Training

Barbell bench press is no good, right?

Q: I've heard many trainers say that traditional barbell flat bench presses are overrated when it comes to hypertrophy of the pecs. Do you agree with that?

A: It depends on your body type. Some exercisers grow through bench pressing, others don't. However, if you go to the World Bench Press Championships, you'll see a lot of athletes with big pecs - and all they do for their chest is bench press.

However, if you're short on time, any type of dumbbell press will be more efficient. Some trainers recommend barbell bench presses with a very wide grip to put more focus on the pecs, but this only leads to sore joints. The widest grip you should use would be a 90 degree angle between your upper arm and your forearm when you are in the lowest position of the movement.

Training age and program changes

Q: Is it true that the more training experience you have and the longer you have been training, the more often you need to change your training program? Would really experienced exercisers never do a training session twice?

A: Yes, that is true. Very experienced athletes and bodybuilders may never do the same workout twice in a row. For example, when Adam Nelson won the world championship in shot put, he had previously completed an eight-week training cycle in which he did eight workouts before training the same muscle group again in the same way.

The average exerciser should focus on the 2% rule: You should be able to do 2% more weight or an extra repetition from training session to training session. If this doesn't work (anymore), then you need to do something else.

The most common strength imbalances

Q: You've written a lot about strength imbalances and how to correct them. What are the most common strength imbalances that hinder exercisers in their progress?

A: For athletes, I've had the most success correcting a weakness in the vastus medialis. This is the teardrop-shaped quadriceps muscle that crosses the knee and is essential for helping the kneecap stay in the correct position during movement.

This weakness is caused by people not going down far enough when doing squats. If you don't do squats deep enough, you'll never get to the vastus medialis. If you want to run fast or jump high, you need a well-developed vastus medialis and that means doing deep squats.

With the publication of their controversial book The Knee in Sports in 1969, authors Karl Klein and Dr. Fred Allman, Jr. started a nationwide paranoia about deep squats. Even though this controversy should have been settled by now, many coaches still shy away from having their athletes go further down than the position with thighs parallel to the floor during squats.

From a purely empirical standpoint, if deep squats were really that bad, Olympic weightlifters should have far higher rates of knee injury - which is not the case. Weightlifters have some of the lowest injury rates of all athletes. And not only do they bend their knees very low, they also spring upwards from the lowest position.

The second most common imbalance I observe is in the external rotators. When we have exercisers who come into our performance centers perform a rotator cuff program, their performance usually increases on the bench press, incline bench press and pull-ups because the external rotators are not inhibiting the internal rotators in length.

One of the primary reasons that athletes - and bodybuilders in particular - often avoid external rotator exercises is that they have to start with shamefully low weights.

Jim McKenzie is a professional field hockey player who was able to go from 280 to 380 pounds on the close bench press in less than four months. For the first three months, we didn't train bench press. Because his external rotators were so weak, we had to start with 2.5 kilo dumbbells for many of the exercises! He left his ego in the checkroom and the results speak for themselves.

Mood and overtraining

Q: What is the best indicator of overtraining?

A: Your mood is by far the best indicator of overtraining. In fact, mood is a better indicator than any known hormonal parameter. This is because the nervous system enters a state of overtraining long before the first signs of muscular overtraining.

In terms of the nature of the change in mood, depression is usually the best indicator. The athlete simply doesn't want to train anymore.

We have also found in national teams that morning body weight is closely related to depression caused by overtraining. In other words, you might come to my gym, train twice a day with a very intense program and then your body weight drops 3 to 4 kilos practically overnight.

When I trained with the national swimming team, the first thing we did was to buy everyone a digital scale. The athletes had to weigh themselves every day. If they saw a weight drop of 2 kilos or more, we reduced their training load by half.

Training for coordination

Q: Is there anything I can do in my training to improve my coordination?

A: By the time you turn 12 (give or take 2 years), you will have developed 90% of your coordination.

