Spring is here which means summer is right around the corner. While most clean up there yard, garage and closets in preparation, you should also clean up bad fitness habits. Before you know it, beach and pool parties will be here and everyone wants to feel comfortable walking around in a swim suit. Below are tips to “spring clean” some bad fitness habits.
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In my previous post, I talked about the importance of never sacrificing form to lift heavier and how to determine the proper resistance for movements. I also gave suggestions on how to determine how much weight you can lift at the start and the importance of not jumping right in to lifting heavy weights. Today’s post is to show you how to continue to train hard to build muscle.
How much intensity you will use when you train to build muscle will depend mostly on the resistance you are using. Resistance as well as the amount of weight you are lifting will have a deciding effect on your training. Using lower resistance or lighter weights will let you do more sets and reps which, in theory, boosts your calorie burning during your workout. We all know burning fat is never a bad thing. If you decide to lift heavier weights to train to build muscle, you need to be cautious not to go so heavy you hurt yourself but you do want to actually micro-damage the muscle. Micro-damage is necessary to improve the size and strength of muscle tissues and while it sounds bad, it’s not!
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Pull-ups are one of the best exercises you can do. They are also one of the most overlooked. Many people can’t do more than one or two so they figure why bother. You want to bother because they force you to have the capacity to manipulate your entire body weight on the vertical plane. By being strong at pull-ups, you posses a superior strength-to-weight which means you are strong. You don’t need a gym membership for either, you can simply buy a bar for the home. Below is a plan to help you increase pull-ups to get to 12 overhand grip pull-ups. Start wherever you need to after doing an assessment of your strength doing a underhand grip pull-up.
Fitness goals are like any other goal in life. Stop for a minute and think about how you got where you are today. I’m not talking about physically, I’m talking about what you do for a living. For example, your a software engineer. More than likely, you decided this is what you wanted to do for a living. You then looked into the best colleges, went to school, graduated and interviewed for a job with different companies. My point? You set up a plan and had a goal. It’s no different for your fitness, you need to set fitness goals, in writing and study your plan. Your fitness goals may not even be to lose weight. They could be to put on 10 pounds of muscle. Or run faster, hit a better backhand in tennis, jump higher to spike a volleyball, have the ball roll off your fingers properly to make more jump shots. Whatever fitness goals you have, here are some tips on achieving them.
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If you’ve been following my blog you know I am a big proponent of switching up your routines. Using drop sets for serious muscle growth is a great way to switch things up. These things are crucial to do for your body to constantly be challenged. Over the years I’ve experimented with what seems like literally hundreds of high intensity training methods. Everything from supersets, giant sets, continuous tension, negatives, partials, contraction, 8 sets of 8, 6 sets of countdowns from 12 to 2, 5 sets of 5, and 21’s come right off the top of my head. I do all this not just because it’s fun to mix my workout up but more importantly so I don’t plateau. Drop sets for serious muscle growth are not easy but they work and anyone can do them. Beginner or experienced body builder, these work for all types and will be intense for anyone no matter the level.
