Training

Is your current training program bland? Then you can use the 5/10/20 method to increase your endurance, break through plateaus and achieve an amazing pump.

Superset

Noun

• A sentence that includes one or more other sentences
• A combination of exercises performed one after the other without a break
• The best way to get a massive pump

Ever since I started training with weights as a teenager, I've loved using supersets in my training program.

By definition, there are two primary ways to build a superset. The first is to combine exercises that target the same muscles. An example of this would be a superset of front raises and side raises for the shoulders.

The second method of building a superset is to use two exercises that are antagonistic, meaning that they train opposite muscle groups. An example of this would be performing a set of dumbbell curls (biceps) in superset with a set of barbell tricep presses lying down (triceps).

The great thing about both methods is that you can achieve more in the same amount of time in the gym and your heart rate stays high due to the shorter rest periods.

However, with these benefits comes a downside - some exercisers confuse heavy breathing with training hard and without a solid structure, you probably won't get as much out of your supersets as you think. Due to the cardio effect and inevitable muscle fatigue, it's normal for many people to scale back their efforts a little. As a result, form suffers and sets of 8 reps become sets of maybe 6 reps.

But today we are going to solve this problem!

Years ago I developed a repetition scheme for supersets known as the 5/10/20 method. In its simplest form, it represents a superset of three exercises for a single muscle group, where you do 5 reps of the first exercise, 10 reps of the second exercise and 20 reps of the last exercise.

I typically start with a heavy multi-joint exercise that works the entire target muscle group. Immediately after the basic exercise, I move on to 10 repetitions of an isolation exercise. To finish the superset, I like to use a bodyweight-only exercise with 20 killer reps that mimic the initial power exercise.

The exercise order is not set in stone here - I often use pull-ups as the second exercise as 20 reps of this exercise would be too heavy as the last set. As long as you always perform a heavy exercise with 5 repetitions first and then perform 2 additional exercises, you are in the green zone.

By sticking to the prescribed repetition pattern, you will achieve an amazing pump, increase your endurance and break through any training plateaus you are stuck at. Without further ado, here's a 3 day killer split consisting entirely of supersets using the 5/10/20 method.

Day 1: Press

Day 1 is the "press" training session, during which you perform chest, shoulders and triceps exercises. The first 5/10/20 superset starts with 5 repetitions of dumbbell bench presses (perform 1 to 2 warm-up sets of presses to work your way up to a higher weight before starting the first round of supersets). Once you have completed the fifth repetition, grab a lighter pair of dumbbells and perform 10 repetitions of flying movements, although you can also perform this exercise on cable pulleys.

Concentrate on tensing your chest muscles with each repetition and finish the superset with 20 push-ups. Rest for at least 2 minutes before performing the next of 5 supersets. If the 20 push-ups become difficult in later rounds, split them into several mini-sets to complete 20 repetitions.

Next is a superset for the shoulders, starting with 5 heavy repetitions of standing dumbbell shoulder presses. After the shoulder press set, grab medium dumbbells for 10 repetitions of side raises before finishing the superset with 20 repetitions for the rear shoulder muscles on the cable pulley.

This 5/10/20 superset works all 3 muscle heads of the shoulder muscles and after 5 reps your shoulders should be pretty much finished.

Day 1 ends with supersets for triceps starting with heavy dumbbell overhead shoulder presses as a power exercise. Make sure you choose a heavy enough weight that you can just manage 5 reps. Next, move on to cable shoulder presses for 10 reps and finish the superset with 20 reps of bodyweight skull crushers. During the next reps, you may perform the scull crushers at a steeper angle as your triceps fatigue. Perform 3 of these supersets to complete the workout.

Day 2: Pulling

Day 2 is your pull training session, which consists of back and biceps exercises. The first superset starts with 5 repetitions of heavy lat pull-ups before you perform 10 pull-ups. If pull-ups as the second exercise are too difficult for you, you can also swap the order of the exercises and use pull-ups as the first exercise. Regardless of which exercise you perform first, finish the superset with 20 repetitions of seated rows. Perform 5 reps of this superset, resting for at least 2 minutes between reps.

Next comes another superset for the back. This 5/10/20 set starts with T-bar rows followed by 10 repetitions of reverse rows. To perform reverse rows, place a barbell in a power rack, lie under the bar and grasp it with a wide grip, with only your feet touching the floor. Keep your body straight and pull yourself up until your chest touches the bar, pulling your shoulder blades tightly together at the highest point of the movement.

