Make foam rolling a staple in your routine

It's fairly well accepted that when it comes to the stuff that keeps us fresh and able to keep hitting the gym hard and consistently, one of the aspects we neglect is the injury prevention / rehabilitation side. Foam rolling isn't complex: you just buy a foam roller, and roll each bodypart over it continuously for possibly 30 seconds. The benefits? Endless. Foam rolling itself is another article for another time, but its main benefit for those who want to research it further stems from a concept called Myofascial release, a form of soft tissue therapy used for an innumberable amount of purported reasons.

You can integrate foam rolling into your routine easily - all's it takes is 5-10 minutes per day, pre-workout, or in the evening before bed. Use a tennis ball / softball for hard bodyparts to get to, and use an actual foam roller to perform myofascial release on the lower body and thoracic spine. We will investigate foam rolling further in the future, so keep your ears peeled for that when the opportunity arises.

Integrate dynamic warm-ups before starting your proper workout

If five minutes of some basic, really simple dynamic warm-up exercises were all it took to get seriously up the poundage you're lifting each session, stimulate your central nervous system, and also make you feel healthier / more mobile, would you still choose to ignore doing them because you 'can't be bothered'? I'm literally staggered by those individuals who know the benefits of dynamic / mobility exercises pre-workout and their excellent impact yet choose to ignore doing them. 5 minutes, like foam rolling, may increase your results exponentially (at least to some extent). Now is a good time to start doing some.

Utilise deload periods effectively

If you don't know what a deload is, don't worry - that article is well under way already. To be brief: a deload is, as the name suggests, when you reduce the total load / volume of work you do in a given week in an attempt to freshen up connective tissue, give your central nervous system some well deserved rest, and to stoke the fire again before returning stronger, more explosive and more motivated. Every top performance lifter and strength coach advocates using deload periods. Why don't you? If you don't know how to perform one, again, I'll reiterate: don't worry, help is on the way shortly for BodyActive Nation followers!

Incorporate more volume for 'weak lifts'

If you're bad (or not strong) at a movement and it's important to you, the solution may simply be to perform it more frequently. It's often as simple as just using more volume on that certain movement to get continually use to the motor pattern. This usually isn't very fun (as you possibly dislike the movement anyway), however, it's imperative that on certain movements you invest the necessary effort to get progressing again.

For example: I usually stagnate very quickly on squats and lose correct technique of how to maintain explosiveness and tightness on the movement (even after performing them for 7 years). To rectify this, I usually perform three sets of squats with a moderate weight for 5 reps each set, AFTER my main working sets. This simply reenforces technique and leaves me feeling more confident at performing the movement.

Admittedly, this isn't much fun. I don't particularly like squats to any great degree; however, I get the shit done because I know how important they are and this makes squats a strong movement for me simply because I'm practicing it a lot.

If you want to get good at something, you should commit to doing it often and frequently, right? The same concept can arguably be applied to weight training and certain movements. Most elite strength trainers will usually perform a very high load of volume on the movements they need to increase continuously. If something is stagnating for you in your training right now, try adopting this approach and if necessary, you can even do it two or four days after the day centered around your weak movement and do some basic assistance work there (again, I'll reiterate that it shouldn't be too heavy).

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