Bodybuilding Tips Archive
Bodybuilding Workout Tip 5.
Shocking your body into growth with High Intensity Training
Please note that due to its intensity, this routine is best performed no more than once a month. The principle of High Intensity bodybuilding is simple. When an individual performs the same workout routine for more than a month or two repeatedly, their body becomes so accustomed to the strain, that it ceases to grow in response to that stain. By occasionally breaking up your normal routine with one based on High Intensity, you shock your muscles into once again entering a cycle of growth.
Basically what High Intensity entails, is performing a workout that is both high in repetitions and sets, but contains virtually no rest periods. This is a particularly exhausting method of training, with only a few seconds break allowed between each set. The benefits of infrequent usage of this technique are enormous. For not only the muscles, but the entire body is shocked by this extraordinary strain, resulting in a flood of Growth Hormone into the blood stream and a spurt of muscle growth.
Bodybuilding Workout Tip 6.
Pyramiding. How to break through the wall
Most people at some point hit a training wall. A point where no matter what they do – High reps with a low weight, Low reps with a high weight, split routines – they just can’t seem to grow. That’s the point when its worth trying pyramiding.
Beware that this routine is only really beneficial if performed occasionally. For if used regularly your just going to succeed in wearing yourself out.
The technique
Pyramiding is simple. All that you need to do is to start a particular exercise (say Bench Press) with a moderate weight. A weight that you can perhaps manage 15 or so reps with. Then with a very short break, increase your load to a point were you can manage say 12 reps. Next (again with only a short pause) up your weight to the point were 10 reps is your maximum. Follow this pattern (perhaps doing up to 6 sets) until you are lifting a maximum weight for maybe no more than 4 reps.
Pyramiding, when used occasionally on a body part, can produce excellent results. More importantly it is another tool to help you break through the growth wall!
Bodybuilding Workout Tip 7.
Negative sets
Negative sets are performed in the same manner as any other sets, except that for in negative sets the emphasise is placed on controling the weight. The benefit of performing this type of exercise is that it makes it very difficult to cheat and each exercise is forced to work only its intended muscle group.
To perform a negative set of barbell curls for example, you would need to follow the below steps.
1. With your legs shoulder width apart and your arms holding the barbell in a moderately wide grip, you lift the weight slowly to its peak
2. You Pause for a second
3. Lower the weight down. Note that the lowering of the weight should take no less than about five seconds.
4. Finally on the last repetition of each set, you should lift the weight and then let the weight pull itself down. Your input should only be to try to resist the weight as it inevitably begins to lower.
Bodybuilding Workout Tip 8.
Growing Big Arms
Most men have the desire to acquire large arms and shoulders as quickly as possible when embarking on a fitness routine. This desire generally results in them performing a great deal of bicep curls and shoulder press. Not only does this 'overtraining' often result in injury, but without the preliminary acquisition of general muscle tone (over the entire body) these relatively small muscle groups will fail to make particularly noticeable gains!
Therefore for the first couple of months after setting out on a fitness regime you should concentrate on performing only the multi-muscle exercises. Isolating no individual muscle group.
Bodybuilding Workout Tip 9.
Sleep and Muscle Growth
Gaining muscle mass (together with muscle definition) is a common goal when embarking on a fitness regime. To achieve significant muscle gains and to maintain a steady gain over a prolonged period of time, is however an intricate business. It is not simply a matter of lifting huge quantities of weight. What is equally important, is what you do outside the gym. The amount of sleep that you get, the amount and type of food that you eat and the amount of stress that you expose yourself to, all play an important part in both the quality and the quantity of muscle that you gain.
You should therefore not only exercise well, but eat lean nutritious food and ensure that you get at least 8 hours of sleep a night.