Coordination is specific. There is no such thing as a universal athlete. Michael Jordan couldn't play baseball. The only athletes who can switch to other sports are pole vaulters.

Pole vaulters are a combination of sprinters, gymnasts and weightlifters. They are pretty much the only athletes who can switch sports and still be successful. Swimmers, for example, can't walk and chew gum at the same time and they lose all depth perception on solid ground. You can ask any weight training coach.

Try showing a national team swimmer how to do lunges. Submit the video to America's Funniest Home Videos and you'll win. Even epileptic penguins could do better. To reiterate, coordination is specific.

I've worked with athletes from 23 different national teams. During the summer we sometimes do something like cross-training and it's really fun. I remember when we used to do leapfrog warm-ups outside with the national speed skating team. They just couldn't do it. They could set a world record on the ice, but they couldn't do leapfrogs.

So if you're a professional ice hockey player, finish your athletic career and decide to take up karate, you might be good at it. But you can never be as good as someone who started karate before they were 12 years old.

Over the course of 27 years, I have only trained one athlete who had the coordination to excel at two different sports. He was the Michael Jordan of volleyball. The day he made the national volleyball team, he also got an offer from the national basketball team. So he could have chosen which sport he wanted to play.

Bo Jackson was another exceptional talent, but he was probably also a kid who had played both football and baseball at a young age.

It's important to expose your kids to as many sports as possible before the age of 12. At age 12, they will be old enough to decide what is best for them. But you should never let children specialize before the age of 12. My own daughter trains in Kempo Karate, but she has also tried figure skating, gymnastics, ballet and swimming.

Hungarians have done the most research on this topic. The most important skills that children should learn are running, jumping, throwing and swimming in combination with some gymnastics. If your child has already practiced all of these by the age of 12, then they can become whatever they want.

Shoulder training - the last word?

Q: Some coaches say that direct shoulder training is not necessary because the shoulder muscles are trained during other exercises. They say that performing a few sets of side raises is sufficient. Others recommend complete shoulder specialization training sessions. What do you think?

A: I was one of the first to say that you don't really need direct shoulder training. I've been saying that for 20 years. But there are some exceptions, especially for cosmetic reasons.

If a guy has shoulders like pancakes, then I'll have him do direct shoulder training. Especially in bodybuilding, it's pretty hard to get to the top without direct shoulder training.

The front and back shoulder muscles usually get enough work when you train pull-ups, rowing, bench presses, dips, etc.. But a lot of people neglect their back, which can result in a lack of development of the back shoulder muscles.

What I think works best for shoulders are triple sets. The shoulders have intermediate type muscle fibers. They respond best to multiple exercises with short rest intervals, 8 to 10 repetitions and a variation of motor resistance.

Here, for example, is a quick solution for shoulders that are lagging behind in their development:

A1) Sitting side raises, 6 to 8 repetitions, 10 seconds rest

A2) Side raises on the machine, 10 to 12 repetitions, 10 seconds rest

A3) Side raises on the cable pulley, 15 to 20 repetitions, 120 seconds rest, followed by the next cycle starting with exercise A1

The lateral shoulder muscles seem to be the "forgotten" shoulder muscles, but it is a myth that there are only three shoulder muscles (anterior, lateral and posterior shoulder muscles). French anatomists showed years ago that there are a total of seven areas of the shoulder muscles that you can selectively activate. This is the reason why you can see the best shoulder development in the world of sport in gymnasts - they apply force to the shoulders from every conceivable angle.

The shoulders recover quite quickly from training. The shoulder muscles are made up of slowly contracting muscle fibers, so recovery can happen quickly. The frequency of training is important here. If you lack shoulder development, it may be necessary to train your shoulders three days a week.

All muscle, no mass building belly

Q: Is it necessary to build fat in order to build muscle? And can you lose fat and build muscle at the same time?

A: It is not necessary to build body fat if you are trying to build muscle mass. That's an antiquated idea. It's one of the dumbest things I see - guys eating candy bars and fast food when they're trying to build muscle.

