What man doesn’t want to build muscle faster? Most men make these crucial mistakes in the gym all the time. Jack explains exactly how to maximise the benefits of muscle growth from every session.
Dial in
Actually show up to your sessions, mentally.
You need to train 3-5 hours a week to progress – this is about 2-3% of your week.
So, turn your notifications off on your phone and focus.
As I often say, training is a skill. To master a skill, we need focus. We need intent. We need to be dialled in on at the task at hand.
Setup in the gym for your body
We are all different. We all have different structures, different limb lengths. And this needs to be considered if we’re to maximise progress in the gym.
We need to use exercises that fit us, not the exercise that have worked well for the big guys in the magazines that don’t understand exercise mechanics.
So, study your body and incorporate exercises that fit your unique structure. Trust me you’ll save yourself a lot of time and effort by doing this.
Example: if you have long femurs and a short torso, barbell back squatting is going to be a very poor exercise in helping you to build your quads.
Stabilise
Once we’re using exercises that fit us, we need stability.
Stability governs contraction so it’s wise to be stable in times throughout your workouts.
Example: Let’s say you’re training chest. You may wish to start your workout with a machine pec dec fly as opposed to a dumbbell fly so you’re nice and stable and can contract the chest in the shortened range (peak contraction) so it’s nicely activated prior to loading. The shortened range is where we’re weakest so being stable when trying to work this range is wise.
You may then do a dumbbell chest press (relative degree of incline needs to be specific to your own sternum angle and what fibres you’re trying to bias).
Instead of then going into another free weight exercise such as a barbell press you could then do a machine chest press so you’re in a stable environment again so you can really finish off the chest once the stabilisation muscles are tired from the free weight exercise.
As you can see, not every exercise needs to be machine based and super stable. But leveraging off stability pre or post free weight loading is a wise to really help maximally stimulate a muscle group.
Here’s an Instagram reel I did on stability.
Initiate with the working muscle
I got this off the legend that is Ben Pakulski back in 2015.
He used the analogy that pushing a car from a dead stopped starting position is a lot harder than pushing it once it’s already moving.
Well, your body knows this and will do anything in its power to use the biggest muscle(s) to move a load.
When we’re trying to build muscle, this is opposite of what we want to do. We want to use the muscle(s) we’re trying to train and not all the other muscle groups around it.
Example: Let’s say we’re on a lying hamstring curl machine. On this we want to be using the hamstrings (obviously!). To do this we need hips locked down and hamstrings contracting only. Not glutes. Not calves. Hamstrings.
So, before you move in an exercise slightly contract the muscle you’re trying to train. Then begin the movement and don’t lose that contraction.
This will massively help with your ability to contract muscles, especially for those of you with less muscle. Less muscle = harder to connect because, well, you have less muscle. So be accurate!
Think about the anatomy of the muscle
A little more science’y here but it doesn’t need to be super fancy.
Let’s run this up…
Muscles have two ends – an origin and an insertion. To create movement the body creates tension to bring the insertion towards the origin. Now, to maximise force we must stabilise the origin and pull the insertion towards it.
Let’s take chest for example…
The chest originates on the sternum (red) and inserts on the humerus (blue). So, we need to stabilise the sternum and move the humerus towards it.
If both the origin and the insertion are moving, the ability to produce force is significantly less – not good for muscle building.
This I like to educate clients on for those that I train in person. Our Executive package includes one coaching session a month with myself. You can find our different packages here.
Lift under control
As I mentioned above, training’s a skill. Skill shouldn’t be rushed. It’s rhythmic. It’s fluid. It’s controlled. There is no rushing.
Control your reps. Slow things down on the negative portion (descent) of the rep so you can take advantage of being stronger here (we’re stronger on the negative).
If you struggle to contract a muscle group, you’ll likely need to slow things down to improve that.
Poor contraction = poor stimulation = poor growth
Example: If you were learning to write your name you wouldn’t do it fast, would you? Apply this thought in the gym too.
Embrace the pain!
Far too many guys lift a weight and as soon as they do think about doing the reps assigned so they can drop the weight again.
Those who train well lift a weight and embrace the pain of every rep, not rushing to completion.
Muscle building isn’t easy! You’re asking your body to adapt, to build a tissue it doesn’t, from an evolutionary perspective, want a lot of. So, it’s going to be hard. Embrace that!
Challenge the muscle maximally at every inch in the movement!
Work a muscle through its entire range of motion
You may hear people say, “you need to do full range of motion (ROM)”. And while I am big fan of full ROM training, it’s not essential on every exercise.
Example: Let’s say we’re training the hamstrings
To work the hamstrings in the shortened (contracted) range we can use a hamstring curl machine e.g., a standing hamstring curl
To then work the hamstring in the lengthen (stretched) range we can use a barbell stiff leg deadlift.
Doig this allows the hamstring through its entire range, using two different exercises.
So, do use full ROM on exercises like squat patterns, leg pressing, shoulder pressing, to name just a few, but don’t obsess about using full ROM on every single exercise. You can pair exercises together to get the job done.
Breathing – pay attention to it
Our breath is the gateway to our nervous system, which is imperative when training.
Short and shallow – stress (sympathetic nervous system)
Calm and deep – chill (parasympathetic nervous system)
If you’re not mindful of the way you breathe you can be sure it’s impacting your progress.
I like to advise clients to breathe through the nose for the most part in their training. I advise this because when we inhale, we want the air coming in to be slowed down and pressurised – breathing through the nose, unlike the mouth, does this. This means your heart rate is going to stay lower as the intensity of exercise increases. And this is what performance is all about, being able to expend less energy by doing more so you can train even harder.
Mouth breathing is acceptable when taking sets to failure!
Find a good training partner
A good training partner that trains with precision, focus and is invested in your training success is one of the most undervalued training assets out there.
They’re worth their weight in gold when you find the right one.
The only thing is, they’re difficult to find.
In your mission to find one establish goals, expectations and boundaries.
The best training partners will not bring their problems with them to the gym. Instead, they will help you be your best, and you will do the same for them.
Their goal should be to make you work as hard as possible on every rep of every set,not be scrolling on social media, answering their phone mid-session or talking to girls (not in the gym anyway!).
Hope the above helps! Get after it!
Komentarai