When you first begin
training, gains come easily. It seems like everything you do leads to
increased muscle strength and size. After you have been training for
awhile your workouts tend to become stale as you continue to do the
same exercises,sets and reps week in and week out. The problem is you
have become too predictable in your workouts leading to stalled
muscle gains.
Your body is very
efficient at maintaining the status quo-it will try anything it can
to keep the amount of muscle on your body the same. This is because
of the high energy cost to increase muscle mass and sustain it. This
makes it necessary to change things up from time to time to reignite
muscle gains.
Maybe you have searched
through the various muscle magazines in search of the perfect
training routines to begin experiencing new muscle gains. The
question is what is the best way to freshen up your workouts, breathe
new life into them and start growing new muscle again?
Changing The Time Under
Tension
Try changing the rep count
or time under tension to see what effect that has. If you have been
consistently doing 6-8 reps per set, try some sets with 8-10 reps or
even 12-15. Keep in mind the ideal time under tension depends on the
muscle fiber type of the muscle. If the muscle is predominately fast
twitch, tut should be in the 40-60 second range; if it is mostly slow
twitch, keep your tut at 60-90 seconds. Altering the tut will spark
new growth because the body becomes used to the current training
being done and works hard at keeping everything the same unless you
force it out of homeostasis by giving it new stimulus.
New Exercises
Delete exercises you have
been using for awhile and replace them with ones you haven't done
recently. Learn new exercises from trainers, fellow trainees or
bodybuilding books or magazines.
Combo Rows-This exercise
is a combination of the bent over lateral raise and upright row
exercises. Stand and lean slightly forward. Hold a dumbbell in each
hand, palms facing in front of each thigh. Row the weights up while
keeping your forearms aimed vertically. Stop at chest level;your
elbows should be angled toward the ceiling. Pause for a second then
return to the beginning position.
As with any new exercise,
begin with a lighter weight and avoid training hard until you have
mastered the form of the exercise. A good way to integrate this
exercise into your shoulder routine is to combine it with a pressing
movement like dumbbell presses as a pre-exhaust superset. To do this,
begin with a set to failure of combo rows followed by a set of
shoulder presses to failure. Do this superset with no rest between
exercises. If you rest as little as five seconds between sets, your
muscles' regain 50% of their strength, which defeats the purpose of
the pre-exhaust variable.
Bicep Blaster Curls-Made
popular in the movie Pumping Iron, these use a specially-designed
metal brace which is placed in front of the body to immobilize the
upper arm to force perfect form in the bicep curl. I have found these
to be helpful when training beginning bodybuilders but they are
useful to even the most experienced athlete. After placing the strap
around your neck and the brace against your abdomen, grab a weight
and curl it while keeping your upper arm against the brace. You will
feel how this tool changes the curl after doing an intense set of
these.
Cable Cross Triceps
Press-downs-Stand in front of a cable crossover machine. Attach
single rope handles to each side. Cross the cables in an 'x' and
press them down and out at an angle until fully extended. Pause for
one second while flexing your triceps hard before returning to the
start position. Repeat.
This exercise is a great
modification of the standard triceps press-down exercise and hits the
muscle from a different angle, which gives a great muscle growth
stimulus.
Reverse Leg Lunges-Hold a
dumbbell in your left hand while standing shoulder-width apart. Take
a deep step back with your left leg while squatting down. Step back
to the beginning position and change the weight to your right hand.
Do the same deep step back with your right leg and squat down.
Continue until you have completed the desired reps.
This exercise is a nice
variation of the standard leg lunge and works the legs from a
different direction.
In addition to adding or
replacing exercises in your training routine, there are many other
ways to change your program and initiate new growth in your muscles.
Using Different Hand
Placements
By
changing the positioning of your hands on the bar, handle or
attachment, you hit a muscle from different angles while performing
an exercise. This activates fibers not used during previous
applications of the exercise. For example, if you use a narrow grip
during lat pull-downs, you stimulate your lat muscles one way;
another way if you use a mid-grip and yet another way if a wide grip
is used.
The
same goes for barbell curls-while the curl works the entire bicep
muscle- using different grip placement changes the way the weight
affects the muscle. This adds variety to your training and literally
forces the muscle to grow because of the new demands placed on it.
Try
curling with a four inch hand spacing. Place your hands two inches
from center and do a set of curls. Now move your hands two more
inches apart and complete another set of curls. Do a set of curls
using a standard grip spacing. Lastly, place your hands wide on the
bar and complete a set of curls. Feels a lot different doesn't it?
Apply
the same strategy to machine or barbell rows for the back and bench
presses for the chest. The opportunities to change your exercises are
nearly endless.
Training Legs Before
Smaller Muscle Groups
Scientific
research has shown that muscle growth response to exercise increases
when the leg muscles are trained prior to other muscles. This is
because a much greater release of testosterone and human growth
hormone occur when leg training is done as opposed to training
smaller muscle groups such as arms and abs. Since legs constitute a
much larger muscle mass, they stimulate a larger amount of test and
hgh.
To
put this into practice, do a set of leg extensions followed by a set
of leg presses and a set of hack squats-all sets to failure. Now do
your typical arm routine, training all sets to failure.
Be
sure to track your progress as you strive to constantly increase the
weight you're able to use. Aim to add 1-5 pounds to the bar or
machine every workout. That way you avoid adding too much weight at
one time, which could lead to failure to complete an exercise.
Try
micro-loading by adding special, 1-1.5 pound plates to the bar or
machine. This is effective because it makes the bar feel as if no new
weight has been added. Over a year you will be able to add
substantial weight.
I
used arms in this example but any other muscle group can be trained
after legs with the same results.
Pre-exhaust HIT
Training
Supersets
are a great way to up intensity by increasing the amount of work that
is completed in a given amount of time. One of the most effective
types is the pre-exhaust superset. Instead of doing two random
exercises for the same muscle, do an isolation movement to exhaustion
then immediately do a compound movement to failure.
What
makes this is so effective? The isolation exercise exhausts the
muscle while the compound one takes the muscle past the point of
normal failure by using fresh, assistance muscles. This leads to a
more complete in-roading of the muscle and more extensive
micro-damage of the fibers.
It is
extremely important to move from the first exercise to the second
with no rest. If there is a delay of even three seconds, the muscle
recovers 50% of its strength and much of the benefits of this
technique is lost.
Here
are some examples of pre-exhaust routines:
Legs
leg
extensions-1x15
supersetted
leg
press-1x12
supersetted
hack
squats-1x12
This
superset can also be altered to become a double pre-exhaust routine:
leg
extensions-1x15
supersetted
forward
leg lunges-1x15
supersetted
barbell
squats-1x15
The
standard pre-exhaust does a great job of breaking the muscle down
during the set of leg extensions before exhausting the legs with the
compound exercise, leg presses. The second routine makes use of two
different isolation exercises to focus efforts on completely
exhausting the leg muscles before driving them past exhaustion with
barbell squats. All sets should be taken to muscular failure with as
heavy a weight as can be lifted safely.
I
used examples of leg training but this HIT variable can be
effectively used with any muscle group.
Other Techniques to End
Muscle Growth Stagnation
Other
techniques that may be used to stimulate new gains are rest-pause,
negative-only reps, partial reps and static holds. Those are to be
the subject of future articles-so stay tuned!
The
suggestions presented in this article to energize your training have
been used by countless bodybuilders with great results. Give them a
try!
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