One of the problems in the world of training with weights is that people don't give a sh...t about their health. I see training with weights as a lifelong activity. The cleaner you eat, the better. Bill Pearl and Dave Draper still train with weights today.

It is quite possible to build muscle while losing fat. I've seen this a lot with my athletes. I had a kid from the University of Southern California who had a body fat percentage of 25%. I got him down to 12% in 8 weeks and he built 25 pounds of muscle during that time.

A cheat day every 5 to 7 days (depending on your metabolism) is fine if you are trying to build muscle. I think it's hard to build muscle if you eat clean all the time. But there is a difference between a cheat day every fifth day and eating junk at every meal.

Even on cheat days, I tell my athletes to avoid trans fats because they can seriously damage the body. I'd rather see a skinny guy trying to build muscle be a bowl of rice pudding than eating fries.

Recruit more motor units

Q: It has been theorized that training a muscle with an exercise that provides a good stretch (like incline bench curls) leads to greater hypertrophy. Is this true?

A: No. Well, it can of course lead to hypertrophy, but for different reasons. It's like my isometric bicep training program where you use isometric training by pushing or pulling a bar into a rack. This training causes hypertrophy for a different reason than the reason traditional training causes hypertrophy.

People are too dogmatic. An exercise is only as good as the time it takes to adapt to that exercise. Provided you use enough load over a long enough period of time, all exercises can build muscle. It's just that some are better than others. It has something to do with what is also called the volume of recruitment of motor units.

For example, an exercise performed on a machine with a rigid guide will recruit fewer motor units than an exercise performed on a cable pulley. And an exercise performed on a cable machine will recruit fewer motor units than a dumbbell exercise. The more we stick to what our bodies were made for - lifting rocks, carrying loads and generally lifting things against gravity - the better off we are. This means that we should prefer free weights to machines.

Some people argue that any exercise should be done standing up if possible. However, if you look at scientific research, you'll find that the fewer muscles from other parts of the body involved in an exercise, the better.

In incline bench curls and Scott curls, for example, the recruitment of motor units is higher than with standing curls. When you stand and curl, your entire posture changes to prevent you from losing your balance and falling. When you perform curls sitting down, you can focus all your neural drive on the motor units of your biceps and achieve better recruitment.

And EMG studies conducted at the University of York have shown that the more you can isolate the exercise (in an isolation exercise) with a free weight, the more motor units are recruited. If you measure the recruitment of quadriceps motor units in leg extensions vs. squats over a given number of repetitions, then the recruitment of motor units will always be higher in squats. However, when we talk about isolation exercises, the more you can focus the neural drive on the target muscle, the better the recruitment will be. Scott curls will therefore recruit more motor units than standing barbell curls in the elbow flexors.

Activating "survival fibers" will also cause you to recruit more motor units. If you perform split jerks, then there will be additional recruitment of the triceps, as otherwise the bar would fall on your head. Snatches or power snatches will recruit more motor units than power deadlifts as these exercises involve more risk. Risk is synonymous with recruiting more motor units.

There are seven stages of muscle activation. One of the keys in strength training is to choose the right exercise - the exercise that will give you the most value for your efforts. Here is a modification of Dietmar Schmidtbleicher's chart on the level of muscle activation. My Swedish colleague Riccard Nillson and I have added the seventh level. You should dedicate most of your training to exercises at level 5 and above:

Multi-joint exercises vs. isolation exercises

Neuromuscular Activity - NMA

Level 1: Isolation exercises on machines with variable resistance such as leg curls or leg extensions

Level 2: Complex exercises on machines with variable resistance such as leg presses on a Nautilus machine

Level 3: Isolation exercises on machines with constant resistance such as scott curls on a cable machine or tricep presses on a cable machine

Level 4: Complex exercises on machines with constant resistance such as leg presses on a 50 degree leg press machine

Level 5: Isolation exercises with free weights such as barbell Scott curls or flying movements with dumbbells