Complete the set with 20 repetitions of lat pulldowns with arms straight and perform 5 repetitions. The last 5/10/20 superset of the day will destroy your biceps, which are already pumped up from the pull-ups and rowing. Start with 5 heavy reps of barbell curls, immediately followed by 10 quarter reps of pull-ups. For the pull-ups, only perform the upper quarter of the movement to maximize the load on the biceps. Consciously contract the biceps to the maximum at the highest point. Complete the superset with 20 repetitions of dumbbell hammer curls and perform a total of 3 rounds of this superset.

Day 3: Lower body / core

The leg day starts with Bulgarian split squats as a power exercise. Grab a pair of dumbbells and perform 5 repetitions per leg. Then perform 10 sissy squats on a power rack.

Sissy squats are an old-school quadriceps exercise that is performed using only your own body weight. Grab one side of the power rack and slowly lean backwards while bending your knees. When your body is almost parallel to the floor, straighten your legs and return to the starting position. Complete the superset after 10 repetitions of this exercise with 20 lunges. Rest for 2 minutes and perform a total of 5 repetitions.

The next 5/10/20 superset starts with 5 heavy medicine ball front squats (you can also replace the medicine ball with a barbell if necessary), followed by 10 glute ham raises or leg curls. Finish the superset with 20 bodyweight step ups per leg.

After a grueling 3 rounds of this superset, it's time to finish the session with some core training. After 5 walk outs (from a kneeling position or standing if you are more advanced), take an ab wheel and perform 10 reps of roll outs. Finish the superset with 20 stability alternates per side, which you can split into multiple subsets if necessary. Perform 2 rounds.

After you have completed days 1 to 3, take the fourth day as a rest day to allow your body to recover and then perform another 3-day cycle.

Change your training for optimal results

I know what you're thinking. No deadlifts? Where are the classic squats? I don't need to do bench presses?

Easy, easy. Due to the exhaustive nature of the 5/10/20 method, I don't like to use any of the heavy barbell exercises where you use a lot of weight, preferring to stick with dumbbell exercises. This exercise will not only give your body a shock, but also give you a break from the "big 3" basic exercises.

Use this program for a week or two and then go back to your normal program. I guarantee you will be able to approach your normal training with renewed energy and stamina after challenging your body with these extreme supersets.

You can also use the 5/10/20 structure for a final superset at the end of a training session instead of doing the full program, be creative. This is a tool in your arsenal that you can use whenever things get boring and bland.

Source: https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/5-10-20-method-supersets

Here's a quick summary:

1. Are you struggling with a lack of motivation or a low libido, or do you just no longer respond to your workouts or diet even though you feel like you've been doing everything right?
2. You can feel unwell and suffer from metabolic dysfunction without obviously suffering from an illness.
3. "Eat less and train more" can lead even an experienced strength athlete into a state of metabolic damage.
4. Your metabolism doesn't work like a calculator. It works like a thermostat.
5. There are three ways to repair your metabolism, depending on which level of starvation mode you are in.

Starvation mode, metabolic damage, weight loss resistance, adrenal exhaustion. For some reason, these terms get under people's skin. You constantly hear "this is a myth" or "that's a myth" and why these things are made up. This reminds me of a saying by Osho, my favorite philosopher: "The less a person knows, the more stubbornly they know."

None of these concepts are myths and many people struggle with these issues. If you are one of those people in your early 20s with great energy, a perfect body, but little real life experience, then you will probably ignore this article out of hand or not take it seriously. But do me a favor: bookmark the link to this article. You may well need it at some point. If, on the other hand, you're someone who struggles with a lack of motivation, low libido, overtraining or illness, or you don't respond to your training or diet like you used to, even though you feel like you're doing everything right, then this is an article for you.

The underlying terminology

Honestly, I don't know where these terms come from. Like many things in the field of health and fitness, these were terms that were used somewhere and then became part of the dictionary.
I am an integrative physician. I, and many physicians like me, have been dealing with the problem of metabolic damage for years. We've just never called it "metabolic damage" or "starvation mode." We refer to it as neuroindocrine immune dysfunction. Or we refer to it by some of its manifestations like "adrenal fatigue." Sometimes, when an actual diagnosis can be made, we refer to it as hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's or "adrenal insufficiency."

I have adopted the term "metabolic damage" as it is more descriptive and easier to understand than neuroindocrine immune dysfunction.

