rest of their day.
The funny thing is, that by altering your grip even slightly, you can make different muscles fire and different fibers within those muscles fire more than you were with your previous grip. Plus, a new hand position means the weight is in a new position, which can alter the leverage being used.
Grasp a dumbbell in the dead center of the handle and the weights are equally distributed on both sides of the hand, requiring little stability from the forearm muscles. But shift your hand position either to the very top, with the thumb against the weights, or to the very bottom, with the pinky against the weights, and you've adjusted the dumbbell's balance and altered the activity of the forearm muscles.
You have even more options with a barbell:

Hook grip: Grasping the thumb between the index and/or middle fingers and the bar, like making a fist the wrong way.

False grip: Keeping the thumb on the same side of the bar as the fingers.

Reverse grip: Supinating both arms, palms up.

Mixed grip (when applicable): One hand supinated/palm up, the other hand pronated/palm down.

These are all basic and effective variations. In addition, you can change grip width on the barbell from narrow or very narrow to wide or super-wide like a snatch, or even try an off-center grip with one hand slightly closer to the weights than the other.

2. Base of Support

When, or if, a police officer asks you to walk on the white line heel-to-toe, he's not just being a jerk by pointing out your embarrassing lack of coordination and even more embarrassing propensity to tip a few before heading home. He's also giving you an easy way to make your workouts different.
The base of support can be best described as the square area that makes up the distance between both feet and the distance from the point of one toe to the heel of the other. The bigger your base is, the more stable you are and the more weight you can successfully manipulate.
A square stance, as used in squat patterns, can work the hips more when in a wide stance and with feet slightly externally rotated. When the squat stance is narrower, it requires more work from the ankles and more flexibility through the hips and thoracic spine.
Balance becomes a challenge when you move from a square stance to a narrow split stance, as in most lunge movements, and it becomes even more challenging when you go to a closer heel-to-toe position.
One of the most difficult progressions would be to perform single-leg exercises (single-leg squats or one-leg deadlifts) since you'll obviously have only one foot to provide the base of support. For upper body work, consider the multiple foot positions available for a push-up – feet close together, wide, staggered, or even changing your foot position during the exercise.

3. Speed of Movement

Rep speed, or tempo, can be one of the easiest variables to manipulate, yet it can produce dramatic differences in what the movement actually does and its level of difficulty. Performing an exercise at a moderate pace, such as one to two seconds for eccentric and concentric contractions, is typically the easiest and safest method, but it's more mind numbing than the "Ben Stein Reads the Dictionary" audiobook.
A faster speed with more explosive movements generates a higher level of force production within the muscle, and allows bigger force outputs to the weights being lifted. So you get to throw around more plates than a dishwasher at Denny's.
A deliberate and super-slow pace, such as a 10-second eccentric and concentric, can make you hate life by increasing the torturous time under tension, limiting the amount of weight you can lift but increasing the level of post-workout muscle soreness, and still end up being very useful for muscle hypertrophy.

4. Rest Intervals

Honest question: When was the last time you timed your rest intervals? If you're like most people, you can't remember, because it's just not something you do. That's for newbies who don't know any better. You lift when you feel "ready," whatever that means.
But by holding yourself accountable to the clock and starting each set within a specified time, you can actually increase the overall demand on your system while reducing the time you spend in the gym. Not such a bad deal, and all you have to do is glance at a clock every once in a while.
For most programs, the length of rest time will be determined by the relative intensity of the lift being attempted. In most circuit-style workouts, where the relative intensity is roughly 50% or less of the individual's 1-rep max (1RM), the rest time could be under 30 seconds.
For intensities between 60-75% 1RM (generally 10-15 reps per set), a full 60 seconds is usually adequate. For work in the 80-90% 1RM range (around 3-6 reps), 90-120 seconds rest between sets is typically required. Lastly, for true max weight efforts, a solid 3-5 minutes may be needed.
The longer rest periods for higher intensity work are needed to allow for neural recovery, while the shorter rest periods in the lower intensity sets allow for cardiac recovery, which can occur relatively quickly.
The higher the intensity, the more demand on more tissues is present, beginning with cardiac demand (heart rate response), progressing into muscle demand (perfusion of substrate into the working muscles and removal of metabolic byproducts), and finishing with neural demand (ability to generate a synaptic impulse repeatedly and with some power).