Level 6: Complex exercises with free weights such as snatches and power reps

Level 7: Complex exercises with free weights such as power snatches, dips on rings, rope climbs, split jerks

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-39, https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-40

By Charles Poliquin

This guide will cover the following topics:

• The 5 stages of puberty and how you should train during each of them
• What equipment you need to build quality muscle mass
• Which barbell and dumbbell exercises are the best choicesWhat are realistic expectations and how much muscle can you build during your first five years of training
• How to properly monitor your progress using a tape measure
• What proteins, carbohydrates and fats you should eat to support muscle growth and recovery
• Which supplements can be beneficial for teenagers.

If you're a teenager looking to build muscle, there's a good chance you'll encounter some challenges. It is likely that you will lack complete control over your daily diet and you may not always have access to the best gym equipment.

Many teenagers also see themselves as too skinny and weak. Your body may have grown in height, but it still lacks muscle. You feel lanky, weird, uncoordinated and wish you could perform better at sports.

On the other side of the coin are those who are slightly overweight. These teens want to look better but don't know where to start. What should you eat? How should you exercise?

Maybe you don't fit into any of these groups. Maybe you're athletic, relatively strong and simply want to maximize your results, but don't know where to start or what to change. You are already exercising and eating quite sensibly.

No matter where you are, this guide to teenage bodybuilding will provide you with detailed information on the following topics:

• How to build muscle
• How to stay lean or improve your body composition
• How to build strength
• How to improve your athletic performance
• How to build self-confidence

Training for teenagers

Not all teenagers are the same. How you approach your training should depend on what stage of puberty you are currently in. Puberty is divided into the following 5 stages:

• Stage one - Puberty has not yet begun
• Stage two - Begins around the age of 11. The testicles hang lower and grow and a few pubic hairs begin to develop. This stage lasts about a year.
• Stage three - Stage three begins around the age of 13. Your voice deepens and your sexual organs reach their full size. This stage will typically last 10 months, but can be completed within 2 months. Some growth may take place, but it will not be as strong as during stage 4.
• Stage four - This final stage of puberty is the stage of greatest growth and weight gain. Stage four typically begins at age 14 and includes major transitions to adulthood. Boys go through a growth spurt and develop acne. They begin to break their voice and facial hair begins to appear. This stage can last up to 3 years.
• Stage five - Body hair continues to grow and some teenagers are still growing. This late stage of puberty can last into the late teens or early twenties.

Why is any of this important? Before the onset of stage four, it is unlikely that a teenager will experience significant muscle growth. A study conducted at Virginia Tech showed that teenagers can build muscle before stage 4, but not effectively (1). Training before this stage should focus on strengthening the body through basic bodyweight exercises and working on proper exercise form using moderately light dumbbell and barbell exercises.

There is no reason to train heavy and destroy your body in the gym before stage four. Build a good strength base, learn good training form and improve your conditioning and training load slowly and gradually.

This guide covers workouts for teens before stage four, as well as teens who are currently in stage four or beyond. Before we take a closer look at these workouts, however, let's talk about a few things teens should know about training.

What equipment do you need?

You don't need access to all the bells and whistles of the gym to build muscle. In fact, it's possible to build a good amount of muscle with just a few dumbbells, a bench and some bodyweight exercises.

Progressive overload - increasing the resistance over time - is very important. The only thing you really need to build muscle is an adequate amount of resistance. Even if you can't do squats, bench presses or deadlifts, there are plenty of suitable exercises that can help you achieve your goals.

If you are training at home, the following will be sufficient:

• A weight bench
• 2 dumbbell bars
• 80 to 100 kilos of weight plates
• A pull-up bar

Don't worry if you don't have access to a weight bench, bench presses and flying movements can be done on the floor. In fact, this is a very popular method among strength athletes.

Pull-up bars are very cheap. You can get cheap ones for under 20 euros.

