Your exercise regimen has remained unchanged for months, if not years. This isn't necessarily a negative thing, but if you've hit multiple plateaus in your efforts to grow muscle and strength and are unable to break any of them, it's likely that you need to make some changes.
And now is as good a time as any to review the specifics of your exercise regimen and see what can be modified or improved in order to help you advance.
There is no other way to keep gaining strength and muscle. We give you 17 tips in this article to assist you in doing just that.
Make sure you are knowledgeable first. In our Ultimate Muscle Building Guide, you'll learn everything you need to know about building muscle. If you are certain that you are fully informed, move on to the following additional guidelines:
Lift a lot, but not too frequently.
Regularly lifting weights might not seem difficult at first, and some volume building up over time would not be a bad thing.
The majority of lifters, however, appear to forget that heavy lifting and strength training are more stressful on the central nervous system than they are on the muscles.
Soon enough, neurotransmitters will start to severely slow down and you'll start hitting plateaus.
Consider adding a week of training with higher repetitions and alternating it with a week of strength training if you have been strength training for several months and have been lifting heavy the entire time.
This will provide the central nervous system time to rest and regenerate while keeping you alert and focused. There is no justification for participating in powerlifting if you are not a professional competitor.
The three- or five-rep max is more significant than the one-rep max.
When you train for strength, you don't have to aim for a new personal best in one rep every time. If we are being completely honest, a one rep maximum attempt is always going to be performed incorrectly, even if you give it your all.
In comparison to trying to lift one or two singles or doubles during the training session, your three or five rep max performed with proper form is a much better indicator of your overall strength, has much more reference points carry over to your other lifts, is much safer, and will allow you to lift much heavier loads using more reps.
You can still engage in strength training even if you don't lift below 95% of your one-rep maximum.
Accentuate your upper back.
The stability of the rotator cuff determines the stability of the shoulder capsule. At the scapulae, the four muscles begin to develop. Building up large upper back muscles and strengthening it with a variety of rowing exercises, pull-ups, band exercises, reverse flys, etc. will help strengthen the shoulders and have a beneficial impact on pressing power and stability.
Bench and overhead press performance will almost always increase when a particular time slot is set up for this type of training.
Get enough sleep.
Cardiovascular training is not what we're doing here. That's all there is to it. There should always be a three-minute rest period in between each hard lifting set. If it's less, you're not exercising properly.
You shouldn't shorten your rest periods just because your heart isn't pounding quickly and you can still breathe regularly. This is not about your muscles or your heart or lungs taking a vacation. It involves giving the nervous system a break. Always treat it with the respect it merits, and you will reap the benefits greatly.
(Shift the gym, if necessary!)
It is a known fact that if the gym is full of underachievers and you have no one to compete with, it is very difficult to stay motivated and keep pushing yourself.
Although it may not seem like it at first, the environment in which you workout has a significant role in your efforts to grow muscle and strength.
A gym where you are not the biggest and strongest person, especially one where you are not even in the top 10, is the best setting for training. Once you are no longer the biggest fish in the pond, you will maintain your motivation and have the desire to defeat them, just like any athlete who enters a tournament with far superior competitors. You might even pick up a few new skills and tips.
Get in touch with your body and develop your intuitive training skills.
It's seldom a good idea to switch training programs frequently, but if things start to get boring, you should think about trying something new. This could be a game-changer.
You'll undoubtedly have days when you don't feel like training or capable of handling the task at hand. You might experience some joint pain, some muscular soreness, a general lack of enthusiasm, or just not enough energy to workout in the best possible physical and mental condition.
Hey, it happens to the world's best athletes, so it will undoubtedly happen to you as well. You aren't proving anything to anyone by trying to ignore your own physiology just because someone advised you never to skip leg day.
If you intend to stick with it, keep moving slowly and steadily and avoid appearing overly committed to others. Be extra cautious and move more slowly.
Put pulling before pushing.
Pushing sessions will be considerably more productive if your pulling exercises or workout sessions are scheduled before your pushing exercises or sessions. The reasoning behind this is that limiting the range of motion and flexibility of the muscles around the scapulae will really be a positive thing due to the discomfort in your muscles caused by the pulling.
As a result, your upper back will become tighter, adding stability to the shoulder capsule and providing a foundation for a stronger and pain-free pushing. Nearly all of those who have acted on this advise have seen an improvement in their pressing performance.
Each day, center your exercise on one significant lift.
You are undoubtedly squandering your time and setting yourself up for long-term disappointment if you attempt to perform three sets of deadlifts, three sets of overhead presses, and five sets of bench press with weighted chin-ups all in the same workout session.
The central nervous system will not have enough time to switch its focus and continue producing maximum neural adaptations and firing for all exercises combined if you alternate between very demanding movements frequently during a single workout session. This is because it is against the laws of science.
