Optimum Rep Speed For Maximum Gains

Welcome to one of the oldest issues in the world of bodybuilding: how fast should you lift for optimal muscle growth? There have been different answers to this question over the last two decades from various experts and scientists and that has made the matter even more complicated and confusing that it actually is. In this article we’ll try to shed some new light upon this debate and ultimately help you achieve better results by adequately adjusting your rep tempo.

Slow or Fast?

Rep tempo or lifting speed is basically the rate at which you perform reps in a given set. Some personal trainers will tell you that the best way to lift is explosively, thereby maximizing fiber recruitment and triggering greater growth, while others claim that lifting in a slow and controlled manner, especially on the eccentric portion of the movement, will create greater muscle tension and lead to greater hypertrophy. And then there are those who swear that frequently varying the speed is the key lifting technique for optimal gains.

So Which of These Opinions is the Closest to the Truth?

For starters, it’s a fact that a slow rep tempo will reduce the amount of weight you can handle and you’ll end up performing less work than you would with a high-velocity movement. But still, it’s also true that time under tension tends to be significantly greater at slower velocities and muscles get stimulated for a longer period of time. Therefore, manipulating the tempo will produce important differences in muscle adaptation, based on its effects on the correlation between volume and time under tension.

But most recently, a meta-analysis on the subject, involving data from eight controlled trials that compared the effects of different training tempos on muscle hypertrophy, showed that there are no significant differences in hypertrophy between lifting with a rep tempo of half a second and eight seconds, in terms of training to the point of muscular failure. It seems that the specific benefits of both slow (greater volume) and fast velocity (greater time under tension) training get evened out and in the end both tempos produce similar results.

However, there seems to be a threshold beyond which slowing down the lifting speed has negative influence on hypertrophy – when reps last for 10 seconds or longer, the amount of weight you can lift is dramatically reduced, resulting with an equally reduced muscle activation. And this inability to recruit the full spectrum of muscle fibers is ultimately detrimental to both strength and size gains, so it’s safe to say that super-slow lifting is not the best idea for maximizing your growth.

Concentric vs. Eccentric Tempo

The previously discussed findings inspected the effects of different total rep durations but left out the influence of varying the tempo on the concentric and eccentric portions of the lift. Unfortunately, only a small number of studies have tried to determine optimal concentric and eccentric tempos for muscle growth. One of them, that explored hypertrophic adaptations between different concentric and eccentric tempos under traditional training methods, split 28 women with previous training experience into two groups: one performed lower body exercises with two-second duration of the concentric portion and a six-second duration of the eccentric portion of the movement, while the second group trained on the reverse way – with a six-second duration of the concentric and two-second duration of the eccentric portion. That being said, the load and total time under tension were equal for both groups.

The results showed a similar hypertrophy of type I fibers between the groups after nine weeks of training, but the group who performed slower on the concentric part had greater increases in type II fiber than the group who performed slower on the eccentric part. However, these results cannot be made into definitive conclusions, given the many methodological flaws and practical limitations of the study.

Take Home Message

The limited number of studies and their lack of in-depth analysis of the issue make it almost impossible for us to draw objective conclusions about which lifting tempo promotes better muscle growth. In reality, lifters use a wide range of lifting speeds to stimulate optimal hypertrophy and the results vary greatly from one individual to the other. Still, there are a few things we can say for sure:

• Taking more than three seconds on the concentric portion of the movement reduces the effectiveness of the exercise in terms of muscle activation.
• Eccentric portions should be performed in a way that enables sufficient muscular tension, meaning that you shouldn’t let the forces of gravity do the work. Controlled doesn’t necessarily mean super slow.
• If you want to increase time under tension, it’s best to use slow tempo on the eccentrics and perform the concentrics explosively.
• If you want to keep on building muscle at a relatively steady rate, you could benefit from varying the rep tempo every 4-6 weeks in order to recruit different muscle fiber types.

Essentially, manipulating with rep tempo can definitively help you maximize the effectiveness of your workouts, but until science provides us with more definitive answers, you will need to find out what works best for you, based on the basic rules we’ve uncovered in this article, and keep pushing yourself beyond your limits. Good luck!

6 Best Calf Slimming Exercises To Do At Home

Naturally bulky calves can be both a blessing and a curse, depending on the point of view. Male bodybuilders usually have a trouble stimulating their calves to grow, while most of the ladies don’t really enjoy having large calves that barely fit in their favorite pair of skinny jeans. And let’s not even mention that wearing skirts or dresses that don’t cover your big calves is a sure way to stand out in a crowd. The terrifying thing is that an increasing number of women who are unsatisfied with the size of their calves are seriously considering calf reduction surgery to help them get the legs they want. Is this really necessary? Not really, because there are others, less invasive and painful methods to slim down your calves which we’re going to uncover in this article. 

In order to slim down your calves, you need to perform high reps with light weights. Here are the exercises:

#1. Sumo squats

Stand up with your feet wider than shoulder width apart, toes facing out. Lower yourself down until your thighs are parallel with the floor, keeping your back neutral, and drive yourself back up through your heels. Perform 20 reps to warm up your legs.

#2. Sumo squat calf raises

Isolate the calves by standing tiptoe and squatting down and up from the sumo squat position with feet wider than shoulder width apart. Squeeze your calves hard on your way up. Perform 20 reps.

#3. Running

Have you noticed that runners always have really slim legs? This is because endurance running is one of the best ways to get defined, slim calves. For best results, perform it for 30 minutes at a moderate pace, three times per week.

#4. Skater hops

Lower your body toward the floor, knees slightly bent, then jump off your left leg. Land on the right foot, lifting your left leg behind you, then jump from right to left, lifting the right leg behind you. Keep hopping like this until you complete 15 reps on each side.

#5. Calf raises

For this movement you’ll need a high platform or some stairs. Stand straight with your feet wide apart, toes pointing either straight (equal emphasis on all calve muscles), inwards (emphasis on the inner calves) or outwards (emphasis on the outer calves), and raise your heels off the floor as you exhale by contracting the calves. Hold the top position for a second, then lower back down. Perform 30 reps.

#6. Calf Stretches

Calf stretches will elongate the calf muscles and make them appear slimmer. Choose a wall and support your body weight into the wall with your arms. Put one foot forward and bend the knee at 90 degrees while keeping the other foot back and straight. Push the back leg down by pushing the heels into the ground. Keep the calves of the back leg stretched like this for 30 seconds, then switch legs.

5 Glute Exercises Better Than Squats

Let’s be honest – squats can be rather boring and unenjoyable. Or they can activate a long forgotten knee pain right when you least need it. So is there a better way to tone your glutes and get a firm, round butt? Of course there is. You don’t have to rely on squats to achieve a tight bottom and strong legs.

In this article we’ll show you the shorter route to a firm booty consisting of 5 great butt moves with far superior results than the plain old squat!

#1. Single-Leg Deadlift With Kettlebell

Take a 20-pound kettlebell in your left hand and stand on your left leg, keeping the other one slightly off the ground. Keeping your back straight and the left knee slightly bent, lean your upper body forward while extending your free leg behind you for better balance. Lower the kettlebell as close to the ground as possible, then return to the starting position and perform the movement with the kettlebell in your right hand and the left leg off the ground. Perform 3 sets of 15 reps on each leg.