Dysfunction vs. disease

Here is some insight into the field of medicine and health that is important for further understanding. A person can feel unwell and suffer from metabolic dysfunction without being in an overt disease state. It makes sense to most people that you can suffer from metabolic dysfunction long before you develop a metabolic disease. And traditional medicine doesn't have much to offer as long as there is no diagnosis. This is the reason why the field of functional medicine was created.

Functional medicine is a medical specialty that deals with the gray area of dysfunction between health and disease. This is the type of medicine I practice - and this is also the field where non-diagnostic terms like "adrenal fatigue" come from.

Let me give you a tangible example of this problem. Let's say you're not feeling so well - you're hungry all the time, you're urinating more frequently than normal and you're gaining weight. If you go to a traditional doctor with these symptoms, they will do a blood sugar test to rule out diabetes. If your fasting blood sugar level is below 119, then you don't have diabetes, but if it reaches 120, then you do. Do you see how ridiculous this is? Long before you reach a fasting blood sugar of 120, you will suffer from serious dysfunction. But no one is sure what to call this. Medicine has many names for this, which include blood sugar dysregulation, glycemic impairment, prediabetes, etc.. But none of these are accepted diagnoses. They are simply descriptive terms that describe a measurable disorder that has not yet developed into a disease. The terms metabolic damage, starvation mode suffer from the same problem. They describe a functional disorder that may or may not be related to a specific disease.

Long before attention deficit disorder, polycystic ovary syndrome, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome became medical diagnoses, they were labeled myths and their existence was denied. At the same time, forward-thinking physicians have begun to treat these conditions and define their characteristics. To say that metabolic damage or starvation mode is a myth is like saying prediabetes is a myth. To say that adrenal fatigue does not exist is like saying that overtraining does not exist. These are functional disorders that have clinical signs and symptoms that can be detected on physical examination and blood tests.

These disorders may not have a diagnostic label, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. This is the gray area between optimal health and disease - the area where functions begin to be impaired.

So what exactly is starvation mode?

Starvation mode and metabolic damage are real. To make this topic easier to deal with, I'll refer to this concept as starvation mode from this point forward (you'll see how metabolic damage fits in shortly). The funny thing is that when you see what starvation mode really is, you'll probably understand very quickly what we're talking about here. I've found that the confusion around these topics is usually due to the lack of an organizing framework to understand things.

In reality, starvation mode is undoubtedly the most widely accepted occurrence in all diet research. But scientists don't call it "starvation mode", they call it adaptive thermogenesis. I call it the law of metabolic compensation. I call it a "law" because it is a reliable and predictable phenomenon that occurs in every dieting scenario. It's just the degree that varies. You can think of this as a natural protective mechanism that the metabolism has developed over millions of years. This protective mechanism is what kept us from starving when the next meal was never guaranteed. Whether you are a lean bodybuilder, an elite athlete or the average person trying to lose weight, you will be affected by your body's metabolic compensation.

Metabolic damage: an example

Let's go through this with an example. Things start with a diet. By diet, I mean a combination of eating less and exercising more. In the beginning, you seem to make good progress. You lose a few pounds quickly. So far so good. After a week of this diet, you will start to feel hungry as your energy levels drop and you experience cravings for salty, fatty and sweet foods. This is a sign that you are beginning to slip into a state of metabolic compensation. Think of this as starvation mode stage 1.

Due to this compensation, you will notice that your fat loss slows down. It may even come to a complete standstill. And if you are one of those people who experience a significant drop in metabolic rate, you may even start to put on weight. And your hunger and problems with energy and cravings will get worse.

But you're not playing games. You pride yourself on your iron will and solid work ethic. You're redoubling your efforts by cutting your calories further and upping your time at the gym. Nice. Now it's time to get moving again. Your weight drops another pound or two. But this trend doesn't last. A few weeks later, you're stuck on the next plateau. This time the hunger and cravings are even worse and your energy has gone down the drain. Your metabolism doesn't keep running like before. Your metabolic rate slows down even further. You may try even harder, but your body won't give in. You seem to be doing everything right, but your metabolism switches to stubborn. You have reached the state of metabolic resistance. This is starvation mode level 2.

