33. Chest wisely. Occasionally using a little momentum or body English to get an extra rep or two at the end of a set is a good way to increase your workout volume. It’s important to use a strong and controlled rep speed when you begin a set, but generating an extra bit of momentum as you begin to fatigue can get you over a sticking point when correctly and judiciously applied.
34. End with a pump. A Japanese study concluded that you can increase strength and muscle-cell size slightly farther by flushing more blood and water into working muscles with a very high-rep set done after your normal working sets. Aim for a set of at least 20 reps and as many as 100 reps of a final isolation-type exercise following your heavy work.
35. Volumize. “One way to thoroughly bully a muscle into responding is by using German Volume Training, which calls for you to do 10 sets of 10 reps of only one exercise — ideally, a compound movement for maximum growth — which generates a muscle group,” Peña says. On top of the increase in muscle fibers you hit as a result of the constant stimulus, your workout will require less equipment, too.
36. Superset. By performing two exercises consecutively, without rest, you place a greater demand on working muscles. Typical supersets involve opposing muscle groups, such as biceps and triceps, but by performing a major compound exercise followed by an isolation move for a single muscle group, you can encourage growth, too.
37. Try tri-sets. As the name suggests, you group three exercises together and perform them in a row, sans rest. They are a great way to shock a muscle that has plateaued and needs a good wake-up call.
38. Occasionally use giant sets. Performing four or more exercises for a muscle group in succession (without rest) is referred to as a giant set. Try doing one or two giant sets for a muscle group to shock the muscle into new growth. For smaller muscles like the biceps and triceps, one giant set is more than enough for a complete workout.
39. Be partial to growth. The advanced technique of partial reps was popularized by California bodybuilding guru Vince Gironda. As the name indicates, these decreased-range-of-motion reps, sometimes also referred to as “pulse reps,” are performed at the end of a regular set when you hit initial failure. Though you may not be able to do another full rep, going through a sequence of partials until reaching failure again places additional demand on the working muscles.
40. Do a double-split. If your schedule allows, you can use a pro-bodybuilder approach and break up your workouts into two sessions in one day. For instance, instead of training chest and back together every Monday, you can hit chest in the morning, then come back in the evening and give your back your full attention. The rest in between allows for more acute recovery and replenishment of your energy stores, so neither bodypart suffers from going second in a session.
41. Strip. Performing reps to failure, then reducing the weight 20 percent to 30 percent and continuing to failure again, can help you coax new growth out of stubborn muscles. Performed with a barbell, “stripping” simply requires a partner or partners to remove an equal amount of weight from each side after you hit initial failure. With cables, you reset the pin to a lighter weight. With dumbbells, grab a lighter pair. You can perform multiple drops in succession, as needed.
42. Time yourself. Most people focus on weight, reps and rest during their workouts but few, if any, consider total workout time. By trying to do the same number of sets and exercises in a shorter time or more sets and exercises in the same time, you get out of the gym faster and can increase the intensity of your workouts.
43. The buddy system. This challenging technique forces you and your training partner to push one another in a unique way. One of you completes a set of an exercise and then passes the bar or dumbbells to the other. There is no rest in between, except for the time you’re waiting for your partner to finish his or her set. Barbell curls are a great exercise to employ this technique on.
44. Stagger your sets. This is a great way to bring up smaller muscle groups, such as calves or forearms, which may be lagging. To use staggered sets, perform extra sets for these smaller groups while you are resting between sets of larger muscle group exercises. For example, you can do standing calf raises between sets on the bench press or behind-the-back barbell wrist curls between bouts on the leg-press machine.
45. Incorporate rest-pause. The rest-pause technique is based on the physiological fact that a muscle will usually regain 90 percent of its strength in as soon as 10 to 20 seconds. To do this correctly, select a heavy weight that brings about failure at a certain rep range — six to eight, for example — and stop a few reps short of that. Rest 10 to 20 seconds, then continue performing reps. Continue in this fashion until you’ve completed the total desired number of reps. This will add to the cumulative number of pounds you move in a workout, meaning more overall stimulation for the target muscle groups.
46. Pre-exhaust. Pre-exhaust is one way to get around limiting muscles with some exercises. For example, on rows, the smaller biceps may fatigue before your lats do. The fix? Perform an isolation exercise like straight-arm lat pulldowns, which place little stress on the biceps. This will “pre-exhaust” the lats. Because the back has already been engaged, by the time you do your rows, the biceps should no longer be the limiting strength factor that halts a set.
47. Press through your heels. When doing squats, leg presses, lunges or deadlifts, it’s important to “press through your heels.” This mental trick keeps the weight over your hips, where it should be, and allows you to press (or pull) more weight without jeopardizing the stability of your knees. If you feel like you are on the balls of your feet, your form is off and you need to readjust.
48. Train for better biceps. “Typically during a biceps curl, you don’t get the most out of the upper portion of the curl because you failed to move the bar past the parallel point,” Peña says. “However, the strongest portion of the curl is the top half, where the biceps brachii dominate, while the lower half of a curl is predominantly the brachioradialis. So why not spend some time up high where the biceps brachii can be fully activated? Practice seated barbell curls to maximize the upper portion of the biceps curl.”
