If you are serious about being an athlete or getting into great shape then you need to train like it. After you have moved past the basic level of working out then it is time to start pushing yourself harder and in new ways to make yourself stronger and more dynamic.
Numerous athletes over the years have created fitness programs designed around what they had available. They worked hard and put forth the effort to an extreme to push their bodies to a peak that is hard to reach but worth it when you get there. People such as Jerry Rice or Walter Payton did things others couldn’t handle and it paid off.
How to Train Like a Beast
First your training must constantly change. You cannot settle for doing the same thing week in and week out. Many athletes use periodization to reach higher fitness goals by breaking down programs into things like offseason, pre-season, season, and post-season. This form of cycling is recommended to deal with the various rigors of a sport.
It is in the offseason that beast-mode typically comes out. That is where you take normal training methods and make them harder. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter what exactly it is you are doing; if the workout can translate into something useful to your given sport or making yourself more powerful.
Examples
A good example of beast training might be an off-season running program. Some people would be content to just jog a few miles each day to keep some semblance of cardiovascular training. Maybe you work up to running 5 to 8 miles every other day. That is a decent goal. But a more extreme approach would be to quickly build up to that and then start running trails and hills.
The variable terrain and endurance required to push yourself up hills produces and different result than plain jogging. Then to that you add a weighted backpack to some sessions and hill sprints to others. Now you are getting your muscles and body used to handling different levels of stress and teaching yourself mentally how to dig deep for strength and added endurance. Think of any sport that involves movement and you can see how this level of training can benefit so much more than just running.
For weightlifting you can add strongman styled workouts to a routine to increase bodily strength over different ranges of motion. Many serious athletes do things like flipping oversized tires, farmer’s walks (carrying heavy weights in each hand over distance), and even rope climbing to provide variable training days. While standard weight lifting is fantastic, also pushing your muscles in different ways will add more strength and power that is explosive and translates directly to athletic movements.
The Bottom Line
Serious athletes need to work hard and train harder if they want to be the best. Natural talent can only take you so far in life. Those people who learn how to turn the needle up to “11” during the offseason can really have a much better regular season because they are building a stronger, faster, more explosive body that has been pushed extremely hard. Mentally you know you are tougher and can give more than before which is another powerful addition. So why aren’t you entering beast mode yet?
Ben Sanderson is a writer and fitness professional for Nutribomb Bodybuilding Supplements. Please visit Ben at Nutribomb.com for more fitness and bodybuilding tips to help you meet your goals. Please visit us at google plus.