You don't understand what the hell is going on here, but you know how to deal with it. All you have to do is work even harder. You watch Conan the Barbarian and turn the theme music from Rocky up to full volume. You quadruple your efforts! You will get very little for your efforts this time. You've been dieting for weeks and you feel exhausted. And now you have other complaints. You suffer from flatulence and feel bloated. The protein that you used to tolerate very well is now causing you digestive problems. You also get heartburn. If you are a woman, your cycle becomes irregular or you no longer menstruate at all. If you are a man, your libido is in the basement. Your sleep is interrupted and unpredictable. You have this strange feeling of inner restlessness but outward tiredness. You start to feel sick and unwell. You may be anxious, depressed or both. And you gain weight slowly, look bloated despite a low-carb diet and can no longer maintain your workouts. This is metabolic damage stage 3 and the final stage of starvation mode.

What you should not do

Get help now. All those statements that metabolic damage is just a myth are coming back to haunt you. So you go to a trainer. You tell him what's going on and he tells you "You're in starvation mode. You need to eat more and cut back on your training." He'll tell you to double your calorie intake and slow down your insane exercise program. Guess what will happen? You'll rise like a yeast dumpling. While your metabolism is moving slowly like a snail, you've done exactly the wrong thing. That was not a smart move. You gain 15 pounds in 6 days (I've seen this kind of effect in several patients)! Of course, it's physiologically impossible to gain that much fat in such a short period of time - it's almost all water, but it's a sign that your metabolism isn't working very well.

You want answers, which is why you're seeing a doctor. Maybe they'll diagnose hypothyroidism or some other problem, or maybe they'll say there's nothing wrong with you. Obviously, they won't have any answers. If you are really unlucky, he will advise you to go back to your approach of eating less and exercising more. But this approach will still not work and you will only get further into the downward spiral, causing further damage to your physiology and your psyche.

How to repair metabolic damage

Here's what you need to know about your metabolism. It doesn't work like a calculator - it works like a thermostat. And your thermostat is now broken. When the "eat less, exercise more" approach to changing your body is taken to the extreme, it's like a tug-of-war you can never win. You pull and your metabolism pulls back. You push harder and your metabolism laughs and almost sweeps you off your feet. What's the only way to win a tug of war against a team that's stronger than you? Let go of the rope when they pull and let them fall helplessly to the ground. That's the way out of starvation mode.

How to get out of starvation mode again

Regardless of which phase you are in, the first step is to stop eating less and start exercising more. At this point, you have two options: You can either eat less and exercise less or eat more and exercise more. This is the only way to reduce the stress on your metabolism without gaining weight. However, if you have already reached stage 3, then your only option is to eat less and exercise less.

How to get your metabolism back in order

1. metabolic compensation:

This stage is easy to deal with. Take a "eat less, exercise less" or "eat more and exercise more" approach. Both will work. As long as you get away from the "eat less, exercise more" approach, you will be back on track within a week.

2. metabolic resistance

This won't be that hard to deal with either. Just use a cyclical diet. Spend 2 to 3 weeks in an "eat less, exercise less" phase and then move to an "eat more, exercise more" approach. You may need to take a few more steps. This could include prioritizing rest and recovery. Walking, massage, sauna therapy, naps, sex/physical affection, laughter, time with pets, etc. - basically anything that lowers your stress hormone levels and rebalances your neuroendocrine system. Expect to be back on track within 1 to 3 months.

3. metabolic damage:

Once you get to this point, you don't have a lot of options. "Eat less, exercise less" is the only choice you have. You need to fully focus on rest and recovery. Walking and a few traditional workouts with weights will probably be all you'll be able to do. Consulting a doctor who specializes in functional medicine would be a good idea. Such a doctor will be able to evaluate thyroid function, adrenal function and gonadal function. This is beyond the focus of a trainer. Supplements and hormones may be needed. With the right help, you can be back on track within 3 to 15 months.

The ideal scenario? Try not to get into such a situation in the first place.

References

1. Major, et. al.Clinical significance of adaptive thermogenesis. International Journal of Obesity. 2007 Feb;31(2):204-12. PUBMED
2. Jason, et al. Chronic fatigue syndrome versus neuroendocrineimmune dysfunction syndrome:differential attributions. Journal of Health & Social Policy 2003;18(1):43-55. PUBMED
3. Muller, et. al. Adaptive thermogenesis with weight loss in humans. Obesity. Feb;21(2):218-228. PUBMED
4. Rosenbaum, et. al. Long-term persistence of adaptive thermogenesis in subjects who have maintained a reduced body weight. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2008;88(4): 906-912. nutrition.org
5. Camps, et. al. Weight loss, weight maintenance, and adaptive thermogenesis. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2013;97(5):990-994. PUBMED
6. Tremblay, et. al Adaptive reduction in thermogenesis and resistance to lose fat in obese men. British Journal of Nutrition. 2009;102(4):488-492. PUBMED
7. Labayen, et. al Role of baseline leptin and ghrelin levels on body weight and fat mass changes after an energy-restricted diet intervention in obese women: effects on energy metabolism. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 2011;96(6):E996-1000. PUBMED
8. Miller, et. al. Resistance to slimming: adaptation or illusion? Lancet. 1975;1(7910):773-775. PUBMED
9. Winsier, et. al. Do adaptive changes in metabolic rate favor weight regain in weight-reduced individuals? An examination of the set-point theory. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2000;72(5):1088-94. PUBMED