#2. Curtsy lunges

Stand straight with your feet hip-width apart, hands on hips. Take a big step back with your left leg and cross it behind you, lowering the left knee toward the floor while keeping the right knee directly above your right ankle and the torso upright. Continue lowering your hips until your right thigh is almost parallel to the floor. Hold the position for 2 seconds then return to the starting position and perform it on the other side. Perform 3 sets of 15 reps on each side.

#3. Fire hydrants with leg extension

Begin on all fours with knees hip-width apart and your hands directly below your shoulders. Keeping the knee bent to a 90-degree angle, lift your left leg out to the left side, then extend it. Pause for 2 seconds before bending the knee again, then bring the leg back to the starting position and repeat. Perform 3 sets of 20 reps on each side.

#4. Barbell step-ups

For this movement, you’ll need to place a bench or a chair in front of you. Place your right foot in the center of the chair, while holding a barbell behind your head with both hands. Step up onto the bench and bring your left knee forward. Lower yourself back down and repeat with the other leg. Perform 3 sets of 20 reps on each leg.

#5. Bear plank leg lifts

Begin in a plank position with your body forming a straight line and your shoulders directly above your wrists. Bend both knees slightly and then bend your right knee at 90-degrees. Squeeze your glutes and lift your right leg, raising the heel up as high as possible. Hold the position for 2 seconds, then lower the leg down and repeat. Perform 3 sets of 15 reps on each side.

These five exercises are all you need to effectively target the glutes and boost your backside aesthetics. Forget about squats and perform these moves every day and we guarantee that you’ll be sporting a nicely toned tush in virtually no time!

Dramatically Boost Your Bench Press

The bench press is a core fundamental exercise for developing upper body strength and power, effectively targeting your pecs, anterior delts, triceps and lats. And improving upper body strength will greatly improve your overall athletic performance and growth, which is why many bodybuilders are obsessed with increasing their bench press.

In addition, since the chest is one of the most stubborn areas for many bodybuilders, the bench press has become the most popular way to make those pesky pecs grow, while reaping strength and size gains in every other muscle in the upper body as well.

Keeping in mind that the bench press is a relatively simple exercise, involving lying on a flat board and pushing a load away from your body, it should be very easy to achieve great progress in a short amount of time by performing it regularly. Unfortunately, as we’ve all experienced, this is not the case and most people hit bench press plateaus far too often. Getting optimal results with the bench press requires a bit more than lying on the bench and heaving the weight around.

Research findings over the last decade suggest inducing greater muscle cell activity by increasing the intensity of the exercise with the use of heavy weights in order to achieve greater growth. And most recent studies show that by increasing the velocity of the movement in a safe and controlled way (slowly lowering the bar then explosively pushing it upward), you can get exceptional gains in growth and power. In fact, one study found that explosive bench pressing leads to a 10% greater increase in strength compared to bench pressing at normal lifting speed. But that’s not all. Here are 3 more science-backed reasons why high-velocity bench pressing can help you achieve stellar results in no time!

#1. Increase Fast-Twitch Fiber Levels

Based on the relative rate at which they contract, muscle fibers can be slow-twitch or fast-twitch. Since fast-twitch fibers contract around four times faster than their counterparts, these fibers naturally have a greater capacity to produce force, which makes them crucial for enhancing muscle growth and strength gains.

Not so long ago, exercise scientists have opposed the idea that resistance exercise can cause muscle fibers to shift from slow to fast, but more recent studies show that certain training methods can actually stimulate such conversion. One study by Liu et al.  made one group of subjects perform regular-velocity bench presses while the other performed normal-velocity bench presses on the first day of the protocol and high-speed bench presses with 30% of their 1RM during the next workout. The results showed that the second group increased the fast-twitch fiber type by 15% while decreasing the slow-twitch fiber type by approximately the same amount.

#2. Explosive Chest Training Promotes Greater Muscle Activity

Many studies over the last years have found that explosive movements have the ability to improve muscle strength by stimulating post-activation potentiation(PAP), i.e. instantaneous increase is muscle force production generated from the muscle activation reached during a previous high-intensity lift.

One such study by Wilcox et al.  showed that explosive chest press movements lead to an instant improvement in bench press strength by activating PAP. In the study, a group of nine male subjects performed high-velocity push-ups before attempting their 1RM bench press, while the control group performed only regular-speed push-ups. The results were clear – the group that performed high-velocity push-ups substantially increased their 1RM and the control group showed no increase in strength and power.

#3. Blast Your Bench Press Past the Sticking Point

The sticking point refers to a drop in the speed of the bar caused by decreased force production and an unfavorable biomechanical position of the targeted muscle groups during the concentric part of the movement. This undesired phenomenon usually hinders your ability to complete the movement and negatively influences your performance, which is why most training programs implement training strategies to minimize ways to reduce its effects, and one of the most successful techniques is increasing the velocity of the movement.

A study by Sakamoto et al. showed that subjects who performed fast bench presses had greater muscle activity and a higher number of reps. These results point to the fact that higher velocity minimizes the negative influence of the sticking point, which is only one of the many ways explosive movement can improve your bench press performance.

4 Cable Exercises to Build Boulder Shoulders

You can have big pecs, slabs of meat on your back, huge legs and arms and a six-pack, but what really gives that powerful look that turns heads is a pair of king-sized boulder shoulders. Having big shoulders and a thin waist is the ultimate look of a V-shaped torso, a lot of men aspire to achieve.

We already assume you are doing the essential compounds exercises for shoulders, like the overhead barbell and dumbbell press and you might be using the famous Arnold press. And that’s fine, they are great exercises, but they place the biggest emphasis on the front (anterior) and middle (lateral) delts and don’t fully develop the shoulders from all sides, especially the rear (posterior) delts. That’s why, you need to add a few more exercises in your arsenal to fully stimulate the deltoid complex.

Cable exercises are a great choice because they can isolate and hit the muscles from different angles, isolate them and provide a greater time under tension.

Here are four cable exercises that can help you do just that:

1. Rear cable raise

This exercise targets the rear or posterior head of the deltoid muscle. The execution is the following: you position yourelf in a standing position by having the cable columns to your sides. Then, you take the left stirrup with your right hand and vice versa, the right stirrup with your left hand. Keep your spine in a neutral position and your back straight. Bend the knees slightly as you bend over at the hips. While pulling the cables, keep your elbows pointing outward and slightly bend your arms.

2. Lateral cable raise

This exercise is also called the low-pulley shoulder raise. It isolates and targets the lateral or middle head of the deltoid and also involves the forearms. The execution is the following: you position yourself by standing next to the right side of a low pulley row, use your left hand to execute the movement passing your body by you grabbing one handle that’s attached to the low pullet with your palm facing down (pronated grip).

While you rest the left hand in front of your body, your right can be placed on the machine for balance and support. Always keep your back straight and your feet at shoulder-width. Take a deep breath and start the movement with your left hand by pulling across your body until you reach shoulder height, then exhale. Keep the handle at that height for a few seconds to feel the muscle contract, then slowly lower the hand to the starting position and breathe in again.