If you simply can't afford this, there are many things you can use as a pull-up station. Get creative. If everything goes wrong, you can use rowing instead of pull-ups. There's no point worrying about an exercise you can't do when there are hundreds of others you can use.

You can find used weight plates on Ebay and other platforms. We've also added muscle building workouts for those who don't have access to a lot of weights. More on this later.

Commercial gyms

If you can work out at a commercial gym, then your primary focus should be on barbell exercises, dumbbell exercises and bodyweight exercises. Cable pulleys and machines can be useful, but should not form the basis of your training.

Recommended exercises

Here are some of the best muscle building exercises. Most really good training programs will include some of the exercises listed in this section.

• Chest - bench press, incline bench press, dips, dumbbell bench press, dumbbell incline bench press, dumbbell flyes.
• Back - deadlifts, barbell rowing, dumbbell rowing, pull-ups, lat pull-downs, T-bar rowing, seated rowing on the cable pulley
• Shoulders - standing shoulder presses, seated barbell shoulder presses, seated dumbbell shoulder presses, Arnold press, side raises, bent-over side raises, upright rowing
• Quadriceps - squats, leg presses, lunges, Hackenschmidt squats, goblet squats, front squats
• Leg curls - deadlifts with straight legs, good mornings, leg curls
• Triceps - close bench press, dips, dips on a bench, cable tricep press, lying tricep press, overhead tricep press
• Biceps - pull-ups, barbell curls, dumbbell curls, hammer curls, Scott curls
• Trapezius - barbell shoulder raises, dumbbell shoulder raises, rowing upright

Start training slowly

Neuromuscular adaptation.

One of the most common training mistakes is to start training too quickly. Many teenagers think that more is better and that the harder they train from the start, the faster they will build muscle. However, this is not the case.

When you start a resistance training program, your body goes through a phase of neuromuscular adaptation. This simply means that the strength gains you feel at the beginning are due to your central nervous system adapting to the activity of weightlifting. Your brain becomes better at communicating with your muscles and responding to the specific demands of training with weights.

You cannot speed up this process. Motor units are the communicators between your brain and your muscle tissue - and they have limited endurance. This means that they will exhaust quickly when you start exercising. When the motor units become fatigued, muscle fiber recruitment decreases and you will feel weaker.

Over time, your motor units will build up greater endurance. This will allow you to recruit more muscle fibers over a longer period of time. Higher muscle fiber recruitment will lead to longer lasting strength and more effective workouts. Neuromuscular adaptation can take around 2 months.

Training form

Another reason to take it slow with training has to do with safety. You need to take your time and learn correct exercise form using moderately light weights. Starting heavy training too soon, before you have developed a sufficient understanding of correct exercise form, increases the risk of injury.

If you're injured, you can't train - and if you can't train, you can't build muscle.

Sore muscles

If you go head over heels with heavy training and a normal training volume, this can lead to excessive muscle soreness. Although muscle soreness is not dangerous, it can be painful and debilitating and can cause exercisers to lose their motivation to train.

When you start your training journey, understand that it's not about beating your body to the punch. Rather, it's all about progressing day by day and challenging your muscles to respond and grow.

Start training slowly and sensibly by following the training structure described below. This will keep your motivation high and give you the necessary time to slowly adapt to the demands associated with the muscle building process.

Patience and realistic expectations

Quality gains take years, not weeks. You cannot accelerate progress. Many teenagers try to increase their gains by adding volume and training days to their workouts, but this is the wrong approach.

Instead, you need to focus on improvement. Try to get a little stronger every week and every month.

The reality of muscle building is that 90% of teenagers can't manage to train for a year without interruption. They lose patience or focus and give up training.

Building muscle is a process that can take 3, 4 or 5 years. Learn to enjoy your training and trust that the results will come.

The body needs to be challenged consistently over long periods of time. Time is just as important as your training itself.

Muscle building expectations

Teenagers who are not underweight can expect to build the following amounts of muscle mass per year. This is assuming they train correctly and consistently and eat right.

