How to build an effective routine: smart training don't gamble away your chance for more muscle. These strategies for creating a weight-training routi
Ahhh, Las Vegas. The roll of the dice, the turn of the card, the anxious thrill as you await the verdict ... and the emotional swoon as you watch the dealer sweep your wager away. But hey, what's another hundred dollars when it's disguised as a colorful plastic chip?
A trip to the Vegas Strip may not seem like it has a lot in common with your training. But if your workouts are disorganized mix-and-match sessions devoid of reasoning or fore-planning, you have a better chance of leaving the roulette table a millionaire than ever leaving the gym with the muscle you want.
Instead of relying on blind chance for your killer body, increase your odds of muscle-building success by using these hot tips to design an effective routine. If you put in the effort, you're virtually guaranteed success. And if you fail, at least we won't be sending Vinny out to break your kneecaps. At least the first time.
The human body has a natural desire to maintain the status quo, which is why you may find it hard to gain significant amounts of muscle. To overcome that break-even inclination, you have to fight hard--actually, you have to fight smart--for every new ounce of muscle. That means short but intense sessions in which you continually challenge yourself to do more without substantially increasing the time you spend training, according to Patrick Hagerman, M.S., C.S.C.S., N.S.C.A.-C.P.T., owner of Quest Personal Training in Oklahoma City.
"For a muscle to grow, the training stimulus must be progressively increased," Hagerman explains. "You have to work out harder and harder, which may mean more weight, reps or sets. Reaching near failure, or training to the point your exercise technique begins to waver, is the goal."
You also need to constantly change up the workout. If you've been doing the same exercises, sets and reps week in and week out, with more predictability than a Boston Red Sox late-summer dive, your muscles will stop responding. "Try pyramiding the weight on successive sets, up or down, straight sets, supersets, drop sets or any other method you can think of," Hagerman says. "Don't get into one set routine. The more often you change your program, the more your body must respond to and overcome a new stimulus, which equals growth."
by Michael Berg
A trip to the Vegas Strip may not seem like it has a lot in common with your training. But if your workouts are disorganized mix-and-match sessions devoid of reasoning or fore-planning, you have a better chance of leaving the roulette table a millionaire than ever leaving the gym with the muscle you want.
Instead of relying on blind chance for your killer body, increase your odds of muscle-building success by using these hot tips to design an effective routine. If you put in the effort, you're virtually guaranteed success. And if you fail, at least we won't be sending Vinny out to break your kneecaps. At least the first time.
The human body has a natural desire to maintain the status quo, which is why you may find it hard to gain significant amounts of muscle. To overcome that break-even inclination, you have to fight hard--actually, you have to fight smart--for every new ounce of muscle. That means short but intense sessions in which you continually challenge yourself to do more without substantially increasing the time you spend training, according to Patrick Hagerman, M.S., C.S.C.S., N.S.C.A.-C.P.T., owner of Quest Personal Training in Oklahoma City.
"For a muscle to grow, the training stimulus must be progressively increased," Hagerman explains. "You have to work out harder and harder, which may mean more weight, reps or sets. Reaching near failure, or training to the point your exercise technique begins to waver, is the goal."
You also need to constantly change up the workout. If you've been doing the same exercises, sets and reps week in and week out, with more predictability than a Boston Red Sox late-summer dive, your muscles will stop responding. "Try pyramiding the weight on successive sets, up or down, straight sets, supersets, drop sets or any other method you can think of," Hagerman says. "Don't get into one set routine. The more often you change your program, the more your body must respond to and overcome a new stimulus, which equals growth."
by Michael Berg