3. Front cable raise

This exercise targets the front or anterior part of the deltoid muscle. The execution is the following: Attach a straight bar to a low pully, grab it with an overhand grip at shoulder-width. Stand with your back turned to the cable column, stand over the cable between your legs and hold the bar in front of your thighs. Lean forward slightly and bend your knees a bit. Then you start the movement by raising the bar in front of you until it reaches shoulder height. You hold it for a few seconds at the top to feel the muscles contract and you lower it to the starting position.

4. Upright cable row

You execute this exercise by holding a straight bar and start raising your upper arms only (elbows first) until your elbows reach your shoulders. You should keep your upper arms at 90 degrees to your body, while slightly bending your elbows as you raise your arms to the sides. You squeeze at the top and then start slowly lowering the bar.

A well-rounded shoulder workout should have one’s aesthetics as a primary goal, since it creates the illusion of a V-shaped body in combination with a narrow waist and a wide back. You can expect to see great results and optimize your shoulder training with these cable exercises in combination with a good diet and proper recovery.

Top 5 Fitness Mistakes Women Make

Attention to my ladies! If you are kicking your a$$ in the gym and feel like your nutrition is on point but you aren’t seeing any results.. this post is for you.

As a Personal Trainer & Nutrition Coach who specializes in women’s fitness & nutrition, I’ve helped countless ladies (and some guys too;)) achieve the body of their dreams. Many times, clients come to me thinking they are doing the “right” thing, but in reality they are making some big mistakes that are not helping them in their road to success!

Hopefully this post saves you from making some mistakes and gets you on the right track to achieving your dream bod!

Mistake #1: You’re Under eating

It truly makes me sad when I hear about women eating 1200 calories a day or less to reach their physique goals. Not only will you likely feel tired and lethargic on super low calories, but you are wreaking havoc on your metabolism. Super low calorie, extreme diets almost always backfire. The less food you eat, the more your body becomes accustomed to that amount. Once you reach maintenance on this low of calories, you have likely slowed your metabolism down to a point that will make it very hard to increase your calories to a maintenance level without weight gain. Also, without proper nutrition, your body is not as efficient at repairing and restoring your cells.

Please ladies, don’t be afraid to eat to fuel your workouts.. I suggest keeping your calories as high as you can while still being able to lose fat. Use a reliable online calorie calculator tool to figure out your needs.

Mistake #2: You still believe that resistance training will make you bulky

I can’t wait for the day that this myth truly dies for good! But, believe it or not I still hear about women who refuse to pick up a 10lb dumbbell because they fear they will look “manly”. Ladies, do yourself a favor and get in the weight room! Even if you were making a conscious effort to truly gain muscle mass (i.e. eating a TON, lifting super heavy with a low rep range, taking supplements etc), it would still be VERY hard for you to look “manly”. By incorporating a smart strength training plan into your routine, you will not only build some sexy lean muscle mass (i.e. get tighter and leaner), but you will also speed up your metabolism by doing so! #winwin

Mistake #3: You listen to your husband/boyfriend/guy friends too much.

Let me clear myself up here, I will say that there are lots of men out there who are incredibly knowledgeable about female training. But many times I see women taking *too much* of their male counterpart’s advice and they are frustrated because they don’t see any progress.

Of course, I am a BIG advocate of women incorporating resistance training, and I’m not saying that the style of training between men and women is completely different. BUT I am saying that if you are trying to shed fat and you are taking your husband’s advice of lifting SUPER heavy weight with a really low rep range, drinking a bunch of creatine and not seeing a change… you need to rethink your strategy.

Mistake #4: You think that there is only “one way” to achieve your goal.

Ok I can’t even lie because this is something that I have been guilty of in the past. Look, there is no “one way” to get to where you want to be. If you get stuck in the mentality that you should ONLY be running or ONLY be weight training. You close yourself off to other modalities that could be incredibly beneficial to you. If you love resistance training, keep an open mind about incorporating HIIT. (Hint: there are sooo many benefits of High Intensity Interval Training). If you love to run, start incorporating resistance training in your routine to add some sexy curves to your bod.

Bottom line: Keep an open mind and be open to other exercise modalities that will enhance your body (or take it to the next level!).

Mistake: #5 You only use the scale to track your progress.

The scale is a tool. Period. Know when to use it, know when you don’t need it.  If you are trying to cut fat the scale is a helpful tool that will give you ONE I repeat… ONE… data point. Other data points you NEED to be tracking include: progress pictures, body measurements, how you *feel* and how your clothes are fitting you.

I can’t even tell you how many times I see women get caught up with the number on the scale, and little do they know if they just cut through the emotion behind that (stupid) number, they would REALLY see their body transform. One of my clients was hesitant to take progress pictures before she began my program.. I told her she had to. At the end of the program, she was INCREDIBLY thankful because while the scale didn’t move a whole bunch (she didn’t have much fat to lose), her body COMPLETELY transformed (5% body fat GONE!). Please ladies, do yourself a favor and try to get out of the emotion behind that number!

What you can do:

In order to get yourself on track, you will want to take a good hard look at your fitness and nutrition plan. Be honest with yourself! Are you under eating? Scared to lift more than 3 lb? Obsessed with the scale? Look, there’s a lot of information out there about what to eat, how to train etc… if you find yourself lost, start by checking out some good online resources (like right here on Fitness & Power). Or you may consider working with a personal trainer & nutrition coach to get you on track!

Mixed Grip: When to Use on Deadlifts and Why

The deadlift has the reputation of being the king of lifts. And if you’ve had even the minimum experience with it, you already know why. Basically, the deadlift is the best feat of raw strength you could perform. Some of its most prominent positive effects include triggering immense muscle growth, especially in the posterior chain, and enabling an excellent carryover of strength into the rest of your lifting.

When it comes to the king, there are three main styles of grip to choose from – the hook grip, the double overhand grip and the mixed grip. As expected, each of these variations offer a different set of benefits and limitations, but none of them has caused as much controversy as the mixed grip. With the hope of clearing some of the confusion surrounding it, in this article we’ll dig in deeper into the importance and usefulness of this popular grip variation and provide some precise answers to your most troubling questions.

So what’s up with the mixed grip?

The mixed grip involves placing one hand over the bar and the other under the bar, which makes it very difficult for the bar to slip out of your grip and enables you to lift more weight. Unlike the double overhand grip, the mixed grip traps the bar in your hands so that you can resist gravity for longer. Most people prefer to place their dominant hand facing up but switch which hand faces up on each set to prevent developing muscular imbalances and injuries. And others believe the mixed grip is dangerous and should be avoided at all costs. Of course, this is completely false. The mixed grip is actually very safe as long as your deadlift form is solid. But if both your form and technique suck, everything you try to do in the gym will be more or less dangerous, regardless of your grip preferences. In addition, you don’t have to alternate which hand faces up on each set in order to avoid muscle imbalances if you’re using the mixed grip properly, i.e. only for your heaviest deadlift sets.