• Year 1 - 6 to 8 kilos of muscle
• Year 2 - 3 to 4 kilos of muscle
• Year 3 - 1.5 to 2 kilos of muscle
• Year 4 - 0.5 to 1 kilo of muscle
• Year 5 - 0.5 to 1 kilo of muscle

You should be able to build up an upper arm circumference of 38 centimetres within the first 24 months and an upper arm circumference of 40 to 41 centimetres within the first 3 years.

Strength building expectations

Despite what you see on the internet, 135 kilos on the bench is very rare. Very few teenagers train long enough to achieve this.

I recommend that you aim for the following goals:

• 90 kilo bench press
• 120 kilo squats
• 135 kilos deadlift

This will make you stronger than 99% of other teenagers. Once you have reached this level of strength, everything else will be icing on the cake.

It may take you a few years to reach this level of strength, but keep training and stay focused.

How to monitor your progress

Monitoring your progress will eliminate all the guesswork. All you need to get started is a tape measure and a piece of paper.

Before you start your first day of training, take three measurements at each of the following locations and calculate the average for that location:

• Arms tensed at the thickest point
• Quadriceps tensed, at the thickest point
• Forearms tensed at the thickest point
• Calves tensed at the thickest point
• Chest while holding your breath at nipple level
• Shoulders relaxed at the thickest point

Repeat these measurements every month and write down the values. Don't worry about minor fluctuations and deviations. Measurement errors can be responsible for seemingly strange short-term changes.

These readings should be carefully evaluated every 3 to 4 months. Because gains take time and consistency, we often mistakenly believe that we are not making any progress. However, metrics will allow you to look at the hard facts. These facts don't lie.

You should also weigh yourself once a month. If the scale doesn't move at all, then you will need to increase your calorie intake.

In the next part of this article series, we will take a closer look at the training itself and introduce you to some sample training plans.

Source: https://www.muscleandstrength.com/expert-guides/teenage-bodybuilding

Successful training programs do not come about by chance. They are well planned. To get good results, you need to take your time and learn how to properly approach progressive resistance training to get results. Many gyms have people who start working out, but 60% of them will stop working out after many months because they are not getting the results they want.

One of the main reasons for this lack of results is that these people have not accumulated enough knowledge about the many parts of resistance training that are necessary to achieve the desired results. If you read the articles on this website, and put what you read into action, you will find it easy to get results.

The common denominator of most studies conducted on resistance training is that the chosen program must be progressive in order to produce substantial and continuous gains in muscle mass and strength. Progression in this case means moving towards a specific goal.

When training with weights, this means continuous improvement over time until you reach your goal. It is of course impossible to always improve at the same rate in long-term training, but the proper manipulation of the different variables of your training program (the choice of resistance, the exercise execution and order of execution, the number of sets and repetitions, the length of rests, etc.) can naturally limit training plateaus (points at which no further improvement occurs) and allow you to reach higher and higher levels of muscle fitness.

The trainable fitness characteristics include muscle strength, speed, hypertrophy (growth) and muscle endurance. Other variables such as speed, balance, coordination, jump height, agility and other markers of motor performance are also positively affected by resistance training.

It is known that increased physical activity, aerobic training, resistance training and flexibility exercises can reduce the risk of many serious chronic diseases.

For beginners, the recommended quality and quantity of training to develop and maintain cardiovascular and muscular fitness for resistance training is one set of 8 to 12 repetitions of 8 to 10 exercises, which should include exercise for all major muscle groups. Such an approach has been shown to be effective in improving muscle fitness during the first 12 to 15 weeks in untrained individuals.

Training progression

To make progress in your training, you need to increase the stress you put your muscles under during training. This is called progressive overload. The body's adaptive processes will only respond if they are continually challenged to exert greater force to meet greater physical demands.

Considering that these physical adaptations to a standard training program can occur within a short period of time, increasing the demands on your body is necessary for further improvements with your training. There are several ways in which overload can come about through resistance training - whether it's an increase in strength, hypertrophy (muscle growth), muscle endurance or speed strength.

