Are You Maximizing Your Time in the Gym?

Eight, Nine, Ten ….

You’ve just finished a tough set on the bench press so now what do you do. If you read into your strength training textbook the answer is to sit and wait for 1-2 minutes. So you sit down, look over at the guy next to you and start to chat about the footy on the weekend or maybe you grab your phone to see what hilarious photo your mate has just posted on instagram. Now this 1-2 minutes turns to 3, maybe 4 or even 5 minutes. So much for doing everything by the books for optimum results.

Now I’m not trying to say you need to cut all your rest periods down to 15-30 seconds but, maybe that rest time could be put to better use than the above mentioned habits that are common sights in the gym. This is where in my programming I like to incorporate “filler” exercises. These are a great way to keep you focused while you train, improve mobility, correct muscle imbalances, bring up lagging muscle groups, improve conditioning and reduce your time in the gym (because not everyone’s life revolves around being in the gym). Now it is important to note that your goals, current physical status and style of programming will play a large role in determining whether filler exercises are appropriate for you at this time and what type to use. Over the coming articles I will address the use of filler exercises for the above mentioned purposes.

What is a “filler” exercise?

A filler exercise can be considered as an exercise utilized to increase total workload of a session by placing it between sets of a main exercise. It can be easy to confuse filler exercises with other common intensifiers such as supersets and circuits however; a filler exercise should not induce significant fatigue affecting the main exercise after it. As such “fillers” should be used in a submaximal nature and focus on accruing total volume and movement quality rather than exercise intensity.

Fillers for mobility

With the highly sedentary environment we live in now, the incidence of poor movement quality caused by a combination of poor joint congruency, incorrect motor patterning, muscle imbalances and increased muscle tension has became prominent in the fitness industry. We all know what the common problems are but nobody wants to spend an extra 30 minutes in the gym working on them.

This has been a problem for me for a long time but the best advice I have received came from Mike Keelan (Australian Weightlifting Team Coach) and Christopher Sommers (Jnr National USA Gymnastics Coach). Both these coaches stress the importance of mobility for their respective sports and place a high priority on it by incorporating it into their training sessions as filler sessions. At first I was skeptical on this approach having read the many studies suggesting static stretching between exercise reducing power outputs however, this is great when you have unlimited training time but unlike the professional athletes around most of us are limited in time to train so the small performance decrement induced by incorporating mobility fillers shouldn’t phase you by much.

When incorporating mobility fillers some common methods to include are:

• Fillers to improve current exercise technique
• Fillers to improve movement quality in joints not involved with the exercise.

An example of a filler to improve the current exercise would be bench thoracic extensions to improve torso position in a squat or overhead lift.

An example of fillers to improve movement quality in joints not involved in the current exercise would be ankle dorsiflexion drills between sets of bench presses.

Fillers for alleviating muscle imbalances

Muscle imbalances are a common cause of pain that many people face on a daily basis and for athletes (both professional and weekend warriors) can place them at an increased risk of injury, which can potentially prevent them from working and thus provide for their families. It is quite common for people who train regularly to develop strength in the prime movers predominantly in the sagittal plane (forwards/backwards) however, neglect strengthening the stabilizing muscles or those acting in the frontal (sideways) or transverse planes (rotational). Also due to life existing in front of us chronic muscle tightness is often common in muscles in front of the shoulder whilst those behind the shoulder are often neglected. Filler exercises are a great way to increase volume in areas which are often neglected and thus reduce the imbalances.

Some common areas in which should be addressed include:

• Glute med
• Transverse abdominals
• Rotator Cuff
• Serratus Anterior
• Upper Back (including rhomboids, lower and middle traps)
• Vastus Medialis

When incorporating exercises to alleviate muscle imbalances it is important to ensure the exercise is performed submaximally with low loads and higher volumes.

In the next article I will address methods of improving conditioning and bringing up lagging bodyparts through filler exercises. Until then begin working on your movement quality.