Tip of the week Tip: Choose the right weight

Ronnie Coleman once said that the best way to build muscle fast is to get a pump with fairly heavy weights. This may sound simplistic, but it says a lot about the choice of weights when training.

The bottom line? You need to use weights that are heavy enough for you but still create the muscle tension needed to generate a pump.

There are two ways to mess this up:

Problem 1: Using weights that are too heavy

This will not give you a solid pump. There is a point at which, if you increase the weight, you can still perform the exercise but you won't feel the target muscles doing the work. The tension is shifted and distributed to other muscles.

Moving maximal or near-maximal weights that do not generate a pump and during which you do not directly feel the load on the target muscles can be used to increase strength and muscle hardness. However, this type of training cannot be your primary approach if your goal is mainly to build muscle mass.

Problem 2: Using weights that are too light.

This will not lead to maximum muscle growth if used as a primary training method. Using very light weights can allow you to perform repetitions with constant tension: You move the weight slowly and consciously tense the target muscles. You can also perform high repetitions, descending sets and supersets and achieve a huge pump. However, the weight is not heavy enough to achieve maximum tension.

Using light weights to achieve a skin-bursting pump can support muscle growth by stimulating an increase in nutrient uptake and activation of mTOR. However, it cannot be your primary training strategy if you are training to build maximum muscle mass.

Try to find someone who has built an impressive body with only light pump training. These people exist, but they are often older and used to train with heavy weights for a long time. If you already have a lot of muscle, then you don't need as much heavy training to keep improving. But don't look at what the big guys are doing now - look at what they've been doing all their lives to get to where they are now.

Challenge yourself without losing the sense of muscle contraction. This is the key to building muscle mass.

To challenge yourself, perform between 4 and 8 hard repetitions per set, with a focus on 6 to 8 repetitions. This is hard enough to load the muscles properly, but not so hard that the tension shifts away from the target muscle. This approach will also let you do enough mechanical work to generate the muscle fiber exhaustion necessary for growth.

Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and temporary gains

When scientists studied strength athletes who trained to muscle failure, they found similar gains between those who used 30% of their maximum weight and those who used 80% of their maximum weight. However, the same study also concluded that those who trained at 80% saw roughly double the strength gains of those who only trained at 30% of their maximum weight.

This should tell us one or two things: either training with lighter weights stimulates more sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (an increase in cell volume without a growth in muscle fibers) OR the neural factors were not trained as much. Both scenarios include a major disadvantage.

Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy can be lost more quickly than hypertrophy of the actual muscle fibers. Although you can increase your sarcoplasmic hypertrophy to improve your overall package, the lion's share of your training should be aimed at increasing the size of your muscle fibers, which will make your muscles bigger AND stronger.

Neural efficiency

Neural efficiency is also important. The more efficient you are at recruiting your muscle fibers, the less fatigue your body needs to build the maximum amount of fibers. The faster you can recruit fast-twitch fibers during a set, the further you can stay away from muscle failure and the easier your body can recover, allowing you to use more volume or a higher frequency.

Tip: Train conservatively until muscle failure

Training to the point where you can't perform another repetition can build muscle - but only if you plan wisely. Here are the details you need to know.

By Christian Thibaudeau

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-train-to-failure-conservatively/

Find the right dose

In the right circumstances and at the right dose, it can be useful to perform your repetitions to muscle failure. But this isn't the only stimulus for growth - and it may not even be the best.

Yes, there is some research that shows that the weight used is not as important as going to muscle failure when it comes to hypertrophy. One experiment even showed that a light weight in the 30% of max range can lead to similar hypertrophy as a heavy weight in the 80% of max range.

This would suggest that muscle failure is needed to stimulate muscle growth. But nothing is ever that simple. You can't ignore all the bodybuilders and athletes who have built a lot of muscle mass without going to muscle failure.

Are you really going to muscle failure?

So is training to muscle failure really the stimulus for growth? Or is it just the result of what is needed for maximum growth?

Here's why training to muscle failure seems to work: when you reach the point of muscle failure, you've exhausted your muscle fibers so much that they can no longer produce enough force to move the weight. But the reason for muscle failure is not always exhaustion of the muscle fibers

Muscle failure can also be caused by a depletion of energy reserves (phosphagen or glycogen in the muscle) and mitochondrial failure can also occur at very high repetition rates.