• The weight (resistance) can be increased.
• The number of repetitions can be increased.
• The repetition speed with submaximal weights can be changed depending on the goals.
• The pauses between sets can be shortened to increase endurance or lengthened for strength and speed training.
• The volume (the total amount of work represented by the total number of repetitions performed and the resistance used) can be increased within reasonable limits.
• Any combination of the above.

It is also recommended that only small increases in training volume (2.5 to 5%) are used to avoid overtraining.

Training specificity

The principle of specificity states that your training must progress from general training to highly specific training and also implies that in order to get better at a specific exercise, you must perform that exercise (in other words, if you don't, you can't get better at that exercise).

The physiological adaptations to your training are therefore specific to

1. the muscle actions involved
2. the speed of the movement
3. the range of motion
4. the muscle groups being trained
5. the energy systems used
6. the intensity and volume of your training

Although there is some carryover in terms of training effects, the most effective resistance training programs are those designed to target your specific training goals.

Training Variation

Variation in your training is a fundamental principle that supports the need for changes in one or more variables of your training program over time to allow the training stimulus to remain high for the muscles. Variation in volume and intensity has been shown to be most effective for long-term progress. The most commonly used variation in resistance training is periodization.

Training periodization.

Periodization uses variations in the resistance training program through changes in training intensity and volume to optimize both performance and recovery. There are many forms of periodization, such as using an annual plan (the training is divided into phases) or dividing the year into individual areas.

A classic form of periodization is the use of a high initial training volume and low intensity, followed by a gradual reduction in volume while increasing intensity to maximize strength or speed - or even both.

Each training phase should be designed to emphasize a specific physiological adaptation. For example, hypertrophy (muscle growth) is stimulated by the initial high-volume phase, while strength is developed within the later high-intensity phases.

Another form of periodization involves variations over a 7 to 10 day phase by rotating between different training protocols over the course of the training program. This method trains the different components of the neuromuscular system within the 7 to 10 day cycle.

During a training session, only one training characteristic is trained on a given day (e.g. strength, speed or endurance). When training the core exercises, for example, you can alternate between heavy, moderate and lighter weights on a rotating basis (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) (e.g. 3-5 RM weights, 8-10 RM weights and 12-15 RM weights could be used on a rotating basis).

Training experience and progression

Training experience plays an important role in the rate of your progression in resistance training. Your level of fitness, experience and genetic predisposition all contribute to your progression. Untrained people (those who have never performed resistance training or have not trained for several years) respond best to training. The rate of strength gains varies greatly between untrained and trained people - experienced exercisers will progress more slowly.

Studies have shown that over a longer period of time, muscle strength increased by about 40% in untrained people, 20% in moderately trained people, 10% in advanced exercisers and only 2% in elite athletes (moderately trained people have 6 months of consistent training experience, advanced exercisers have several years of training experience and highly trained people have already reached a high level of competition).

These studies have shown that the rate of progression decreases with increasing training experience. After several months of training, it becomes increasingly difficult to achieve strength gains. It is well documented that the greatest changes in muscle strength occur at the beginning of training.

Muscle strength

The ability of the body's neuromuscular systems to generate force is necessary for all types of movement. Muscle fibers are classified according to their contractile and metabolic characteristics and show a correlation between their cross-sectional area and the amount of maximum force they can generate. Throughout the muscle, the arrangement of individual fibers varies depending on their angles of pull and other factors such as length of the muscle, joint angle and speed of contraction, and all of these factors can influence muscle strength.

The force generated in the muscle depends on the activation of the motor units of the muscle. Motor units are recruited depending on their size (from small to large). Adaptations to resistance training allow for greater force production. These adaptations include improved neural function and increased muscle cross-sectional area. The amount of strength increase depends on the muscle actions used, intensity, volume, exercise selection and sequence, rest intervals between sets and training frequency.