49. Thicken your triceps. Cable pressdowns are great, but for real triceps mass, you need to focus on overhead movements. “By raising your arms overhead, you stretch the triceps long head, meaning it can contract more strongly than when your arms are fixed by your sides,” Peña says.
50. Fully engage your delts. Wider, thicker shoulders come as a result of well-developed middle deltoids. But you may not be getting the most out of your current training regimen. “Take your lateral raises above parallel,” Peña suggests. “The delts are highly engaged, even up to 130 degrees. Also, start your laterals a few inches from your hips to reduce early involvement from supporting muscles like the supraspinatus.”
51. Thump your upper chest. The upper chest is a weak area for most guys, but this issue has an easy fix. In addition to just adding more incline movements, you should pay attention to how you’re doing them. “During incline barbell bench presses, you’ll want to spread your grip wider than usual, allowing for greater range of motion in the bottom of each rep,” Peña explains. “The narrower your grip, the less able you are of bringing the bar to the very upper portion of your chest at your clavicle line.”
52. Mix your grip for your back. “Use a staggered, or mixed, grip for deadlifts and rack pulls for greater strength,” Peña says. “With an overhand grip, the bar can roll out of your hands, which becomes a problem with heavier weight. The staggered grip helps prevent this through the physics of reverse torsion. That means that the overhand grip is twisting the bar in one direction while the underhand grip is twisting the bar in the opposite direction, preventing the bar from rolling in your hands.”
53. Squat wisely. Lower the bar on your back, to a point more near the middle of your traps, during squats,” Peña instructs. “Doing so will shift the emphasis more toward your hips, glutes and hamstrings, allowing you to squat more weight.”
54. Walk off flagging forearms. To build bigger forearms, you can do hammer curls, wrist curls and reverse curls. But if total body gains are important, try adding farmer walks. Pick up a heavy pair of dumbbells and take long, slow steps — about 20 total, more if you can stand it — which overloads your forearms isometrically with max weight.
55. Deadlift Romanian style. Hamstring curls are the go-to for this muscle group, but they only require movement at one joint. Romanian deadlifts, on the other hand, allow you to use more weight and work across the full length of your muscle belly, getting up into your glute-ham tie in at the hamstring’s origin.
56. Experiment with your calves. Calves are traditionally a stubborn bodypart, reluctant to grow, but if you try a few different training approaches, you’ll likely find one that works well for you. First, try experimenting with heavier weight and lower reps, in the six to 10 range. If that doesn’t work, try super-high rep ranges of 15 to 25 or more, drop sets, single-leg variations, and even holding the peak contraction longer on each rep.
57. Challenge your core. “Core training” has also become a hot trend in gyms. To have a truly strong core, however, you need to do more than exercise-ball crunches and wobble-board balancing moves. One great option to introduce into your repertoire is the overhead barbell squat, a very difficult exercise that places heavy demand on your entire core musculature because of the position of the weight. Mastering this move will help you lift more on your other major exercises.
NUTRITION & SUPPLEMENTS
58. Get your protein. This is probably the most important aspect of muscle-building nutrition. And you, as a dedicated gym rat, need more of it than most. To build muscle, try to get 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day, spaced out over the day. For a 180-pound person, that’s 180 grams of protein in a day.
59. Have protein early in the day. To ensure that your muscles aren’t being cannibalized for energy, make sure that you have 20 to 40 grams of fast-digesting whey protein first thing in the morning. This puts a halt to the muscle breakdown that occurs during your nighttime fast, when your body is seeking fuel for organs.
60. Have protein often. To meet the aforementioned protein requirement and to make sure that your recovering muscles are receiving the amino acids needed to repair and grow, try to include 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal each day. If you eat six meals, that nets the 180 grams mentioned in Tip No. 58.
61. Take protein preworkout. Drink 20 grams of whey protein immediately before your workouts to get a jump-start on muscle recovery and to reduce the chance that muscle would be used for fuel.
62. Take protein postworkout. This is the most crucial anabolic (or muscle-building) window in your 24-hour cycle. Right after a heavy lifting session, your muscles are starving for some protein to start the rebuilding process. Down a shake immediately — and after no longer than 60 minutes — that contains 20 to 30 grams of whey and 10 to 20 grams of casein powder. This combination has been shown to lead to greater gains than whey alone.
63. In addition to a protein shake, eat real food after your workouts. “Have a protein-packed small meal 30 to 60 minutes postworkout, when muscle cells are most sensitive to uptake protein,” says nutritional consultant Dana Angelo White, MS, RD, ATC of Dana White Nutrition and Healthyeats.com. “ You’ll want some healthy carbs along with it — a grilled chicken sandwich on whole-grain bread will cover it.”
64. Protein late is great. Just because you’re sleeping doesn’t mean you can’t be building muscle. At night, growth-hormone levels peak, meaning your body is in a position to build muscle. To take advantage of this — and to reduce muscle catabolism — take a scoop of casein protein just before you hit the sheets every night. This slow-digesting protein provides a trickle of aminos to your muscles while you snooze.
65. Protein later is good, too. Though it’s not really advised for those looking to be strict with their calorie consumption, some elite bodybuilders set their alarms again for the dead of the night so that they can down yet another protein shake to continue bathing their muscles in amino acids.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario