PUT YOUR DOUGH

When it comes to training, are your gains faster than a one-two Ali combo? Or are they working you in the corner like a washed pug, bending over in a shower of body shots?

While you probably don’t want to admit it, it’s probably the latter. You see, many of us find ourselves without any progress after months, even years of battles in the weight room. Unfortunately, and contrary to popular opinion, building your body is not a brute force effort. When you’re not making progress, simply dropping your head and doing the same training regimen week after week won’t end up wearing down the forces that stunt your growth. But that’s what many of us do.

As in the box, the man usually left standing is the one who knew his opponent – he knew when to jab, when to duck, and when to go for the kill, not the one who stuck his chin in and came out flailing. You must apply the same type of strategy to your training: fight smart.

To help you strategize, here are 18 tips for getting and understanding the “sweet science” of resistance training. I hope that by incorporating this advice into your own regimen, you will find that The fight for more muscle isn’t about a quick knockout punch; it’s all about going the distance and sliding in some timely strokes. Keep your gloves up!

1. PUSH yourself. If you are lifting about the same weight now as a year ago, don’t expect to be much bigger. While the largest muscles are not the strongest muscles and the strongest muscles are not the largest, there is a substantial link between strength and size, as long as you avoid very low repetitions, the rest / pause technique, partial reps and long rest periods between sets. . These techniques generally give a lot of strength, but little to no size gain.
2. DO “good form” your mantra. Don’t just lip-service the cliché “use good form.” Allow absolutely no bouncing, gasping, popping, or excessive range of motion, and never get so greedy for weight gains that you sacrifice good form. Good form is needed not only to avoid injury, but also to stimulate optimal muscle growth. In addition to proper form, avoid high-risk exercises, such as any squat with heels raised on a plank or plates, bench press on the neck or upper chest, or shoulder press behind the neck with very heavy weights . Also, use a controlled rep cadence: about 2 to 3 seconds for the one rep positive phase and three seconds for the negative phase.
3. INDIVIDUALIZED your selection of exercises. If an exercise hurts, and you have been doing it in good form with a controlled cadence and have tried sensible modifications, stop that exercise. The first rule of exercise selection is “do no harm.” Discard the reckless maxim of “no pain, no gain.”
4. GET IN CUCLILLAS. Do your best to squat well and intensely. The benefits are not just limited to the thighs, glutes, and lower back; The squat stimulates the muscles of the entire body. While some people can’t really squat intensively and safely, most can. Reverse the squat, improve your squatting, and pay your dues on the shelf, and you will reap the rewards.
5. DEAD ELEVATION. The deadlift is one of the most productive exercises for mass bodybuilding. Master the technique, conventional style, sumo or stiff legs, and gradually increase the weight to something very impressive. A flawless flat-back shape is flawless; Avoid any exaggerated range of motion. Deadlift correctly, or don’t do it at all.
6. TRAIN tough, but smart. Do enough to stimulate growth, then get out of the gym and give your body a chance to recover and grow. The bottom line is progress, not intensity of training. However, if you always cut your sets with a couple of reps, stopping even though you know you have more in you, get serious, do your best, and put 100% effort into finishing what you start.
7. LOG IN that. You’ve heard of the importance of keeping a training log, but how many people actually do it? Accurately record all your reps and loads. As the weeks go by, you should be able to see small but gradual improvements in the weight lifted and / or the number of repetitions performed. If not, you have clear evidence that you need to modify some aspects of your training regimen.
8. TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF the power of one. Get yourself a couple of half pound plates, homemade weight increases, or some creative alternatives like wrist weights or large washers so you can add just 1 pound to the bar at a time. Adding a minimum of 5 pounds to a one-time exercise when you’re at your current best weight, as many people try to do, often leads to breakdown in form and injury. Instead, raise the weights. Strength builds slowly.
9. COUPLE until. Find a training partner who has similar recovery abilities to yours, so you can use a similar training program. Then push each other to deliver perfect workouts every time – intensive, progressive, and always in good shape. But just as a good training partner can help, an inappropriate training partner can be your downfall. If he or she can recover faster than you, can tolerate more sets and exercises, and pushes you to abuse forced reps and other intensity enhancers, cut your ties soon.
