Posts Tagged ‘bodybuilding’

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Pyramid Sets for Muscle Building

Friday, April 18th, 2008

There are many ways in which bodybuilders try to do more damage to their muscle fibres trying to produce more growth. One such technique is pyramid sets. This is basically when you start at a heavy weight and then continuously work down dropping the weight each time for five, ten or more sets. Eventually you will be struggling to lift virtually no weight as you have exhausted your muscles completely.

This ‘Pyramid’ technique is widley used among bodybuilders, so should we be following their example if we too want to build up our muscles? In my opinion no! You have to remember that alot of these ‘genetically gifted’ bodybuilders out there use drugs, steroids and other growth hormones are common. So for us natural trainers, it would be crazy to try and complete the same sort of training. Performing pyramid sets or similar techniques will extend the time that it takes for your muscles to recover.

There is no research out there to suggest that performing these pyramid sets, or even just extra sets with lighter weights at the end of your workouts, will help you build any more muscle than your usual three to five sets.

So in conclusion I would ignore what the bodybuilders are doing out there, and stick with three to five sets making sure you fail on your last rep of your last set. This should be more than enough to produce new muscle growth. 

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Posted in Muscle Building Training | 1 Comment »

The Truth About Breathing When Weight Training…

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

I’m sure that any of you who have been inducted at a gym have been shown the ‘correct’ way of breathing when lifting weights or using resistance machines. Breath in during the negative part of the movement, then breath out during the positive or force applying movement. This is usually the breathing technique that the trainer will tell you to use, and under no circumstance should you hold you breath.

So is this true? Is holding your breath? Well in fact holding of the breath is a technique used by some powerlifters, it is known as the Valsalva maneuver. The theory behind this technique is that when you hold your breath you actual tense up your abdominal muscle, which leads to your torso become more sturdy. The only bad thing about this technique is that is does create a temporary rise in blood pressure, which is not dangerous unless you have high blood pressure anyway.

So which technique should you be using? Well in my opinion, the best way is to let your body decide naturally. Breathing is a naturally thing, your body should be able to adapt the way you breath to best fit the situation. Trust your bodys natural response.

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Posted in Fat Loss Training, General, Muscle Building Training | 2 Comments »

Gain Muscle While losing fat

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

“Can you put on muscle while losing fat?”

This is a question that seem’s to pop up every where now days. Unfortunately the honest answer is that it is very very rare, but does occur in some cases! Not a very definitive answer I know, but let me explain…

The problem is that losing fat and gaining muscle are at opposite ends of the scale. To lose fat you must create a calorie deficit, which means you needs to be using more calories than you are taking in. To gain muscle you need to overfeed, eating more calories than you body needs to sustain it’s current weight (obviously there are other factors too but i’m not going to go into those).  There are certain instances where muscle and fat loss may occur together, for example a complete beginner or young trainer who responds well to exercise may experience a small amount of muscle growth while losing body fat. Also the are the genetic ‘freaks’, who have the ability in their genes to lose a small amount of body fat whilst putting on muscle, or gain muscle while losing. This would only be in small amounts however. It also has been known to occur in experienced trainers, who have had a break and come back to training. This is unsually put down to ‘muscle memory’. Lastly there are the drug users (steroids, etc.), but we won’t go there.

So in short for all us regular guys and girls, what it comes down to is that you need to choose what you want from your training. If you want to put on muscle and lose body fat, then target each one in turn. First train to bulk up your muscle mass, then once you are happy with the amount of muscle you are carrying, move your target to fat loss. If you try and do both you are most likely to achieve neither.

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Posted in General, Muscle building, fat loss | 2 Comments »

Key Points for Muscle Growth

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

If you are training to build lean muscle, and are seeing little or no results. I have created a list of key points below that you should be doing in your training and diet.

  •  Lifting heavyweights – Fairly obvious one, but you really need to be pushing yourself for muscle growth. You should be aiming for 3 to 4 sets (plus warm up sets) of 6 to 8 reps.
  • Train to failure – On the last rep of the last set on each exercise you should keep going till you fail. In other words you can’t complete anymore reps at all. This is where you will get the greatest gains.
  • Progressive resistance – Make sure you continually progress with your training, every workout try and push out an extra rep or a heavier weight than you did in your last workout.
  • Rest – I’ve recently posted about the importance of rest for muscle growth. If you don’t give your muscles enough chance to repair and recover,you will end up over training. This will halt or even start to reverse any gains.
  • Complete every workout - Don’t get into the habit of missing training sessions because your not in the mood, or finishing them early because you’re tired. For continuous progress train regularly and train hard! 
  • Eat, eat and eat! – Can’t stress this enough. If you are not consuming enough calories you won’t get bigger! This doesn’t mean that you should be eating any junk you can get your hands on. Eat good quality food. Make sure you are getting plenty of good proteins from chicken, fish, lean beef steak and egg whites. Ensure that you have plenty of energy by eating good quality carbs, found in brown rice, wholemeal pasta and potatoes. Also you want to be get enough good fats found in fish and nuts.
  •  Sleep – When you’re a sleep your muscles repair and grow. Try to get 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night.

Implement all these things into your training, diet and lifestyle and you should start seeing positive results.

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Posted in Muscle Building Diet, Muscle Building Training, Muscle building | 1 Comment »

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