By Dr. Jade Teta
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/truth-about-metabolic-damage

Here is a brief summary:

1. Before you start training, you should decide what your main goal is. The goal of achieving a specific look requires a different training approach than the goal of becoming a better competitive athlete.
2. Those who train to improve their athletic performance are more concerned with moving the heaviest possible weight from point A to point B in the most efficient way.
3. Those who train to achieve a specific look should focus on feeling the target muscles working. Moving a weight from A to B is secondary.
4. The amount of weight you use, the speed of your repetitions and your mental focus will vary based on your main goal.

It's your choice

Before starting any training set, you have an important decision to make. It's not the amount of weight you put on the bar or the number of reps you want to complete. It's something more abstract, but just as important. You have to decide whether your main goal is to move the weight or to feel the muscle.

In other words, you need to ask yourself whether your primary goal is an objective, measurable performance, such as performing the maximum number of repetitions with a certain weight, or whether your goal is to actually feel the muscle working. These are very different goals. Sets performed with these different goals will look very different - one will be heavier and more explosive, while the other will be lighter and more controlled.

Which approach is better? As different as these two approaches may be, neither is inherently better than the other - they just serve different purposes. So let's take a look at both approaches to find out which is best to use and when.

Movement vs. muscle

Athletes who play power and movement-based sports (MMA, American football, powerlifting) should generally focus on training movement, while athletes who are concerned with the visual development of their body should focus on training muscle.

Athletes who play movement-based sports need to be able to move better in order to improve their performance. An MMA fighter doesn't need to worry about the size of his pecs. Instead, he needs to think about his ability to release maximum force with his pecs quickly and repeatedly, which will allow him to deliver strikes against his opponent.

In the same way, a BMX cyclist will not worry about whether his legs look good in his underwear. No, it's more important to him that his legs can release maximum power, which will make him as fast as possible.

At the other end of the spectrum are athletes like bodybuilders who are more interested in improving the appearance of their muscles and are not as concerned about their power release or endurance capacity. They are most concerned with how their muscles will ultimately look as a result of their training.
Bodybuilders and other physique athletes don't care what their vertical jump height is, or how much weight they can move on squats - they only care about having full, evenly developed quadriceps with a good visible split between the three visible quadriceps heads.

And a figure athlete will not be interested in being able to perform a maximum number of pull-ups in the shortest possible time. She wants maximum latissimus development, which will make her waist and hips appear narrower. While it's pretty clear that athletes and bodybuilders ultimately have different training goals, this fact tends to get forgotten as soon as we start training in the weight room. Let's look at a few practical ways in which athletes and bodybuilders can fine-tune their training to maximize their desired results.

Training the movements: 3 factors

There are a number of ways in which an athlete can adjust their training to maximize their performance.

1 - Repetition speed

A good rule of thumb is that if you want to be able to move fast, you need to train fast. Simply put, you will get better at what you do. To maximize strength and speed, you need to be able to recruit the maximum number of muscle fibers and get the nerves that control those fibers to fire as strong nerve impulses as possible. In other words, if you are a strength athlete, you should aim to maximize your recruitment of motor units and your neural coding. One way to achieve this is to increase the speed of repetitions. Performing a repetition explosively will maximize both motor unit recruitment and neural coding.

Let's say you are performing a set of squats. It would make sense to perform the concentric part of the movement (the upward movement) as quickly as possible. By doing this regularly, you will be able to release maximum force at any given time.

Although care should be taken when performing anything other than controlled eccentric movements, fast execution of the concentric portion of the movement in squats will also serve to maximize the recruitment of motor units. This is especially true for the part of the movement where you reach the point in the repetition where the momentum of the rapid eccentric downward movement needs to be quickly decelerated and then rapidly change the direction of the movement by generating a quick concentric contraction.

By training explosively, you develop the ability to move faster.

