It’s amazing how the smallest changes can bust a plateau. Adjust your stance or grip, set the bench to an incline instead of flat, or change implements from a barbell to a dumbbell, and you’ve suddenly expanded your exercise options widely with only the slightest effort.
If your gym is well-equipped, there may be an infinite number of ways to expand your exercise repertoire that you haven’t taken advantage of yet. If it isn’t, you just have to get creative. The following are some variables you can change.
4 Small Workout Tweaks for Bigger Muscle Gains
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Switch Your Grip and Stance
Your body adapts to habit. Widen your grip on barbell curls to target the inner head of your biceps. Narrow your stance on the deadlift to improve leverage, letting you get closer to the bar without losing the arch in your lower back.
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Try a New Bar
A conventional barbell is the ultimate strength tool, but it does force your wrists into an unnatural position on presses and curls. Try a Swiss bar or fat bar. A Swiss bar offers neutral-grip handles at multiple widths. A fat bar forces your grip to work overtime in every exercise.
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Strike Up the Band
On exercises like the lateral raise and overhead triceps extensions, you lose tension on the muscles in the bottom and top positions. Using a band creates constant resistance so your muscles have to fight along the entire range of motion.
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Change it Up
You can follow a pattern of subtle changes to maximize the efficiency of various exercises. You’ll want to take your conventional exercise and alter either its angle or your grip.For example, for an ordinary bench press, you’d either flip to a wide-grip or a fat bar.For deadlifts, a sumo deadlift or trap-bar deadlift.For dumbbell overhead presses, an Arnold press for angle or a swiss bar overhead press for grip.Finally, a lying triceps extension can change to a narrow-grip triceps extension or a neutral-grip dumbbell triceps extension.
Your body adapts to habit. Widen your grip on barbell curls to target the inner head of your biceps. Narrow your stance on the deadlift to improve leverage, letting you get closer to the bar without losing the arch in your lower back.
Try a New Bar
A conventional barbell is the ultimate strength tool, but it does force your wrists into an unnatural position on presses and curls. Try a Swiss bar or fat bar. A Swiss bar offers neutral-grip handles at multiple widths. A fat bar forces your grip to work overtime in every exercise.
Strike Up the Band
On exercises like the lateral raise and overhead triceps extensions, you lose tension on the muscles in the bottom and top positions. Using a band creates constant resistance so your muscles have to fight along the entire range of motion.
Change it Up
You can follow a pattern of subtle changes to maximize the efficiency of various exercises. You’ll want to take your conventional exercise and alter either its angle or your grip.
For example, for an ordinary bench press, you’d either flip to a wide-grip or a fat bar.
For deadlifts, a sumo deadlift or trap-bar deadlift.
For dumbbell overhead presses, an Arnold press for angle or a swiss bar overhead press for grip.