Here are three important things to remember:

#1. The mixed grip improves your grip for deadlifts

If you want to build strength and muscle, you must deadlift heavy. And regardless of how strong your back and legs are, if your grip lags, you won’t get too far. But since the bar can’t rotate in your hands when you use the mixed grip, your grip strength for deadlifts will increase significantly. This means that you can use this grip to deadlift heavier weights when your normal grip fails you. You can also get more reps because it allows you to hold the bar for longer.

#2. Deadlifting with the mixed grip isn’t cheating

Even though the mixed grip increases your grip for deadlifts, you’re still lifting the weight by yourself without using any outside tools. In this respect, it’s much different than using straps, which basically enable you to get away with a weak grip and can weaken it even further over time if used regularly.

#3. The mixed grip won’t weaken your grip for deadlifts

Like we said, it’s just you and the bar, no outside tools. No matter how you grip the bar, the same laws of physics apply to the movement – gravity pulls the bar down and your grip muscles work hard to keep your hands closed. As long as you use the mixed grip properly (on heavy sets), your grip strength will develop even further, so you don’t have a reason to avoid it. Don’t let a bad grip stall your deadlifting progress.

When should the mixed grip be used on deadlifts?

For starters, don’t use it from day one. When you’re new to deadlifting, it’s best to use the normal grip for as long as possible because the rotation of the bar will challenge your grip muscles more, thereby helping you increase your grip strength. Also, if you deadlift with the mixed grip from early on, you’ll have nothing to switch to when your grip fails at heavier weights.

Here are some basic rules for optimal deadlifting results with the mixed grip:

• Don’t use the mixed grip on every set. The best way to increase grip strength without performing additional exercises is by using the normal grip for most of your sets because it allows the bar to rotate. This challenges and thereby strengthens your grip.
• You can either warm up with the normal grip, then switch to the mixed grip on your last warm-up set and perform all your work sets with it, or warm up with the normal grip and use it as long as you can, and once you can’t hold the weight with the normal grip anymore, switch to the mixed grip.
• Switch to the mixed grip if the bar slips out of your hands mid-set. That way you’ll increase your grip and get those extra reps that you otherwise wouldn’t.
• Put your dominant hand up and the other one down, and don’t alternate the hands on every set. This will help you reach maximum efficiency in the shortest time possible.
• The perfect grip width should be about shoulder width apart.
• Place the bar low in your palms and wrap your thumbs around the bar. Squeeze the bar as hard as you can to secure your grip.
• Be prepared to feel uncomfortable at first. As with every other change, it will take some time and practice before you get used to it. Just stick with it until it becomes equally comfortable as the normal grip. Practicing with the same hand facing up on every set will speed up this process.
• If you experience shoulder pain when deadlifting with the mixed grip, stop using it for a while. While slight discomfort is normal, pain isn’t, especially if you have a pre-existing shoulder injury, so try switching which hand faces up and don’t overdo it.

Can the mixed grip cause muscle imbalances or biceps injuries?

One of the loudest complaints certain lifters have about the mixed grip has to do with the creation of muscle imbalances. More specifically, they believe that using the mixed grip with the same hand always facing up will lead to imbalances in the trapezius muscles

The truth is that the imbalances that could develop over time would be microscopic compared to the imbalances that could occur because of uneven foot or hip position and other mistakes caused by bad form. If you use the mixed grip correctly, i.e. only for your heavy deadlift sets and only once your normal grip can’t hold the weight anymore, you have no reason to worry about any muscle imbalances. Besides that, lifting the same way every time increases the amount of practice that side gets, which leads to better technique and increased effectiveness.

However, if you would rather practice the mixed grip by altering the hands on each set, you are free to do it that way. That will lower your chance of developing one side more than the other even further and help distribute the strain on the tendons evenly

As far as biceps injuries are concerned, deadlifting with a mixed grip can’t cause them on its own, while deadlifting with bad form and a mixed grip certainly can. But then again, bad form is guaranteed to result with injury, no matter which grip you use, so you don’t really have to worry about using the mixed grip. Instead, focus on correcting your form and technique. Biceps tendon tears are not the direct result of the mixed grip – they are caused by lifting with bad form, including bent elbows, rounded lower back and leaning at the top, regardless of the grip choice. Unfortunately, only a handful of people will admit they deadlifted with improper form, while the majority will blame the grip for their troubles.

Here are the 3 most important tips that will help you prevent biceps injury:

1. Deadlift with straight arms. Don’t bend your elbows – they must be locked from start to finish. The straight arms and locked elbows are the basics of proper deadlifting form.
2. Don’t try to pull the weight with your arms. Let your legs and back muscles do the biggest part of the work and use a full range of motion.
3. Avoid grinding as often as possible and don’t hitch your deadlifts – these tricks will ultimately keep you weak and they’re forbidden in powerlifting competitions. Also, if you rest the bar on your thighs, then bend your elbows and hitch the weight up, you could cause the biceps of the hand which is facing up to tear. If the bar pauses at any point, consider it a failed rep.

Mixed grip vs. hook grip – which one is better?

The hook grip (both hands face you) has gained popularity among deadlifters during the last decades because it supposedly lowers the risk of biceps injuries and muscle imbalances. But as we’ve discussed before, these two are the result of bad form and overusing the mixed grip on most deadlift sets instead of using it only on the heaviest ones. The second most common argument in favor of the hook grip is that Olympic Lifters use it, but as we all know, the mixed grip doesn’t work very well in their routines and the hook grip is the best option they have (the normal one is simply less secure), so that’s not a valid argument when it comes to comparing these two. Olympic lifters drop the weight on the floor, while deadlifters have to hold the weight in their hands for longer and lower it back down, which is far more challenging for their grip.

That being said, some lifters find the mixed grip uncomfortable or providing unnecessary torque to their backs, while the hook grip feels easier and more balanced. Some even feel that the hook grip enables them to better activate their lats. If you’ve tried both for prolonged periods of time and feel the same way, stick to the hook grip. After all, what is better for one person isn’t necessarily better for the others.

However, the hook grip can become a bit troublesome after a while or when dealing with very heavy weights. The main problem is that your thumbs are stuck between the bar and your fingers for the duration of the whole set, meaning that the bar compresses the joints, nerves and nails of your thumbs. When compared to the mixed grip, the hook grip places far greater stress on the thumbs and can be very painful. And pain isn’t something you should ignore. This however isn’t a cause for concern for Olympic Lifters because of the short duration of their sets. In addition, if you have small hands or short fingers, you may never get used to the hook grip. Many top level deadlifters who have big hands use the hook grip regularly, while others achieve the same great results using the mixed grip, which is undoubtedly safer and at least equally efficient. And it works from day one without any pain.

Final thoughts

Regardless of what others around you say or do, you need to discover what works best for you by yourself. This doesn’t mean that you should disregard all safety warnings because you’re too lazy to put in the effort – it just means that you should listen to your body and trim your routine as you see fit. But before you do that, make sure to do your homework and be prepared for the outcome of your choices. The purpose of this article was to provide you the basic information about the role of the mixed grip in the world of deadlifting and useful tips on how to safely implement it into your deadlifts, not convince you to use it by all means. As always, the choice is only yours. And the consequences, however good or bad, will be only yours as well. So stay safe, watch your form and keep lifting!

