Get
someone to spot for you.
When you're using free weights, you need
to be able to work to failure - push the
weight until you simply can't anymore. Hint:
it's two or three reps later than you think
it is. Those final, sweetly agonizing moments
is when you're piling on muscle. Have your
spotter ready to grab the weight when you
cave in;
Keep
working. A punishing workout
that leaves you stiff and sore for a week,
followed by no exercise for five days
while you fret over the lack of growth
in your quadriceps. This is nobody's idea
of a good time. Keep working out, three
days a week.
Rest.
Work hard, play hard is an ideal maxim
for 20-year-old sales reps with undemanding
jobs and lots of cash. If you're serious
about your weight training, get eight
hours of sleep a night. It's when your
body recovers and your muscles repair
themselves.
Get
some variety. Dumbbells, Weight
machines, Super circuits, Swimming or
Cycling. When your body gets the message
that there's really no predicting the
challenges - measured, bearable and scientific
- that your assault it with, it'll have
no choice but to build muscle to cope.
And Brad Pitt will have sand kicked in
his face.
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Mens
Fitness
Give your muscles a
workout
Two
men in a gym: one flings weights upward while
emitting a noise like a gored bull.
Then
he drops the pile of iron with a bang that rattles
the gym's windows and measures on the Richter
scale. The other pushes weights quietly, with
a fiercely measured, almost mathematical fervour.
Whose workout is more effective?
Maybe
you just slipped into some bad habits or maybe
you were never shown the right techniques. Whatever
the case, here's a short list of hints to help
you build muscle. If the man in the gym throwing
his weights and his weight around applied these,
he'd look like the buffed Brad Pitt in Troy,
without needing to be an exhibitionist.
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Get
expert help.
Get a gym instructor or personal trainer
to watch you work out. You may find you're
exhaling and inhaling on the incorrect stroke.
Ask him or her to check your stance: At
best you're wasting your time with the wrong
stance. At worst you might be risking injury.
Slow
down. Robbing your muscles of the
advantage of impetus forces them to work.
Try doing each rep half as fast as you
normally do. You'll hear muscle fibres
screaming that you didn't even know existed.
Do
three sets each time. You may find
you can do 20 reps in the first set, 10
in the second and three in the third.
If so, you need to adjust your weight
load. But it's the third set that builds
muscle. The other two might only qualify
as a warm-up.
Complete
your cycle. Cutting corners, by not
keeping your arms tucked by your sides,
or by "flinging" a weight to
complete a movement, just gives a lie
to your workout. Rather do fewer reps
and do them properly.
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