The best way to train is to focus on one compound movement, perform it in rep ranges appropriate for strength training, and then add two or three lighter assistance exercises. This involves planning each workout session around that one movement.
This is not to say that you shouldn't perform other exercises; you just need to watch out that they don't deplete your body to the point where you can't perform your next workout.
Use assistance exercises to strengthen your weaknesses.
In keeping with the previous idea, the purpose of assistance exercises is to help you accomplish the large complex motions better, as the name suggests. The fact that people ever train them in the first place is largely due to this.
Attempting to go heavy on an assistance exercise is pointless, if not downright dangerous. Examples include performing 100 lb cable triceps pushdowns or ramping up to your 3 rep maximum on a stiff-legged deadlift. It merely undermines their intent.
When performing assistance exercises, you should aim for a higher number of reps, a full range of motion, and optimal pace.
This will have a greater effect on your total strength improvement in relation to performing the heavy barbell compound motions.
Stop using motions that are inappropriate for your unique body dimensions.
This point is particularly crucial. Simply said, this indicates that not everyone is suited to perform the same exercises.
In contrast to performing a trap bar deadlift, where the torso can be maintained in a more vertical position that is much more suitable, someone with long legs and a short torso, poor hip mobility, and an irregular lumbopelvic rhythm is very likely to never set himself or herself into a proper deadlift starting position.
Utilizing a specific variation of a significant compound exercise, such as a front squat as opposed to a back squat, a football bar as opposed to a barbell, a trap bar as opposed to a straight bar, deadlifting from a platform as opposed to pulling from the floor, or performing pin presses as opposed to bench presses, can prove to be a real game changer and keep you moving forward.
If you are willing to set aside your ego and be humble enough to confess to yourself that you aren't physically capable of performing a given lift. You may still benefit fully from the exercise's default variation even if you made a particular modification to it.
Take breaks.
Because you will have removed the elastic component inherent to most exercises as well as the stretch reflex at the base of many motions if you destroy the acceleration and force transfer in most huge compound lifts, your muscles will have a far greater resistance to work against.
When you attempt to lift the load without the benefit of any pre-existing momentum, you will be able to tell the difference right away. Although you might need to reduce the weight by 10% to 15% from what you would normally do, the strength improvements will be worth it.
Increase your quirky behavior
A great way to master the exercise and make a much lighter weight painfully tough is to slow down the execution rate and add more time under stress during the negative section of the action.
Your strongest muscle fibers, type II/b, are the ones that are most stimulated during the eccentric (negative) portion of the exercise. This is one of the reasons why everyone can lift more weight than they can while they are lowering it.
By lengthening the eccentric portion of the exercise's TUT (time under tension), you can benefit from this phenomenon. You should be more concerned with the impact it will have on developing muscle and neuromuscular responses than you should be about the weight being used. You will certainly gain greatly from this kind of instruction, we promise.
Employ a personal trainer.
It should not be a surprise that employing a qualified personal trainer to oversee your exercise programming, watch and correct your execution form, and provide tips and encouragement as necessary can truly alter the game in terms of your success in the gym.
As he gradually gains an understanding of your body's capacity for physical and mental exertion and the limits to which it can go, a competent coach is also a keen observer and will know just when to slow things down.
The time of day you train should be changed.
Working out at any certain hour of the day has benefits and drawbacks. Working exercise after work or in the evening might leave you feeling drained and exhausted, while working out in the morning can put your spine and central nervous system at serious risk because they are not performing at their best.
In both of these situations, a modification may be made, and it might be something the body would truly appreciate, especially if you've been working out at that time of day for a while. It can feel very different to do a two rep maximum deadlift in the morning than in the afternoon.
Always warm up thoroughly before exercising.
In order to "grease the groove" of a large compound movement, you should always begin your warm-up with the empty bar in your hands, regardless of your degree of physical readiness or how powerful you feel on any given day.
Simply put, the goal of the warm-up session is to better prepare you for the next greater loads. It also involves starting again at each workout to allow the body to swiftly re-learn the movement pattern. For those who are already lifting big loads in relation to their bodyweight, this is especially true.
If you want to avoid injuries, you must warm up much more thoroughly before beginning the day's workout sets. One of the harsh realities of beating a significant personal record is that. Resist the impulse to skip this crucial training phase and get the body properly warmed up.
Find a reliable training companion.
Unfortunately, you are missing out on a lot of advantages of having a training partner if you have been exercising alone thus far. Even more important than any of the aforementioned tips is the decision of who to train with.
A excellent training partner should be able to recognize you, have training knowledge, be able to train effectively, and have a positive impact on training.
If you've had the good fortune to train alongside a person with more experience than you, you're probably headed in the correct way. It is very simple to become sidetracked by many things that could hinder your development, so finding a training partner who is more committed to their workout than you are is a great idea.
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