How to Stop Wrist Pain on Bench Press

If you’re experiencing wrist pain during the bench press, it’s time to address it. Don’t worry, this ailment is pretty common and probably happens to 8 out of 10 lifters. However, that doesn’t mean that it should be left untreated. There are plenty of tricks and exercises that you can use to get rid of the pain, but that won’t fix the real issue. When doing the bench press, a lot of stress can be put on the wrist joint, depending on how heavy the weight you’re using is, and if you’re not lifting with correct form, this could lead to permanent wrist damage.

The first rule in the book is this: if you can’t grip it, you can’t lift it. As simple as that. In other words, before you start lifting you have to make sure that your grip is strong and adequate to the mechanics of the lift you’re attempting to perform. And a proper bench press grip relies on good wrist stability and grip strength. But that’s not nearly enough to ensure correct form and a safe and efficient performance.

So let’s see what you can do to fix the real cause of your wrist pain, instead of only delaying it and making things worse.

Stop Benching with Bent Wrists

Wrist wraps and wrist curls can temporarily alleviate wrist pain but they won’t fix its cause. And the root of almost all bench press ailments is bad form, period. Now, if you’re a serious lifter, you already know that the safest way to bench press is with straight wrists. If you let them bend back, the weight will easily stretch them past their normal range of motion, resulting with pain.

In addition, bent wrists make it a whole lot harder to bench press, because the force you generate when you press the bar can’t go straight into it like it does when your elbows, wrists and the bar form a straight line. As with any other movement, proper form is what matters the most when it comes to both effectiveness and safety. If you damage your wrists, your lifting career will end before it even really began, so it’s very important to correct your form and technique as soon as possible and avoid injury. Most people get wrist pain because they grip the bar wrong, which causes their wrists to bend, no matter how hard they try to straighten them.

To fix it, grip the bar low in your hands (griping it too high causes your wrists to bend), close to your wrists, keeping them straight, and wrap your thumbs around the bar using the full grip. Squeeze the bar hard so it can’t move in your hands. The goal basically is to have your wrists and elbows aligned with the bar and your forearms vertical to the floor, so that the bar rests directly over your forearm bones. This should take care of any wrist problems and enable you to increase your bench press.

Check Your Grip Width

Another popular cause for wrist pain is using a grip that’s too wide. Some people use a grip too wide for their build, while others take it to the extreme. Sure, some powerlifters bench wide to decrease the range of motion, but they use wrist wraps and bench shirts.

Regardless of what feels most comfortable to you, a wide grip will move your elbows out and put your wrists at an angle which excessively stresses the joints, as well being too hard on your shoulders. And to avoid pain, you need your wrists to stay right above your elbows. So first of all, check your grip width. If your wrists aren’t above your elbows, narrow your grip until your forearms become vertical.

Forget about the thumbless grip

The thumbless grip, otherwise known as the suicide grip, requires holding the bar with the thumbs on the same side as the fingers. It’s been used by a few famous bodybuilders because it feels more comfortable and places less stress on the wrists, but those advantages are not nearly enough to make up for its huge flaws, such as the dramatically increased likelihood of the bar dropping on your head and killing you on the spot. With the thumbless grip, the bar automatically rests lower in your hands and your wrists are forced to stay straight, resulting with zero pain and an increased power transfer from the forearms to the bar.

Of course, the pros with decades of training experience under their belts can get away with it, but that doesn’t make it justifiable and awesome. And if you believe that this is highly unlikely to happen to you, remember that it only takes once. Maybe one day you’ll be extremely tired, won’t be paying enough attention or won’t squeeze the bar hard enough, and it will start rolling mid-set.

With the thumbless grip, you won’t be able to stop the bar from falling out of your hands because you won’t have your thumbs to help you, and you’ll end up either breaking a few ribs or die from a crushed skull. In such situations, even the best spotter in the world won’t be able to react fast enough to save you, and only a few lucky guys have managed to escape from under the bar in the last century. So just don’t bench press with a thumbless grip – it isn’t worth the trouble and can be substituted with other safer variants.

Try the bulldog grip

One of the easiest ways to grip the bar the right way is the bulldog grip.

Grip the bar with your thumbs and index fingers first, then rotate your hands in so that your thumbs point to the floor. If you do this correctly, the bar should rest right between the base of your thumbs and palms, positioned diagonally in your hands. Put your fingers on the bar and squeeze it hard. If the bar moves in the middle of the set, you need to squeeze it harder so that it doesn’t move up towards your fingers.

With the bulldog grip, your wrists will never bend and the power transfer from your chest, shoulders and triceps into your forearms and the bar will be higher. If you’re like most people, you’ll find it a bit uncomfortable or even unsafe at first, but this will change once you get used to it, so you need to stick with it for a while to get a chance to recognize its strengths. Ultimately, the bulldog grip will reduce the pain in your wrists and help you get more reps with heavier weight.

Wrist Wraps for Wrist Pain

Wrist wraps are pieces of cloth or leather that loop around your wrists and the bar with the purpose of making it easier to hold on to a heavy weight. Their main function is to support your wrists and prevent your wrist joints from moving around. As simple as they may appear, wrist wraps can be an extremely valuable tool for bodybuilders and powerlifters who are looking to make immense strength and size gains.If your wrists hurt when you bench press, wraps will provide significant relief and it’s highly recommendable to use them when lifting huge weights. However, wrist wraps can’t fix bad form, which is almost always the root cause for bodybuilding injuries. And no matter what you do to protect your wrists, if you don’t correct your form, pain and injury will be inevitable as you progress to lifting heavier weights.

In conclusion

The two things we most often hear from lifters who experience wrist pain is that their wrists are too small or too weak. So, these guys try to get rid of the pain with the help of wrist wraps and exercises that strengthen the wrists, but the pain never seems to really go away. Why is that so?

Because those two reasons are only excuses for not fixing their form. In reality, your wrists are very unlikely to hurt because of weakness or size. They hurt because you grip the bar wrong and your wrists are bent. And this mistake can both hurt you and prevent you from increasing your bench press in the long run. Or even worse, provided with the extra support from the wrist wraps, you could continue to bench press with bent wrists and end up reaping far worse injuries.Wrist wraps aren’t meant to help you get away with bad form, so save them for the huge weights and just straighten your wrists. As you increase the weight, your wrists will become stronger and able to support the weight itself on most sets.

The Training Secrets and Regimen of Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic is currently the number one tennis player in the world as ranked by the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) and is considered to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He is also thought by many to be the fittest in the sport, as well as the fittest athlete on the planet. So, how did he manage to achieve this level of greatness, even though only as recently as 2010 he was collapsing while playing due to, what many thought, was poor conditioning?

Novak Djokovic’s problems with gluten

In his book “Serve to Win: The 14-Day Gluten-Free Plan for Physical and Mental Excellence”, he reminisces about the many moments when his body simply gave up in the middle of the match. He and his trainers knew something was wrong, but they couldn’t quite put their finger on what the main cause was and wrongly attributed it to either allergies or asthma, or simply due to poor conditioning. After a while, they found out that he had dairy and gluten intolerances and that his nutrition regimen was the reason he was experiencing difficulties on the court. His diet was quickly re-adapted to his intolerance and the problems went away.