2 - The choice of weight

Competitive athletes can improve their ability to perform certain movement patterns by regularly performing them against heavy resistance. A martial artist who bench presses will develop a better explosive power to help them push an opponent away. If you are an athlete, then you will benefit from using relatively heavy weights (a high percentage of your 1RM weight) when you bench press to maximize improvements in motor unit recruitment and neural coding. So if you're an athlete who is in the middle of a set of heavy bench press, then you should focus on moving the heavy weight as explosively as possible - not feeling your pecs working.

And this brings us to the final difference between training movements vs. training muscles - mental focus.

3 - The mental focus

Where you place your mental focus during a set is by far the most important factor when it comes to what results that set will produce. Watch a CrossFitter performing a set of pull-ups and compare this to a bodybuilder performing a set of pull-ups - these two sets will look different - almost as if they are not even the same exercise. The reason for this is the basic attitude of the exerciser or the purpose of their training. A person doing CrossFit will be more concerned about performing the greatest possible number of pull-ups in the shortest possible amount of time. And therefore, that person will perform the repetitions in a way that maximizes performance and efficiency. Feeling the muscles working is not important in this case. A bodybuilder performing pull-ups, on the other hand, will focus exclusively on feeling their muscles working.

When you begin a set of a given exercise, the aspect you focus on will determine what performance you achieve and what performance you achieve will determine what adaptations will take place.

Training the muscles: Three factors

Take a look at how the same three factors will be different for someone who is more concerned with the appearance of their body.

1 - Repetition speed

The most important thing to remember about repetition speed for bodybuilding training is this: train slowly enough that you can ensure the target muscle is doing most of the work. Repetition speed is less important than stimulating the right muscle. While it's not a bad idea to occasionally train at a higher repetition rate to maximize motor unit recruitment, training for hypertrophy is generally more about making sure the target muscle is trained and kept under tension for an optimal amount of time. Hypertrophy is as much about time under tension as it is about maximizing the number of muscle fibers stimulated.

A bodybuilder must first ensure that the repetition rate they are using allows them to maintain a consistent tension on the target muscle. This will usually be a much lower repetition rate than you will see in a person training to improve their athletic performance. In particular, the eccentric or negative phase of the repetition will be slower and more controlled. The concentric portion of the movement can and should be performed slightly more explosively to recruit the maximum number of motor units - even in those training for hypertrophy.

2 - The choice of weights

Choosing the right weight follows a similar protocol to repetition speed in bodybuilding. First, make sure you're targeting the right muscle and then feel free to choose a relatively heavy weight as long as you don't lose the feel of working the target muscle. That's one thing that's so unique to bodybuilding and hypertrophy training: training with high resistance and/or high repetition speed like a power athlete can certainly be beneficial, especially because of the aforementioned neurological changes that will take place. But doing this without stimulating the right muscles will not lead to growth in the right areas.

For example, let's say you're a bodybuilder doing barbell bench presses to develop your pecs. If you aim to use as much weight as possible and move the weight explosively then you will no doubt perform better, but if this results in you shifting a good portion of the work from your pecs to your front shoulder muscles then you are robbing your pecs of the stimulation they need to grow.

You can't do two things at once. Don't try to perform better at the expense of your muscle gains. This brings us to our last and most significant difference between the way bodybuilders and athletes should train.

3 - Mental focus

If you are training for muscle growth, then you need to focus on the target muscle. If you don't focus on the muscle you want to build, then the body will do what it's good at - which is to let those muscles "sleep" and fall back on the already over-developed muscles surrounding the muscles you actually want to train.

Performing an exercise without feeling the target muscle working will not only slow your progress, but can actually set you back by further exacerbating muscle imbalances.

If you're training a muscle that you don't feel working, then it's only natural for your body to work around that inefficient, sleepy muscle by altering the motor program to recruit more efficient, more work-ready muscles. The only way to make sure you get what you want out of an exercise is to use the powerful muscle between your ears. Make sure you feel the right muscles working as hard as possible from the first repetition to the last. Manipulate your form of exercise execution, change your repetition speed a little (usually by performing the exercise a little slower) or consider using a technique like isometric hold - especially in the contracted position - to make sure you feel the load of the exercise in the right place.

What do you choose?

Bodybuilders can benefit from training like an athlete and vice versa. But just as you need to focus your attention on learning a language if that's what you want to learn, you need to decide what your primary goal is before each set - and then train accordingly.

By Clay Hyght
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/feeling-the-muscle-vs-moving-the-weight