Improve Your Results With PB

No, not peanut butter- Personal Bests.

Always strive to improve upon your performance over your previous weight training session. This is an idea I picked up from Jason Ferruggia and Craig Ballantyne (although they refer to it as a PR- personal record). I think it's a great method because so many people let their self-talk limit themselves to doing the same thing for so many consecutive workouts, decreasing the effectiveness of their workouts.

Challenging yourself will get you faster results and this is a simple (I didn't say easy) way to do it.

Say your program calls for 3 sets of 8 reps of One Arm D.B. Rows. Last time you used 20 pounds and completed 8 reps on all 3 sets. This workout, increase the weight to 22.5 pounds.

(Platemates are a must have when you start using heavier weights. Having to increase in 5 pound increments is usually too big a jump, especially for women. Each PlateMate weighs 1.25 lbs. so you'll need two for each dumbbell, four total.)

So, you increased your weight to 22.5 pounds and this workout you got 8 reps on the first set but only 7 on the second set and 6 on the third. That's fine. Your goal for your next workout would be to increase the reps completed on your second and/or third set(s). When you hit 3 sets of 8, you'd again raise the weight for the next workout.

Try this with each exercise.

Keep in mind that you always want to maintain good form. Throwing the weight around in an effort to get one or two more reps is not only counterproductive but increases your risk of injury.

Shoot for a personal best each workout and you will definitely boost your results.