Another common cause of muscle failure is hyperacidity in the muscle. Lactate (lactic acid) and hydrogen ions accumulate in the muscle as a result of mechanical work. This impairs the contraction of the muscle fibers - and if this impairment is too severe, muscle failure occurs.

If you perform sets lasting 40 to 60 seconds (12 to 20 repetitions), this is probably what causes muscle failure. In addition, people with primarily fast-twitch muscle fibers reach this point faster because these fibers produce more lactic acid. A person with more rapidly contracting muscle fibers can therefore reach muscle failure from acidosis or contractile impairment in as little as 25 to 30 seconds.

So reaching muscle failure does not necessarily mean that you have exhausted as many muscle fibers as you could have. Furthermore, in many exercises, muscle failure does not mean that the target muscle has reached the point of muscle failure. Other factors are more likely here: the muscles involved cannot produce enough force, correct posture and training mechanics cannot be maintained, which reduces efficiency, or the CNS is exhausted.

Conclusion

Training to muscle failure can be useful for certain types of training and for certain individuals, but it should not be used universally for all exercises. Sure, you can go to muscle failure to recruit more muscle fibers without having to use heavy weights. The nervous system practically always recruits the slowly contracting muscle fibers first. If the weight is too heavy for the strength of these fibers alone, your body will bring the medium-fast contracting muscle fibers into play. And if the weight becomes even heavier, the fast-twitch muscle fibers will also be called into action.

Muscle failure or not - try to achieve maximum muscle fiber recruitment

The average person needs to use about 80-85% of their maximum weight. People with a strong predominance of rapidly contracting muscle fibers or high neural efficiency may be able to achieve this with only 65-70% of their maximum weight. This of course applies to normal repetitions. If you perform explosive repetitions, you can also recruit the fast-twitch muscle fibers with a lighter weight.

The other way to recruit the fast-twitch muscle fibers is to use muscle fatigue to make the weight heavier. In a normal set, you lose 1 to 4% of your strength per repetition. The longer the set lasts, the more your strength decreases from repetition to repetition.

For example, in a set of 20 repetitions, your strength decreases more from repetition 19 to repetition 20 than from repetition 1 to repetition 2. This is because more fast-twitch muscle fibers are recruited during the later repetitions, which exhaust more quickly. There is also a greater accumulation of lactic acid (lactate).

And after several repetitions with 60% of your maximum weight, you can recruit as many muscle fibers as if you were using 80% of your maximum weight, because the weight becomes heavier relative to your current strength potential as you fatigue. During a set of 15 repetitions at 60% of your maximum weight, each repetition will feel like this:

Parameter at 60% of your 1RM weight:

• Repetition 1: feels like 60%
• Repetition 2: feels like 62%
• Repetition 3: feels like 63%
• Repetition 4: feels like 64%
• Repetition 5: feels like 65%
• Repetition 6: feels like 66%
• Repetition 7: feels like 67%
• Repetition 8: feels like 68%
• Repetition 9: feels like 70%
• Repetition 10: feels like 72%
• Repetition 11: feels like 74%
• Repetition 12: feels like 76%
• Repetition 13: feels like 78%
• Repetition 14: feels like 80%
• Repetition 15: feels like 83%

Remember that maximum muscle fiber recruitment occurs at 80 to 85% of your maximum weight. At repetition 14, the accumulated fatigue makes 60% of your maximum weight feel like 80%.

At the time of repetition 13 or 14, you will recruit all available muscle fibers due to accumulated fatigue. What would happen if we continued the 15 reps at 60% of max weight until muscle failure? Here is an overview of what the repetitions would feel like:

• Repetition 15: feels like 83%
• Repetition 16: feels like 85%
• Repetition 17: feels like 88%
• Repetition 18: feels like 91%
• Repetition 19: feels like 95%
• Repetition 20: feels like 100%

Muscle failure would probably occur on repetition 20. The first 13 repetitions, at the end of which the weight will feel like 78%, prepare the body for the repetitions that stimulate hypertrophy and build the fatigue that forces your body to recruit the higher threshold muscle fibers. Repetitions 14 to 18 are the repetitions during which you have achieved full muscle fiber recruitment and can stimulate the muscle fibers with the greatest growth potential.