Muscle action

Most resistance training programs include dynamic repetitions that involve both concentric (muscle shortening) and eccentric (muscle lengthening) actions, while isometric actions play a secondary role. During eccentric actions, more force is produced per muscle unit. Eccentric actions are also more efficient from a neuromuscular point of view and less demanding metabolically, while at the same time causing greater hypertrophy (growth), but they can also cause greater muscle soreness compared to concentric actions.

The increases in dynamic strength are greatest when eccentric actions are also performed. In terms of progression, the role of manipulation of muscle actions during resistance training is minimal. Considering that most training programs include concentric and eccentric muscle actions in each repetition, there is not much potential for variation in these variables. However, some advanced exercisers use different forms of isometric training (e.g., functional isometric training) in addition to using supramaximal eccentric muscle actions to maximize gains in strength and hypertrophy.

Training load

Changes in training load (weight on the bar) can influence the acute, hormonal, neural and cardiovascular response to resistance training. The load required to increase maximal strength in untrained individuals is quite low - it has been shown that using a load equivalent to 45 to 50% of 1 RM weight (1 RM = maximum weight with which a repetition can be performed with strict form) - or perhaps even less - can increase dynamic strength in untrained individuals.

Higher weights are needed for further progression. At least 80% of the 1 RM weight is needed to produce further neural adaptations and strength gains in experienced exercisers. Several studies have shown that loads in the 1 to 6 RM weight range (mostly in the 5 to 6 RM weight range) produce the best gains in maximal strength. Although it has been shown that strength gains can be achieved using an 8 to 12 RM weight, such weights are not as effective as heavier weights for experienced exercisers.

Novice exercisers are recommended to use a load of approximately 60% of the 1 RM weight to learn proper exercise form and technique and to use a range of different loads for long-term gains in muscle strength. It is also recommended that beginners and intermediate exercisers train with loads in the range of 60 to 70% of the 1 RM weight and a repetition range of 8 to 12 repetitions, while experienced exercisers use loads in the range of 80 to 100% of the 1 RM weight in a maximal strength program.

Training volume

Training volume is the total number of repetitions performed during a training session multiplied by the weight used. Training volume has been shown to increase hypertrophy, metabolic and hormonal responses and adaptations to resistance training. Changes in training volume can be achieved by changing the number of exercises performed during a training session and the number of sets performed per exercise.

Low volume programs (i.e. high weights, low repetitions and a moderate to high number of sets) are usually the main component of strength training routines. In studies, fitness enthusiasts responded well to programs with single and multiple sets per exercise. However, for trained individuals, programs with multiple sets have been shown to be superior for increasing muscle strength.

It is recommended that novice exercisers use single or multiple sets at the beginning of their training, while for more advanced and experienced exercisers, programs with multiple sets combined with variations in training volume and intensity have proven to be most effective for strength gains.

Exercise selection

In terms of exercise selection, both isolation exercises and multi-joint exercises have been shown to be effective in increasing strength in the target muscle groups. Multi-joint exercises (such as squats and bench presses) are more neuronally complex and have been shown to be the most effective for increasing body-wide muscle strength as they allow the use of heavier weights.

Isolation exercises (such as leg extensions and leg and arm curls) are used to target specific muscle groups and may also pose a lower risk of injury due to lower technique and skill requirements.

It is recommended that both types of exercises be included in resistance training programs, with an emphasis on multi-joint exercises to maximize muscle strength.

Free weights and machines

Exercises on machines are considered safer and easier to learn and allow you to perform some exercises that can be difficult with free weights (e.g. leg extensions and lat pulldowns). Machines help to stabilize the body and limit movement around specific joints in a given exercise and also focus on the muscle being used.

For beginners and somewhat advanced exercisers, it is recommended that resistance training includes free weights and machines. More experienced exercisers are advised to focus on free weights, while machines are used to meet additional program requirements.

In the second part of this article, we will look at other aspects of training and take a closer look at targeted training for muscle hypertrophy.

Source: https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/so-you-want-to-be-big.html