subject: Weight Lifting Exercises & Tips, How To Train Less And Gain More Muscle [print this page] The more work you put into something, the better results you will achieve. This has always been a widely accepted truth that applies to most areas in life. The more time you spend fine-tuning your athletic skills, the better athlete you will become.
It's a good idea to spend more time at the gym, because isn't that how you'll become stronger? Contrary to what you might think, the answer to this question is a definite no! The convention wisdom about this area of bodybuilding goes out the window, down the street, and around the corner. I know you are wondering how cutting down your gym workout time can increase your muscle mass. Well, it's true, and I will explain you why. When examining the muscle-growth process from the very basic roots and it will become clear why this is why it is the way it is.
Every single process that occurs within the human body is centered around keeping you alive and healthy. We become uncomfortable when we are hungry or thirsty, we acquire a suntan when high amounts of UV rays are present, we build calluses to protect our skin, etc. So what happens when we break down muscle tissue in the gym? If you answered something to the effect of "the muscles get bigger and stronger", you are absolutely correct.
You can cause harm to your musculature if you push yourself against a resistance that is not within your muscles capacity at that time. The body recognizes this as potentially harmful and as a natural adaptive response the muscles will increase in size to protect the body against this threat. Increasing your workload every week will help your body adjust and grow.
Does that seem easy?Of course, it is. But, while this is ultimately the case, the key is to realize that muscles only grow bigger and/or stronger when given enough time to recover. Muscle growth requires the necessary amount of recovery time.
Training with the minimum amount of volume needed to get a good response should be your goal. Once you have pushed your muscles beyond their present capacity and have triggered your thousand-year-old evolutionary alarm system, you have done your job. In order to keep the time your body needs to heal to a minimum, avoid putting unnecessary stress on it.
Far more sets and training way too hard is often a problem. Most people don't understand that a high intensity weight lifting program produces high stress levels on the body. Workout programs are often structured in a way that hinders the gains and prevents progress that is deserved.
Here are 3 basic guidelines that you should follow if you want to achieve maximum gains: 1) Train no more than 3 days per week. 2) Do not let your workouts last for longer then 1 hour. 3) Perform 5-7 sets for large muscle groups (chest, back, thighs) and 2-4 sets for smaller muscle groups (shoulders, biceps, triceps, calves, abs).
Focus concentric muscular failure and increase weight or reps each week. If you consistently train more than you need it will be counterproductive to your gains. Have this in mind and visit my site if you want more info.
