Muscle Building Intensity Workout tips

Intensity Workout tips

(How to Build Muscle!)

Intensity is required to build muscle. 

Without any type of intense effort, you won't progress and break plateaus. As we train, we need to provide progressive overload in order to continue to create new muscle and to get stronger, but if there's no new stimulation regarding increasing weight and/or intensity, you won't progress.

Your body adapts to the conditions you place it over time, so, if you've been doing the same workouts, the same reps, the same weight, etc, you may not progress because there's nothing new involved in your workouts. That's when progressive overload comes in: You're trying to make your workouts harder. This can be done by: Amping up your intensity, more reps, higher volume/weights, and implementing intensity techniques. If you're stalling on building muscle or gaining strength, continue to read because you're about to understand how to build more muscle with these tips:

Intensity Workout Tips For Building Muscle

Drop sets:

Drop sets is when you reduce the weight after repping out heavier weights *Reduce the weight about ~25% of your heavy sets*- this stimulates the muscle to a greater degree. Because most people fail early due to heavyweights, reducing the weight can cause more damage to the muscle, resulting in more growth due to higher stimulation. Yes, heavyweights will build muscle, but sometimes we're involving other muscle groups to perform that rep, and when that happens, we're not "efficiently" training the particular muscle group you're trying to train for. So, as a result, you're not stimulating that muscle group to it's fullest. We like to use ego, but sometimes we need to drop it and reduce the weights and focus on mind to muscle connection, which is in my opinion, the best way to train for "muscle-growth".

Examples:

Lifting 60 LBS Dumbells for Biceps Curls. You're noticing you're failing early due to exhaustion, but yet you don't feel the bicep pump, just the tiredness from lifting the heavyweight. Well, when you reduce the weight by about 25%, so you'll lift about 40~ lb dumbells for reps. From this, you'll able to feel the contractions much greater, and you'll get a better pump and more growth due to more stimulation. Now, I'm not saying to neglect heavy weight training, it has its values, but I believe when it comes to breaking plateaus and trying to grow as much as possible, Mind to muscle connection is needed along with intense training. Heavyweight training combined with other intensity techniques mentioned within this blog post. Drop sets, pyramid sets, partials, etc. 

> It's great to incorporate this method after heavy lifting.

Super Sets:

Super Sets is when you perform two exercises back to back. This will help amp up the intensity within your workout, also it'll help burn a lot of calories for fat-loss if that's one thing you like to focus on during your workouts. Since many people become lazy during their workouts, supersets can be utilized to make your body stronger, and overall, you'll gain muscle throughout your body. However, the back to back exercises isn't meant for the same muscle group that you're training. For the second exercise, you can train any other body part except the first body part for the first exercise. Once you've done the second exercise, return to the first and continue on with the workout.

Examples:

Training Chest - Hits Failure>Trains Back til failure>Train chest again.

This gives you time to give the chest a break while you're training another body part. This is effective for training multiple muscle groups in one session and/or if you're limited on time. (or by increasing the workout intensity, to burn off more calories)

Pyramid:

Pyramid sets is when you increase weight over time or vice versa. For instance, for bicep training, you'll train with light weights, then work your way up to your heavyweight. 

Examples:

10 Lb > 20 lb > 35 lb > Max

Partials:

Lots of people claim that partials are not a good way to develop muscle. This can be true, if you're always training in a short range of motion, but if you're trying to stimulate certain muscle fibers and groups, partials can be effective. Since partials are a limited range of motion, it stimulates the muscle differently. It may target different muscle fibers, and or muscle areas. For instance, when doing lateral raises (partials) it hits my delts a bit better than full range of motion. It all depends on your body and how good of mobility you have. Some people cannot perform full range of motion, so partials are there regardless of how hard you try. Mobility and flexibility is needed to go about full range of motions. Not all exercises need a full range of motion. I like to go by the feel; how the muscle is working, whether if my muscle feels the stimulation. Partials are great to help break plateaus by lifting Heavier, it can help stimulate the muscle to a different degree and it'll help with your muscle-building results. 

Pause Reps:

When you perform a pause rep, it's somewhat like an Isometric Hold. Isometric hold can be considered a pause rep or vice versa. This can be done in the middle of a workout, or a workout itself. Don't get confused with isometric lifts and holds. Isometric lift - living a heavy object that cannot move. Isometric Hold; holding a static position for a short duration to cause more tension/damage and Pause reps; you're pausing for a couple of secs to increase damage, blood flow, and intensity. 

Heavy Weights (With Control):

You don't need heavy weights necessarily in order to build muscle. You just need progressive overload on the muscle to promote muscle growth. This can be done by the techniques listed here and/or by lifting HEAVY. Some people respond better to heavy lifting as opposed to using different intensity techniques. Heavy lifting will in fact build new muscle because it's causing damage to the muscle, however, you must have proper technique, form, concentration, and control with heavyweights. If you're swinging the weights around, not feeling the contractions nor stimulation, you won't grow nor see results. The body needs proper stimulation to cause damage, so make sure when lifting heavy, focus on control!

Isolation Workouts:

Isolation exercises are those used to tackle one specific muscle group or joint 'in isolation'. While in reality, no exercise will only use one muscle group, isolation exercises specifically target one area

Compound Workouts:

Opposing to specifically targeting one muscle group, compound lifts involve lots of muscle groups in order to perform that specific exercise. For example; barbell rows, bench press, deadlifts, etc all use major muscle groups and involving other smaller muscle groups. When you're utilizing more than one major and minor muscle groups, it's considered a compound lift. 

Isometric Holds:

*Isometric Exercises* Simply put, an isometric exercise is one that involves muscle engagement without movement. Instead, you pick one position and hold it. For example, in a plank or wall sit, the muscles are working, but not actively changing lengths.

Time Under Tension:

Tut, Time under tension is always great to focus on while working out. Lots of people do not stimulate their muscles properly, so if you prioritize tut, you can maximize your growth. You're wanting to essentially focus on the eccentric and concentric movements of the workout. Controlling the weights up and down. Try counting from 5 seconds when performing a rep, to the top and to the bottom. 5 seconds up, and 5 seconds down is considered tut. Also, isometric holds, lifts, partials, all-cause lots of time under tension on the muscle. 

Mind Muscle Connection:

This is more important than anything else in my opinion. Simply put, the mind-muscle connection is a conscious and deliberate muscle contraction. It's the ability to focus the tension you create during exercise on a specific muscle or region of muscles in the body, which is the difference between passively and actively moving the weight