Posted by Dan on November 02nd 2006 to
Training

Every person trying to improve their body has different goals. Some people are trying to
lose weight while others are trying to
gain muscle and weight. Today we want to talk to those of us that are trying to build more muscle mass and also gain more weight.
Any training program has two main characteristics: how you train and what you eat. Today we’re going to lightly touch on the training side of things. The thing to keep in mind when you’re trying to build muscle is that you have to push your muscles to a state of overload, or they won’t grow. One thing that many people do is they’ll plan on going to the gym and just doing a set number of reps based on the plan that they set before they get to the gym. While having a plan is necessary, having the right plan is even more important! The fact is, unless you are pushing your muscles and really working hard in the gym, it isn’t very likely that you’re going to see the results that you are after. Make every minute, every set, and every rep count. Really push yourself to have the right intensity. In his book “The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding” Arnold Schwarzenegger recommends that you should never just do a predetermined number of reps for each set. Instead, set the rep number as a goal that you’ll hit right at failure. Failure is not necessarily total exhaustion of the muscle, but is the point where you can’t do any more reps for that set without some rest.
Pushing your muscles in this way will help them to grow. Think about it, if you are pushing with all your might after doing 8 reps, your body is now recruiting more muscle fibers to try and lift the same weight that on the first rep it was only using the minimum to lift the weight. While this statement may not be completely physiologically correct, hopefully you get the idea of what the implications are. You grow by pushing yourself, not by just going through the motions of another workout. If you ever look at pictures of guys like Arnold when they were working out, they aren’t smiling, they are pushing through a lot of effort to get that weight up one more time! That’s why you need to consider yourself as doing “weight training,” not just “working out.”
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