He was sure that his misdiagnosed condition had cost him some championships where he couldn’t compete in optimal condition, particularly the 2012 Australian Open in which he lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. He also considers this the lowest point in his career, but since then it has cemented his resolve to approach the fitness component of his training. This helped him achieve the levels of sportsmanship, once his nutrition was put in order.

He started training for 14 hours per day, which included practicing every morning and afternoon, lifting weights, running or riding a bike and lots of mobility work. The constant traveling did not impede much with his training regimen. One example is that he continued his practice even in Abu Dhabi, in its scorching heat and high humidity.

While his training regimen and diet advice may not make a lot of sense for a regular athlete, Novak offers some advice that might apply to the overall fitness population as well and can have a tremendous impact on your overall level of fitness, athletic ability and quality of life. The new training and diet principles that he started following have had a huge effect on his game and efforts to achieving top level status in world tennis.

What we’ll explain in this article is Novak’s advice on foam rolling, stretching, yoga, how his use of the “egg pod” helps him with his overall fitness and the minimum dose of effective workout one can complete in about 20 minutes or less.

Modern life has created sedentary lifestyles, however humans have evolved to endure great physical exertion, so it’s no wonder that you feel a lot happier after you’ve finished exercising. It’s the same rush of dopamine your ancestors felt. Let’s try and make it a lifestyle!

The Novak Djokovic Training Routine – Stretching and Achieving Real Flexibility

Before starting the match, Djokovic does a routine consisting of thorough body warm-up and stretching. He begins with either a light run or a bike ride until his body warms up sufficiently and then starts a dynamic stretch routine. The dynamic stretch is different from the static stretch in that in static stretching you are supposed to assume a fixed position and hold that position for a certain amount of time, whilst with a dynamic stretch you are trying to simulate a movement done in everyday life. The way he does that is by doing a 5-minute jog or riding a stationary bike, after which he proceeds with 10-15 reps of the following list of exercises, with no rest between them:

• Inverted hamstring
• Squat thrusts
• Jumping jacks
• Reverse lunge with backward reach
• Lunge with side bend
• Walking high knees
• Low side-to-side lunge
• Walking high kicks
• Inchworm

Foam Rolling

Being a top level athlete means you are surrounded by a team of people following you around, making sure that you are functioning at the optimal rate to deliver the best results possible. A part of the team is a masseuse with which he works daily and whose massages help him with his muscles recovering faster after a grueling match.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for the vast majority of athletes, let alone regular people. However, using a foam roller onto different muscles of your body can have a similar effect in regards to the loosening up of connective tissue around the muscles and lowering the stiffness, which in turn increases the overall mobility of your muscles and joints.

Here’s another list of exercises which he recommends. Do each exercise for 20 seconds and pause additional 10 seconds on any problematic areas you might encounter:

• Calf roll
• Glutes roll
• Lower-back roll
• Upper-back roll
• Hamstring roll
• IT band roll
• Quadriceps/hip flexors roll
• Shoulder blades roll

Yoga – entering the spiritual dimension

Djokovic is also a yoga practitioner and highly recommends it. You need not be an expert at it to reap the benefits. Just do some of the most basic poses to help you loosen up your body and relax. You can do that post-workout or before you do to sleep. We have chosen the following poses that will give you a good stretch in all parts of your body and make you much calmer and relaxed. You should hold each position for 30 seconds and gradually increase that to a minute. Take deep breaths while you are doing them:

• Downward dog
• Rabbit
• Cobra
• Cat

This list doesn’t include any strength movements or conditioning work. For those who have a tight schedule and want to add strength training in their workout routine, we’ve got you covered later in this article, but first a bit more exotic “tip”:

How to Build Bigger Chest Muscles

Growing a respectable chest isn’t easy work, especially if your only tool in the box is the bench press. Defeat flatness and increase your chest size with these training tips.

First of all, these two are the most common chest building mistakes that are probably hindering your progress without you even noticing it: too much isolation work and too little food.

Nope, you can’t stimulate decent chest growth by performing endless reps of isolation exercises. Chest muscles demand the challenge presented by compound movements in order to grow. In addition, you must make sure to eat plenty of high-protein foods, as well as great sources of carbs that will replenish your body’s depleted glycogen stores and support maximum muscle growth.

Now, here’s the right way to grow some pecs of steel:

• Eat! – Depending on the frequency of your workouts, aim for 4-6 calorie-dense meals per day, but make sure they’re made from top quality protein, carbs and fat sources.
• Train with compound exercises – If you want to trigger optimal release of muscle building hormones, heavy-weight compound movements like squats, deadlifts, bench presses and overhead presses must be a staple of your training routine.
• Perfect your form and technique – Even the best exercises are worth nothing if they’re performed with bad form and incomplete technique. Learn how it’s done the right way and keep your performance tight.
• Allow yourself enough rest – Since your muscles grown when they rest, you need plenty of that. Hit your chest twice per week. Overtraining will only leave you right where you’ve began.
• Lift fast – Try to lift as fast as you can on the way up while maintain good form. This will enhance the recruitment of more muscle fibers and enable you to use more weight. Lower the weight down in a controlled, but not slow manner.
• Be patient – Extraordinary results don’t happen overnight. They need to be earned with plenty of hard work over the course of a longer period of time. Make sure you have a decent training and eating program and sooner or later, results will follow.

That being said, here are the best 4 exercises of all time for massive chest development:

#1. Bench Press

All hail the king! This exercise engages more than one muscle group and allows you to use heavy weights.

#2. Weighted Dips

The weighted dip is a prime old-school exercise for building a thicker chest. As long as your shoulders are up to the task, this move will ensure your pecs are getting all the attention they need.

#3. Dumbbell Press

Dumbbell Press. Although you can’t use as much weight as you normally do with barbells, you can trigger a stronger growth response by stretching your pectoral muscles on eccentric part of the lift.

#4. Weighted Push-ups

The push-up effectively hits your whole upper body, but if you place your hands wider than your shoulders, your pecs will be greatly challenged to grow faster and bigger.

There are many ways to train your chest, but these three exercises are a part of any serious chest routine. It’s best to include them on every second or third gym session (as we’re sure you’ve already noticed, pecs don’t like to be overstimulated and they assist in most upper body movements) but make sure to use heavy weights for best results.

10 Deadlift Mistakes That Make You Look Like a Newbie

As we’ve all learned the hard way, there’s more to the deadlift than just pulling weight off the floor. This exercise is a must-have for building strength all over the body and growing huge muscles of steel, so learning how to do it right requires some effort

Unfortunately, most guys are guilty of poor technique and improper form when it comes to deadlifting, which puts them at great risk of injury. Since the deadlift involves such heavy weights, the chances of lower back pain and herniated discs skyrockets, compared to other exercises. And if your form is terrible, it will be impossible to increase your deadlift without reaping serious injury. If you too are guilty of sloppy deadlifting, don’t worry. Nobody was born with perfect form – that takes months of practice and mistakes are bound to happen. But if you remove these 10 deadlifting sins from your repertoire, you will be able to prevent injury and speed up your progress in the shortest time possible.

