This is a principle you can apply to your trainings right NOW, and will give you results right NOW.
I first got contact with this principle in the book “The Poliquin Principles” by Charles Poliquin, who is my first go to when it comes to training methods. When you are a beginner, progressing is easy. You can basically do more weights or reps every training session. As you keep moving forward, things start getting more complicated. Unfortunately it is a normal thing for the upper body to adapt and try to stay that way, making it harder and harder to keep gaining strength and mass.
Well, the Kaizen Principle might be a good solution for that, and guess what, it will work for virtually any training program you go through. Let’s try to think together: is 5kg a lot, or is it light weight baby? It depends on the context. If you are working close to your 1 RM in a squat, for example, 5kg might mean the difference between getting the lift or failing it. If you just have to pick up 5kg from the floor, it probably is not much. Also it depends on which exercise you are doing. 5kg on a leg press is probably nothing to you, but even 1kg increase can be a LOT if you are doing an external rotation exercise, for example. And that’s exactly where the Kaizen Principle comes into play.
In Japanese, the work “Kaizen” means “constant and neverending improvement”, and it is used in all areas of life, from training to relationships. The Japanese believe that very small refinements on a daily basis will build up to a great improvement in the long run. Let’s extrapolate that to the gym environment: let’s suppose you can squat with 100kg on your back for 10 reps. We will try to make minimal increments of 1kg every week, for the same amount of reps. If you manage to stay constant with those increments, by the end of 1 year, you will be able to squat with 152kg on your back!!! That is INSANE when you think about it.
The easiest form of applying this method is like this:
1 – choose the rep range you will work at, let’s say 10-12 reps, and the number of sets, let’s say 3 to make it simple.
2- on training session 1, you will do 3×10 reps for that exercise.
3- on training 2, you try to push it to 3×12. If you happen to fail at 12, 12 and 11 on the 3rd set for example, repeat it one more training, or until you get 12 reps on all 3 sets.
4- after you got all reps in the higher end of the rep range, do the minimal increment possible in your work load and go back to 3×10. Usually for a barbell exercise in a commercial gym, you will find 1,25kg plates around. If you REALLY are willing to invest some extra money in your training, you can find 0.5kg fractional plates to buy (you’ll just have to carry it yourself to the gym and back).
5- if you decide to stick with the same amount of reps all the time, let’s say 10 reps, you’ll just have to work with the load. Try to increase a little bit every training session (minimal increment).
Try to imagine yourself breaking personal records EVERY TRAINING SESSION. Yes, it sounds dramatic, and it will hardly happen forever in your training regimen. But indeed the Kaizen Principle works, and I use it in my own training and with my trainees as well. And that’s how you will achieve considerably fast, and extremely safe results. Remember, you have to leave the gym every day 1% better. 1% will be enough to ensure your progress. If you’re having a bad day and can’t lift heavier or for more reps, improve your technique for that day. Find a way to WIN. Your progress will be built in the long run by small WINS every training session, in whatever form they come.
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