10. BE consistent. Bodybuilding success is about getting every rep right, every set right, every workout right, every meal right, and every night’s sleep right, week after week, month after month. Make a little commitment to this and it will lower your rate of progress; Commit too much and it will kill your profits. Note that there are no “small” wins. Don’t set yourself limits, but don’t expect the impossible. Just live for the next progress, then the next, and then the next. Little by little, you will develop bigger muscles.
11. DO your training time is sacred. Protect your privacy while training. You must be fully in charge and say no to intrusions, whether human or not. Don’t do this to become a hermit or to alienate your family and friends; Do it to honor your need for the focus required to do your best at something you have committed to.
12. ATTENTION. Only highly gifted bodybuilders can build mass and refine it at the same time. The rest of us should focus on building mass by concentrating primarily on compound exercises tested for a year or more. Only then do detail work like cable crossovers, dumbbell laterals, and triceps kickbacks have real practical value. If used previously, detailed exercises hinder progress by putting a lot of effort on your resilience and reducing the level of effort you can put into compound movements.
13. PERSONALIZE your training program to find what works best for you. No program works well for everyone; even good programs must be adjusted to suit the individual user. Customize the factors for exercise volume, training frequency, and exercise selection. Once you find a good program, don’t cut it or change it randomly. Stick to a certain set of exercises long enough to make substantial progress in the weight you can lift.
14. CONTINUE excellent nutritional habits every day. No matter how well you train, rest, and sleep, if you take shortcuts with your nutrition, you will slow, if not completely stop, your muscle growth. Take your nutrition very seriously. Divide your caloric and nutritional needs into five or preferably six meals a day. Eat more and eat more often. If you weigh the same now as a year ago, you cannot expect to have bigger muscles unless you have substantially reduced your body fat.
15. NO making progress? Reduce. If your bodybuilding has stalled, chances are you are spending too much time in the gym. Reduce and give yourself a chance to grow. Try reducing your weight training to just three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, alternating two different routines: chest, shoulders, triceps, and abs in one routine, and legs, back, and biceps in the other. Do no more than three sets of workouts per exercise and a maximum of eight exercises per routine. If you can do more than three sets of work per exercise, you are lazing, train harder. Never fight the warning signs of overtraining. Symptoms include loss of enthusiasm for training, stagnation of exercise loads, reduced appetite, and persistent aches and pains. Whenever you feel any of these symptoms, take action by increasing recovery time and sleep, reducing training volume, and improving nutrition.
16. STRETCH. Follow a program of a dozen stretches three times a week. Stretching won’t make you bigger, but it will help you stay resistant to injury. Stretch only after warming up, hold stretches for 15-30 seconds, never do ballistic stretches, and don’t try to improve your skills too quickly by forcing a stretch beyond your limits.
17. REST generously between workouts. Even though proper recovery time is so critical, many bodybuilders make the mistake of minimizing recovery time and maximizing training frequency. If you still feel tired and have to train today, rest another day. Then, modify your training program and lifestyle so that you recover properly between workouts without having to take unscheduled rest days. Plus, get at least eight hours of quality sleep each night. If you have trouble sleeping, find solutions; consult a sleep clinic if necessary. Making short changes in the sleep department can halt bodybuilding gains even if your training and nutrition are in good shape. If you rely on an alarm clock most mornings, you’re not getting enough sleep. Give your bodybuilding recovery a higher priority than socializing late at night.
18. REQUEST the core belief of bodybuilding: progress. Prepare your training and the entire package of factors related to recovery so that progress in muscle mass is a reality. If no profit is made, make changes until they occur. The ball stops with you. You select the exercises, the volume and the frequency of training that you use. You decide when to quit smoking on a set. You must discipline yourself to use good form. You determine your hours of sleep. You are responsible for your nutrition. Take advantage of the tremendous power you have to change your physique!