The final repetitions are the danger zone where you are likely to reach the point of muscle failure. They put more stress on the central nervous system and affect your capacity to do more work. Think of each set where you reach the point of muscle failure as a set that you perform with your maximum weight for one repetition.

It is important to understand the following: Going to muscle failure has the same neurological effects as a set at your max weight because when you reach muscle failure, the relative weight of the resistance is slightly higher than your maximum strength potential at that moment. In other words, the repetition at which you reach the point of muscle failure is the repetition at which you can no longer move the weight upwards despite maximum effort.

Training to the point of muscle failure when building muscle is like always training with maximum weights when powerlifting. From a neurological point of view, this has the same effects because the last repetition is always a repetition with maximum effort: it can be very effective, but you will also burn out quickly.

Going to muscle failure is just a kind of insurance policy. It helps you ensure that you recruit as many muscle fibers as possible. The downside to an insurance policy is that it costs you something. The cost here is neuronal exhaustion and ultimately hormonal exhaustion.

If you want to do it anyway, then you should know which exercises it is okay to go to muscle failure on. Only do this with exercises that have low neurological demands - mainly isolation exercises and exercises performed on machines. Avoid going to muscle failure in multi-joint exercises.

Tip: Don't just get tired - get better

This is one of the most important lessons you can learn when it comes to choosing a training plan or a trainer.

By Joe DeFranco

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-dont-just-get-tired-get-better/

Any trainer can make you tired, but it takes a professional to make you stronger, faster and more agile. Athletes need to be aware of this fact when it comes to choosing a new class or training program. Unfortunately, they don't always distinguish between just getting tired and getting better.

An example

Let's say we have two performance coaches training two different athletes to improve their 40 meter sprint times.

Coach A spends an hour teaching his athlete the correct starting position and first step technique, while Coach B has his athlete perform jumping jacks for an hour without a break.

The athlete who has been doing jumping jacks for an hour will be more exhausted than the other athlete after training, but the other athlete will have improved during their training session.

The lesson

Athletes need to be careful when hiring a coach. There are a lot of ignorant trainers who make up for their lack of knowledge by completely beating their athletes up. A lot of personal trainers do the same thing and sell ebooks and online courses on top of that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm always in favor of hard work. I just like to make sure that hard work has a reason and a purpose.

Tip: Perform blitz cycles for your abs

Here's a way to plan your ab workouts for better results

By Christian Thibaudeau

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-blitz-cycles-for-abs/

Abs are made in the kitchen ... And in the gym

Your abs are like any other muscle group: for you to see them, you need to build them. In other words, you need to make them grow. It's not just about losing fat. Thick abs will be visible even if your body fat percentage increases. So what really works when it comes to training abs? Blitz cycles.

2 week blitz cycles

Train your abs with short, concentrated cycles that last two weeks. The rest of the time you don't train them directly. (Don't worry, they will still be stimulated by other exercises.) Why? Because abdominal muscles abruptly stop responding to exercise after two weeks.

The whole thing looks like this:

• 2 week blitz cycle: train your abs every day. Perform 4 to 5 sets of a superset consisting of one exercise with weight and one exercise without weight.
• 4-6 weeks without abdominal muscle training: Do not perform any direct abdominal muscle training during this time.

Blitz exercises with and without weight

Choose the abdominal exercises that you feel the most. Choose one exercise in which you can use external resistance and one exercise that you perform without additional weight.

Here is an example:

• A1. Cable crunches 8-10 repetitions
• A2. Swiss ball crunches, max reps (slow tempo, keep your abs tight for the whole set)

This is a superset in which you first perform the exercise with weight and then perform the exercise without additional weight without a break. Perform this superset three to five times.

• B1. Pullover crunches 8-10 repetitions
• B2. Hanging knee raises, maximum repetitions, slow tempo Perform this superset three to five times.

Bonus effect

Using blitz cycles for your abs will also help you build a better mind-muscle connection with your abs, making them more responsive to training in the future.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-choose-the-right-weight/

By Christian Thibaudeau