Last year I wrote a similar article so that folks could start the year off better. Be sure to check that out here.
The good news is that those top three tips still apply, so be sure to start there. For this year, I will get a bit more advanced for you.
#1 Stick to a routine
Routine will lead to simplicity. Simplicity will lead to results. I am a huge fan of simplicity, and the only time I get away from that is for the final week or two before a contest or photoshoot. Outside of that, I believe that keeping things simpler will lead to better results than trying to overcomplicate things.
That is why I am a fan of meal prep and hitting consistent times not only for your meals but for your workouts as well. Dr. Mike and I have talked about this on the RP Strength Podcast a bunch of times, but there appears to be something to the idea of hitting consistent meal times throughout the day with your nutrition. This means that if you usually eat at 8am, 12pm, 4pm, and 9pm, you should do your best to stick to that throughout your diet. You can vary a bit, of course, but you should do your best to hit around those times as often as you can. It also simplifies your schedule and you have to think less about prep and planning. That way your mental bandwidth can be focused on simply executing the plan.
When it comes to executing the plan, that is why I am such a fan of our two apps. The RP Hypertrophy App lays out my workouts from week to week so that I know exactly what weights, reps, and sets I need to hit. I think less in the gym and execute the plan, knowing that I am consistently hitting progressive overload and making results in the gym. The same goes with the RP Diet Coach App. It tells me exactly how much and when to eat so that I just hit the meals and get results.
I also think that you should hit the same time of day to work out, again to the best of your ability. All this does is help teach your body what to expect and make your life simpler. I get it, stuff will happen and times will change, but I would be shocked if trying to stick to a consistent routine makes your results worse. If possible, I would also encourage you to train earlier in the day versus later. If you wait until after work, stuff happens, especially with real life, jobs, kids, partners, etc. If you can knock it out earlier and get it out of the way, I think your chances of success will increase. There are, of course, exceptions to this, but overall it is likely better to train before you get caught late at work or have to pick up your kids from their practice or game.
#2 Focus more on your technique
If you are a male reading this, chances are you need to lower your weight a bit and focus more on your form and technique. Probably for ego reasons, but women tend to do much better with this in the gym. Guys tend to let their ego guide their weight choices, especially in a public gym.
This means that you need to focus more on your technique so that you are actually training the muscle group the exercise is intended for. If you are trying to train your biceps but are doing a pseudo hammer curl or clean, then chances are you are working your ego harder than your biceps. Drop the weight down quite a bit, get that full stretch, and go a bit slower on each rep and I bet your biceps will actually feel it. Remember, nobody else gives a crap how much weight you are lifting.
If you are doing one arm rows and your body is jerking around and moving more than the weight, I think you are probably not training your lats too much. Drop the weight, throw on your Versa Gripps, stretch that dumbbell all the way to the floor, and row it all the way to your chest. That is how you actually train your lats and not just jerk the crap out of a 150 pound dumbbell that impresses exactly no one.
It will hurt your ego a bit, but your muscles, results, and joints will thank you months and years from now.
#3 Change your environment
If you struggle with snacking or staying on track with your diet late at night, then I would strongly urge you to change your environment. If you have kids or a partner who likes to eat snacks or junk food, then you need to account for this. Ideally your support system would help you out with this, but that is not always the case. If you find that seeing cookies or chips sitting out triggers you, then you need to put them away or out of sight. Hide them in the pantry or put them in some type of non see through container.
If you are at work and eating lunch in the breakroom smells like pizza and doughnuts, then you need to eat at your desk and make sure your meal prep is with you, or you are eating that delicious smelling food.
If your gym is 45 minutes away, let us face it, you are not going as often as you want to. Try a different gym or get some easy equipment to train at home. Heck, go get a Planet Fitness membership for cheap that is 10 minutes from your house instead of having to drive so far to hit the gym. I have not ever trained there, but I know quite a few folks who can get in a great hypertrophy workout at PF.
Part of this goes back to tip #1, and by creating better systems, routines, and habits you can radically change your environment to make it simpler for you to reach your goals in 2026.
Keep it simple, make things easier on yourself versus harder, and finally enjoy the results of your fitness journey that you have long been seeking.
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