#1. Squatting Your Deadlifts

First of all, the point of deadlifting isn’t to unrack the weight, lower it and deadlift it back up. The proper way to deadlift is by starting each rep with the weight on the floor, then deadlifting this weight until your hips and knees are locked. So the first rule would be: always deadlift from the floor. Furthermore, if you deadlift with low hips like when squatting, your shins will come forward and the bar will hit them on its way up. So raise your hips and keep your legs back.

The proper hip position depends on the length of your limbs, but a good rule of thumb is to keep them where they would be if you setup with the bar over your mid-foot and shoulder blades over the bar.

#2. Bouncing Your Deadlifts

Bouncing your deadlifts on the floor is considered cheating because it lets you think you’re stronger than you really are. If you deadlift this way, the rebounding of the weight lifts the bar to your mid-shin, not you, and your reps are actually half-reps. And you’re leaving certain muscles out of the lift. And the point of training is not in getting more reps, it’s in building real strength and muscle. On top of that, bouncing increases the risk of lower back injury by making it harder to keep your lower back neutral.

Would you rather get injured instead of strong? Stop bouncing your deadlifts.

#3. Leaning Back At The Top

Leaning back can hyperextend your lower back and squeeze the discs, which can cause injuries like herniated discs. Don’t shrug or lean back at the top – it provides no benefits and it’s safer for your back.

All you need to do at the top is to stand tall and lock your hips and knees, shoulders above hips. Instead of hyperextending the back to lock out the weight, extend the hips and try to finish with your ears, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles forming a perfectly straight line. That’s it.

#4. Hitting Your Knees On The Way Down

Obviously, this is an unpleasant phenomenon. But the real problem with hitting your knees as you lower the bar is that this prevents you from moving it in a vertical line. The bar will land over your forefoot, which makes your next rep harder and more stressful for your lower back, because the proper setup includes pulling the bar from your mid-foot.

Therefore, avoid hitting your knees by first moving your hips back on the way down.  When the bar reaches your knees, bend them to bring the weight to the floor and the bar will land over your mid-foot, ready for the next rep.

#5. Not Touching The Floor

Touching the floor at the end of the rep gives your lower back rest between reps and allows you to set it neutral again before beginning your next rep. That way, you’re less likely to round your lower back and squeeze your spinal discs. If you avoid touching the floor in order to keep muscle tension, don’t bother. Keeping tension all throughout this movement isn’t necessary to build muscle. Instead of that, just increase the weight on the bar and you’ll get more tension. If you don’t lower the bar to touch the floor, the only result will be too much tension in your back.

#6. Beating Up Your Shins

When performing a deadlift, slight shin scraping is inevitable because you must drag the bar over your shins, which is a key part of proper technique.But there’s more to this than making sure to wear long pants or some kind of padding when deadlifting. If your shins bleed every time you deadlift, this should be taken as a clue that you’re doing it wrong – your form is bad and you’re either bouncing or squatting your deadlifts.

Your shins are not supposed to take that kind of beating. Fix your form instead of compensating with pants or tall socks and your shins will stop bleeding. Setup with your shoulder blades over the bar and the bar over your mid-foot, then pull the bar in a vertical line without hitting your shins. If you still get unwanted bruising and scabbing, get a good pair of shin guards.

#7. Checking Your Deadlift Form In The Mirror

This habit can will only bring you neck pain and ruin your form. When you look in the mirror while deadlifting, this causes you to look up, drop your hips and squeeze the spinal discs in your neck. And while we’re at it, looking in the mirror aside of you is even worse for the neck. In fact, regular training in front of a mirror can harm your performance on many levels, including balance and rate of force development. Forget about the mirror. If you want to check your form without risking neck pain, videotape yourself with the help of your phone. This will help you see your stance from every angle possible.

#8. Using A Belt With Bad Deadlift Form

The weightlifting belt actually doesn’t provide any magical lower back support and it certainly doesn’t make your back indestructible. Today more and more people use belts without having a good reason for it. And the problem is that in general, weightlifting belts tend to give people a false sense of security, encouraging them to lift more than they normally would, which is a very bad idea when your form is far from perfect. The belt can’t make up for bad form. Instead, it will dramatically increase your risk of injury because you’re lifting heavier.

In reality, you should only use a belt if you’re a competing weightlifter and you have to lift those 5 extra pounds no matter what. For the rest of us, belts can be beneficial only if we remain strict with our form. So instead of using a belt, focus on acquiring proper form and building strength that way.

#9. Deadlifting In Running Shoes

Running shoes are the worst shoes you can wear when deadlifting. The gel filling in them works great for running because it reduces the impact shock, but when it comes to lifting, these shoes will limit your strength and impair your technique. This is because the squishy soles behave differently on each rep, which makes it harder to lift properly, while the soles absorb the force generated against the floor instead of directing it towards moving the weight, resulting with a strength loss. Furthermore, they bring a higher risk of injury because the soles make you less stable. Good lifting shoes have hard, flat and thin soles, so that your feet are as close to the floor as possible and the bar has to travel less distance, which allows you to deadlift more weight. That’s why deadlifting barefoot works best. But since you can’t deadlift barefoot in most gyms or at competitions, invest in a pair of good lifting shoes or slippers with a hard, rubber sole. Adequate shoes will help you achieve better movement consistency on each rep, which will automatically improve your form.

#10. Deadlifting with Gloves

Don’t use gloves because they add a layer between the bar and your hands, making the bar thicker and harder to hold. So if you lose the gloves, you could squeeze a few reps more. Most people wear them to avoid calluses, but calluses are a natural byproduct of lifting and are one of those things you just have to get over and live with if you wish to see great results. Pretty much every step of the bodybuilding process includes making sacrifices and overcoming discomfort, so calluses are just a small part of that. You must have noticed that gripping the bar hurts when you’re new to lifting because you don’t have calluses yet.

However, if you always lift with gloves, you won’t grow calluses and lifting bare hands will be painful. Instead of looking ridiculous to serious lifters around the gym, suck it up and grow those calluses. To avoid them becoming too big and getting torn by the bar, shave them off every week with a pumice stone and grip the bar low in your hands and use chalk if your gym allows it.

8 Ways to Build New Muscle

If you’ve built a good amount of muscle mass so far and you’re satisfied with the results, then congratulations. You might have been using the same workout and nutrition habits for months or years on end to achieve the body you have right now. But that doesn’t mean that you can use them indefinitely. Eventually your progress will stall and you will reach the dreaded plateau. That means you will no longer be able to gain new muscle tissue by using the same strategy you’ve been using. That’s why you would have to incorporate a whole new strategy altogether to keep progressing. Those willing enough will find a way. What this article is meant to do is help you with a set of rules that will help you do this.

There is this thing called “muscle memory” you might have heard of, which basically means that the muscle tissue remembers it’s been trained before, so if you go through a cutting period in which your muscles might shrink or simply take a lengthy break from lifting due to numerous life circumstances, then it will regrow faster if you start training it again. It’s like it knows it had gained a certain level at one point, so it can easily find its way back to where it was.

However, when you reach that level where you once were, increasing muscle mass past that point becomes a bit challenging. In order to keep progressing, we need to understand how muscles function. Athletes will often try different types of challenging training programs with no regard as to how and why muscle grows.

