Two Reasons You're Not Seeing Results In The GYM.

So, You’ve been hitting the gym hard, sticking to your workout routine, and pushing yourself to the limit. BUT your still not seeing the results you expected?

That’s ok, Im here to help you figure this out. In most cases, it’s not about training hard enough. (even though that is the over arching theme in society)

More than likely it’s one of two things. You’re training hard but without the proper intensity OR you are not giving yourself the ability to recover.

Let’s break down these two aspects and help you get back to maximize your gym results.

1.Intensity

Intensity is training with a purpose and focus. It’s understanding how the movement works, what you’re training and maintaining a high level of focused execution on the movement.

It’s about diving into the bio mechanics of the movement and then leveraging up the amount of force that you can drive through the muscle with proper execution over time. This is going to be the main driver of change both in the muscle size ands shape.

Once you learn to master this you can get out of the endless loop of working hard but seeing little progress in the gym.

2.Lack of Recovery

This one only kicks in after you master number one, it’s recovery. We think most of the results happen when we are training in the gym or doing the cardio.

It’s true, that’s part of it BUT a bigger part of your ability to change your body happens with what you do the rest of the time.

Are you eating enough protein, do you have enough fuel (calories) to enjoy your workouts and are you getting sleep so your body can grow?

Without these three key ingredients your workouts could be netting you nothing more then a good cardio workout for your heart, even if you’re going hard-core for hours at a time.

What is Intensity?

Intensity refers to training with purpose and focus. It’s more than just working out hard; it’s about understanding how each movement works, what you’re targeting, and executing exercises with high precision.

Here’s what you need to know:

Understanding Movement Mechanics: Each exercise has a specific range of motion and muscle activation pattern. For example, when doing bicep curls, the bicep contracts when you lift the weight and stretches when you lower it. Understanding these mechanics helps ensure you’re targeting the right muscles effectively.
Focused Execution: It’s crucial to maintain a high level of concentration throughout your workout. Rather than mindlessly moving through reps, engage the muscles you’re working, control the movement, and avoid using momentum.
Know the muscle that provides the tension: Every muscle has a muscle on the other side that is providing the tension. For example, triceps provide tension and stability to the bicep as you do a curl. When your bicep is fully relaxed at the bottom your tricep is engaged allowing you to activate your forearms so your biceps can begin to curl the weight back up towards your face. This provides stability for the working muscle.
It’s not about the weight: You want to become an expert at putting force through your muscles. When you are doing a movement you want to feel a strong contraction in the muscle you’re working. If you’re not, you want to lower the weight and focus on finding that connection with the movement. You should be able to feel it contract and stretch with each rep. This will start to drive a lot of growth for you in the gym regardless of your genetics or strength levels. You can become an assassin with 5lbs if you know what you’re doing and scale up from there.

Mastering Proper Execution

To enhance your workout intensity, you must master proper execution. Here’s how to approach it:

Know the Range of Motion: Understand the full range of motion for the muscle you’re training. Each muscle has two points of growth activation: when it’s fully contracted and when it’s fully stretched.
Example: Bicep Curls
- Starting Position: Begin with your arms fully extended and hands hanging at your sides.
- Engage the Muscle: Squeeze your triceps (the muscle on the back of your arm) to create tension and tighten your grip activating your forearms.
- Controlled Lift: Slowly lift the bar towards your chin while keeping your forearms and biceps engaged. As you begin to curl the weight you should feel your biceps engaging.
- Avoid Swinging: Don’t use momentum to lift the weight; focus on controlled, deliberate movements.

Mastering these principles means you’ll need less time in the gym and see better results.

Let’s Address Recovery

Recovery is a critical component of your fitness journey, often overlooked by those who focus solely on their workouts. While exercising is essential, your body needs time to repair and grow stronger. Recovery happens outside the gym and involves several factors:

Sleep: To keep it simple if you want your body to change, you need to give it time to do the work. Most of your muscle repair and growth occurs while you sleep. We tend to think this happens when we are in the gym. It doesn’t. The time in the gym is actually breaking down the muscle. In response to that it needs to heal itself. This process happens while we sleep which means if you want bigger biceps and leaner stomach, sleep is essential. It’s also the time when your body does the most detoxifying and brings down your stress levels. If your stress is constantly high it makes it hard for the body change. Your body puts all the effort into trying to eliminate the stress rather than growth. If you’re wanting to improve your sleep here is this article that goes deeper.
Stress Management: High stress levels can impede recovery and muscle growth. When your body is stressed out it puts all its efforts into trying to eliminate the stress rather than growing your muscles, burning fat and recovering. It’s important to keep this in check. Quality sleep is going to help manage stress and improve overall well-being. Another way you can do this is by incorporating relaxation techniques such as mindfulness or meditation into your daily routine. Finally, take a little time to identify parts of your daily routine that cause you stress and look for ways to limit these moments through out your day. It could be creating a new way to do it, eliminating it or just simply choosing not to react to it in the future. Consciously creating your environment is a big part of stress management.

3. Nutrition: Everyone thinks about cutting calories but it’s rather common that people are not eating enough. Especially people that are trying to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

Your body needs food to be able to repair and keep up with the new activity you have recently added to your routine.

It’s important that you are paying attention to your protein intake. This is going to help make sure your muscles have what they need to grow and also make it easier to maintain your weight loss goals. A good number to shoot for is 1 gram of protein for a pound of body weight. Preferably mainly from lean meat, eggs, some dairy and supplements. It’s vital for muscle repair and growth.

Next you want to look at overall calorie intake. Your body needs sufficient calories to support your activity levels and recovery. Undereating can stall a lot of progress and have a big affect on energy levels. Aim for a well-rounded diet with adequate amount of food to support your overall energy needs and recovery. You can find a lot of ways to figure this out but to keep it simple if you are feeling tired try adding in a little more clean food to see if it improves your energy. This is not a pass to eat donuts, sadly….I’ve been down that road and it’s rarely productive unless you are going through a massive training block.

THE WRAP UP

If you’re not seeing the results you want despite working hard, it’s time to assess your intensity and recovery strategies. Focus on executing each movement with precision and ensure you’re giving your body the rest, nutrition, and stress management it needs to thrive. By mastering these two critical components, you’ll unlock your full potential and make meaningful progress toward your fitness goals.