Fitness weights experts might recognize such techniques because they feel that this is common knowledge that everyone knows about. But the truth is, when we first got into the gym we really didn’t know about these things.
The fact that we don’t know these things lead us to take a lot of alternative ways and missed many opportunities during the first year of muscle gain. And these are precisely the things that form the basis of our fitness weights. If you don’t even know these things then it’s easy to assume that you haven’t started fitness yet. So let ’s summarize it, which I think is necessary to let fitness lover know.
1. Heavyweight, Low Number of Times.
How much weight to use and how many times to exercise is a fitness concern to everyone. There are lots of people who don’t bother asking and are completely being arrogant. Until they figured out after a long time that they find themselves just taking detours.
When it comes to weights and numbers, we need to understand the fitness term “rm” first. “RM” simply means that we “repeat the maximum value of an action.” For example, if a trainer uses 40kg weight for bench press and can only do 8 times in a row at most, then the 40kg weight is 8 RM for the bench press exercise.
Studies have shown that 1-5 RM load training can quickly enhance strength and speed while thickening muscle fibers. The 6-10 RM load training can improve strength and speed while thickening muscle fiber, but the endurance growth is obscure. The 10-15 RM load training can increase the speed and endurance, but the growth for muscle fiber thickening and strength are both obscure.
30 RM load training can increase the number of capillaries in the muscle and enhance the endurance. But the increase of strength and speed are both obscure as well as the thickening of muscle fiber. Therefore, 6-10 RM load training is more suitable for muscle gain.
2. Train a specific part in a short time and use multiple sets.
In the gym, you often see some fitness weights enthusiasts training like this: start with a device, do one device down, and do two or three sets for each device. Soon, you will train a row of devices all over. It is not wrong from a fitness weights point of view, but it is a big mistake from a muscle-building point of view. If you want to gain muscle, you should focus on exercising one part, and then select multiple actions, in which each is done in seven or eight sets. It’s a waste of time to stop after two or three sets, it won’t make your muscles grow.
3. Large, Long Displacement.
The so-called long displacement, to put it plainly, is that the range should be large enough to do the whole process as much as possible. In some gyms, we often see people doing bench presses for half or quarter. Even half bench press, after all, is still useful, but the quarter press is actually not a bench press but a monkey exercise… the barbell that he grabbed with his hands is only a few centimeters up and down, was simply not able to stimulate the chest muscles.
Regardless of the action, whether it is pull-up or rowing, or bench press, and squat, we should make the range of the action large enough to fully stimulate the corresponding muscle group. Any small movement is self-deception and will not have much effect.
4. Slow down your movements.
Because we care too much about the “number of times”, many people will speed up the pace of their movements but they speed up too fast, many times our movements will rely on inertia rather than the corresponding muscle group. Try to slow down the speed, whether it’s pulling, pushing, or squatting. Slowing down the speed will stimulate the muscles more deeply. Of course, sometimes speed is also good because you can exercise rapidly. But if your goal is to gain muscle then slowing down your speed will be very beneficial.
5. Reduce the time of rest between sets.
Many people tend to hold their mobile phones for half a day after a set of exercises, but this can lead to poor workout results. Shorten the time to less than a minute to better stimulate muscle growth. You can shorten your rest time, and add the second — multiple sets— to maximize your muscle fiber tear.
6. Consistent Mindset
The work of our whole body muscles is innervated. Focusing on the corresponding muscle groups, maximizing the mobilization of the muscle fibers of the muscle group to work to the greatest extent. When you do bench press, focus your thoughts on the chest muscles, feel the stretch and strength of your chest muscles, which not only can push you harder but also gives you better chest exercise.
In the same way, when you do rowing, focusing your thoughts on your back will also give you better strength and better stimulation of your back muscles. If you can’t feel your pectoral muscles after doing bench press but both your shoulders and arms are hurt, except that your movements are not correct but they are not consistent also.
7. Peak Contraction
What is peak contraction? Peak contraction is when a certain movement reaches the tensest position of muscle contraction, it pauses slightly to keep the muscle contraction in the tensest state. For example, when you do barbell curls, you hold the barbell with your hands to the highest level, do not immediately put it down but pause a little to maintain the tension of the biceps and peak the contraction.
8. Practice more complex actions
Complex action is multi-joint action, such as bench presses, squats, deadlifts. All of these actions require the coordination of multiple muscle groups throughout the body, which can allow multiple muscle groups throughout the body to be simultaneously exercised. Heavy complex actions can be risky and difficult, leading many people to avoid squatting and deadlifts. It is a pity, whether you are trying to make your body better or gain muscle, these complex actions are essential. The combination of squats and deadlifts can even help you break through the bottlenecks of other muscle groups. So if you want to gain muscle quickly, you must do more of these complex moves.
9. More Protein
Protein is the foundation material for building tissue, just like the bricks needed to build a house. Our muscles are made up of many muscle fibers. Heavyweight training helps tear these muscle fibers, then intake enough protein to allow these muscle fibers to “recover excessively” so that they can grow. So, even if you train harder, normalize your movements, and increase your strength, if you don’t eat sufficient protein then it will be difficult to grow your muscles.
10. More Carbohydrates
Proteins are important but so are carbohydrates. Sugars, grains (e.g. white rice, wheat, corn, oats, sorghum, etc.), fruits (e.g. watermelons, apples, strawberries, bananas, pineapples, grapes, etc.), vegetables (e.g. broccoli, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, etc.), are carbohydrates. This is our body energy supplement. Having insufficient energy supplements is difficult for you to gain muscle.
11. Get more rest
How long do you rest? How to rest? These are some questions many people ask during the fitness weights process. First of all, small muscle groups need at least 48 hours of rest such as the deltoid muscle. When you exercised the deltoid muscle this morning, then do not exercise the deltoid muscle the next day, at least after the third day. Large muscle groups need at least 72 hours such as the pectoralis major.
If you practiced bench press this morning then wait for 72 hours before you do bench press again. Training separately the individual muscle group is also related to this. Second, if you want to gain muscle, try to keep your sleep time for more than 8 hours. We use high-intensity training. The excessive recovery of the muscle fibers after tearing them is mainly performed during sleep. The effect will be greatly reduced if there is insufficient sleep.
12. Don‘t be greedy forheavyweights, it’s better to do light than to show off.
Because of vanity, using a weight that exceeds one’s ability to compete with others. Not only carries the risk of injury but also significantly reduces muscle gain. On the other hand, the first item above said that 6-10 RM weight is more suitable for muscle gain. So if you use 2 RM weight to train daily, then the effect of muscle gain is definitely very poor. However, weights such as 1 RM and 2 RM are very vulnerable to injury, or other significant risks.
Finally, when the weight is heavy then the movement’s standard is difficult to guarantee and it will be completely deformed. Plus, other muscle groups in the whole body are also easy to borrow force, which will also weaken the effect of muscle gain.