5. Use Dynamic Resistance

Using a form of resistance that changes throughout the movement can make a big difference in the activity. Two examples of this would be using heavy chains or bands when performing free weight movements.
With chains, as you lower the weight, more chain collects on the floor and less weight is applied to the bar. As you lift up, the chain comes off the floor and adds to the weight being lifted. For example, a bench press with 225 and 50 pounds of chain would provide a total weight of 275 at the top of the movement, but only about 230 at the bottom. Bands work on a similar premise – added resistance at the top of the lift, reduced resistance at the bottom.
Another form of dynamic resistance would be to use something with an unstable load, such as sand bags or slosh pipes. The weight shifts while moving and creates an unstable load that requires more work to simply stay vertical and not get crushed while trying to move from point A to point B.

6. Use Rest-Pause Breaks During Sets

Let's say you're in the middle of a tough set of squats and you're getting close to your work capacity. Instead of racking the weight when you get to the last rep, just stand there with the weight on your shoulders and take a few deep breaths. It won't be fun, but you'll survive. After you catch your wind, knock out another rep or two. Repeat the process until you see your late Aunt Bertha waving at you from the light at the end of the tunnel.
Don't go to the light, just rack the bar and grab some water.
By using a short mid-set break, where you still bear weight but aren't actively going through a range of motion, you reduce the systemic stress on the body for a short time and allow for more oxygen into the working muscles. This can help power you through a couple of extra reps, which will add up in the long run.

7. Breathing

This is another one of those things that most people don't really spend time thinking about, simply because they either have the pattern ingrained to breathe a certain way or they simply set it up the same way every time.
The mechanics of breathing means we have three distinct regions where we can draw in a breath: the diaphragm, intercostals, and scalene (through the neck). If you're not using all of these areas properly, you don't get enough air, period.
This past summer, I was working with an elite marathon runner who had some pretty messed up breathing patterns. She was only shrugging her shoulders to breath (scalene) and getting just a little bit through her intercostals. As a result, she was essentially only using about two-thirds of her lung capacity:

After a few sessions going through some breathing mechanics retraining and postural work, we were able to get her using more of her intercostals and some of her diaphragm, as well:

Coincidentally enough, when we first started training, she complained of cramping around her left shoulder, close to her neck, which is where her scalene were overworking and fighting back.
When people get "side stitches" when working in a really anaerobic state, their diaphragm is often doing the same thing due to the intercostals and scalenes not doing their job. By balancing her breathing out, she managed to shave eight minutes off her personal best marathon time without altering her run mechanics or training program.

8. Exercise Order

One day I had the great idea of switching around my bench workout order so that I'd finish with bench press after doing six other exercises. Needless to say, it didn't go well. Getting totally pinned with just one 45 on each side of the bar, and having some old guy in knee-high grey socks and disturbingly short-shorts help me out while telling me, "I shouldn't lift so much without a spotter," was definitely a highlight moment in my lifting career.
If you're used to doing exercises in the same order, switch it around, but maybe not to the extreme of doing the biggest exercises dead last. If your training exercises were usually 1,2,3,4,5,6, something like 3,2,6,1,5,4 would be enough variety to get some benefits without totally sacrificing the weight on any exercises.
By altering the order, when you would previously be tired on certain exercises, you'd now be fresh and conceivably move more weight. Similarly, by moving an exercise later, you'll be more fatigued which means the same movement will require more work at the same weight.

9. Add Weight

Yep. Go heavier. Shocker there, huh?
But really, add some weight to the bar and lift it like it'll squash your dog if you don't. Keep technique in mind, absolutely, but if you happen to lose a textbook-perfect neutral spine for a split-second because you're pulling significantly more than you've ever pulled, it's okay.
Top powerlifters will tell you that when it comes to setting a PR, technique will tend to go out the window to pull more. Don't be afraid of the weight, make the weight afraid of you.

10. Change Your Set and Rep Scheme

If you've been using the same 4x10 or 5x5 scheme, it's time to change it up. Do some higher rep marathon sets or low rep power sets. Choose one exercise and work up to a heavy, confident single, and then bang out 10 sets of fast doubles for others.
Get back to pyramiding (increasing weight and dropping reps every set) or include dropsets, staggered sets, supersets, or any variation of the theme. By switching the set and rep scheme, you change what the end-focus of the workout will be, whether it's strength, power, hypertrophy, or endurance. Occasionally, it's good to do different, even if it might seem contrary to your current goals.

Wrap-up

If you consider that with each of these 10 methods of altering an exercise, if there were only three variations that would possibly occur, that makes 59,049 possible ways of altering each individual exercise.
If each method had four options, it would mean 1,048,576 possible ways of changing an exercise. This would conceivably mean that you could apply these changes to the same exercise everyday for the next 2,870 years and never repeat the same exact design.
So, you officially have zero excuses to be doing the same workout next week that you did this week. Play around with different variables and try to get some crazy inconsistency for each exercise in your workouts.

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