We guarantee you’ll see unforgettable results once you understand how these 8 rules work and apply them into your workout regimen. Here they are:

1. Change the training variables

The human body is very efficient at adapting to new stimulus in whatever form, so no matter how long and effectively you’ve been using a certain training program, your body will quickly adapt to it and will soon stop growing. Even one of the most widely used techniques, negative reps, which is basically slow execution of the exercise in its eccentric part which causes a great deal of damage to muscle fibers, can become quite ineffective after only a few workout sessions.

When you keep giving the same kind of stimulus to your muscles over and over again in consecutive workouts, they adapt and progress inevitably stalls. They simply stop growing. A lot of inexperienced athletes think that cranking out a few more reps with a certain weight or simply adding slightly more weight than before will help them overcome this. Unfortunately, this is not an efficient approach once you enter the advanced stages of training.

Solution: There are numerous ways in which you can change two consecutive workouts. These include changing the rep ranges, increasing TUT(Time under tension), load used, rest intervals etc. You should always have an ultimate specific goal for each workout, but always keep them confused and guessing.

2. Allow your muscles to adapt

This next rule might come at odds with the first one, but it complements it perfectly. In order to induce muscle growth you need to present mechanical stress, but you must allow it to recover properly afterwards. It is the recovery process itself that builds the muscle.

If you push your training too intensely without proper rest times, you risk overtraining. No matter what kind of fitness athlete you are, incorporating recovery phases into various forms in your training regimen is a must. Otherwise, you rob yourself out of optimal muscle growth.

Solution: The frequency in which you train every body part should be no more than 2-3 times a week. Even three times is an exception, which pros do only. You shouldn’t train a specific body part for more than six weeks either. Your body needs to rest and adapt to body-part-training too. A general rule is to include at least one full rest day per week, two preferably. Every 12 weeks, take a whole week off.

3. If your nutrition ain’t broken, don’t fix it

Even though rest times heal your muscle the best, proper nutrition is the top factor in adding new muscle tissue. The food you eat basically represents the raw materials your body uses to make your muscles grow.

People always overcomplicate things when it comes to nutrition and keep wasting their time to find the new “best” diet that will give them the “best” results, often being lied by certain people with unrealistic weight gain or weight loss goals. It’s quite simple actually, eat ehough of the right food, at the right time. It shouldn’t and it’s not that complicated.

Solution: There have been many studies partially denying the benefits of using the “anabolic window” one hour after your workout, it still wouldn’t hurt to replenish your body’s needs with fast digesting whey protein and carbs. Plan your meals carefully and consume lots of quality nutrients. A general recommendation for muscle growth is 1.5 protein per pound of lean body weight daily.

4. Change your training routine every 6-8 weeks

As we said previously, muscles remember and will adapt to new stress pretty fast.You can follow the first rule, and change the little training variables quickly, but after 6-8 weeks the muscles will adapt. This is where the point of diminishing returns comes, but too many people keep on doing the same workouts thinking they’ll get better results.

This is the reason why you should make a big change in your training routine approximately every 6-8 weeks. The change will not be easy, but it will teach you new things and it is the best way.

Solution: Keep alternating between muscle-growth phases, strength-oriented phases, cutting phases, cross-training phases or start doing something new altogether. The point you need to take away from this is changing your routine every 6-8 weeks.

5. Train with free-weights  first

You should always start your workout with a free weight compound exercise which stimulate different muscle groups at the same time. Your aim should be not only to lift the weight by any means necessary, thus sacrificing form, but to stabilize it with your stabilizing muscles, other than the main muscles involved. Stabilizer are often tiny muscles that keep your joints healthy and strong and prevent damage to occur to ligaments and tendons. Training with machines, takes the stress off of the stabilizer muscles, leaving them weak and untrained.

 Solution: After you finish warming-up, start the workout with a free-weight exercise. It should be the centerpiece to your workout. Everything else is secondary and should be used as assistance to the main free-weight compound movement. This assistance work includes machine training which you can use to add volume and address a specific body part that is lagging behind.

6. Focus On Form Above All

Your muscles have friends called tendons and ligaments. You may only think about these guys when they’re complaining, but their importance goes beyond avoiding injury. Your tendons must be healthy if you want to apply proper stress to muscle tissue. You can build muscle with sloppy form, but your connective tissues will eventually cry uncle, interrupting your relentless quest—and painfully so.

Your goal is to create stress to muscle tissue that can be repaired in a day or two—not to cause so much damage that you get injured. When you perform free-weight moves with proper form, you’re strengthening, these crucial support structures rather than damaging them. That helps lead to greater muscle growth.

How to do it: Don’t assume your form is perfect. It probably isn’t. Plenty of people think their squat is just fine when…yeesh. Have someone take a look, and prepare yourself for criticism.

6. Form is of utmost importance

Your muscles are attached to these things called ligaments and tendons. You may have heard of them only in an injury-related conversation where someone has either tore or overstretched one. Their importance, however, is beyond avoiding injury. They need to be healthy if you intend to put proper stress to your muscle. You can still build muscle with a disastrous form, but the connective tissues will eventually “surrender”, putting a sudden stop to your quest for more muscle, and making you aware of their existence in a painful way.

The aim is to create stress to muscle you can recover from in a span of two days, not one where you injure yourself, making you unable to train in the long-term. When you are executing these exercises with a proper form, what you are basically doing is strengthening these tissues which act as support structures rather than inflicting damage, which in turn leads to increased muscle growth.

Solution: Don’t make the assumption of thinking you have nailed down your form. It is quite probable it isn’t. You can ask your training partners to take a video of you executing the exercise, so that you can honestly evaluate what your mistakes are.

7. The more muscle tissue you have, the harder you’ll add new one

Sadly, the muscles grow much more slowly than we would like them to. And there’s more bad news: Once you have added a considerable amount of muscle to your frame, it becomes even harder to add more.

For the strong-willed, that is exactly what makes training so extraordinary. There are no shortcuts to your ideal body, no legal ones at least. You need to put in the time and effort, so you can rip the rewards of your hard work.

Solution: This is a marathon, not a sprint. Patience is a virtue, as well as discipline. Keep grinding day in, day out. Challenge yourself. Change the training variables. If you get too cocky and try to rush things, that’s when you are most likely to injure yourself and set yourself back. It is not possible to train your entire life and not get injured, but you can avoid most of them by training in a smart way.

8. Bulding muscle is building health

Bodybulders often get criticism from other people that their pursuit is a superficial one. While trying to look good naked and feel good about your body isn’t a bad thing per se, we should not neglect the enormous health benefits bodybuilding provides.

Besides getting health benefits in the very act of training, having more muscle mass is making you healthier in itself. Having more muscle fires up your metabolic furnace, prevents your body in storing fat and also acts a protective shield you can rely on when being under extreme stress in the form of injury, illness or surgery. Also, life expectancy has been proven to be proportional to the overall amount of muscle mass you have, as well as having a greater ability to endure stressful live-altering circumstances.

Solution: Ignore the criticism. There will always be the ones trying to downplay your success simply because your success makes them feel inadequate and lazy. But that’s their problem, not yours. Maybe they will come to their senses one day, maybe not. And if they do, you’ll be there to take them on the same path.