Saturday, February 2, 2008

Keep yourself on track – Time and moment

It has been nearly a week since my last blog. So here are some guidelines to those who desperately want to make progress all the time. I am going to outline two very basic and simple topics which could actually make you think in a better way towards your bodybuilding and personal fitness goals.

So here we go….

Watch your time between sets


You need to time yourself between sets and exercises. This never seems to be emphasized in any training articles or fancy magazines but it's very important if progress is your goal. If you train just for fun, then this blog is not for you. If progress in fitness levels and muscle growth is your goal then read on…

If you don't know exactly how much time you're taking between sets you don't really know if you're making progress from one workout to the next. In one workout you may be squatting 225 for 3 sets of 5. Maybe a few weeks later you're squatting 240 for 3 sets of 5. But if you took 90 seconds between sets when squatting 225 and then 3 minutes
between sets at 240 to make sure you got 5 reps, have you really made any progress? Have you triggered muscle growth?

Live in the Moment

I know, this sounds a little weird. But it can make a big difference in your results. The only thing you should be focusing on is the rep you are currently performing.

Nothing else matters. Don't worry about how many reps you need to do in that set, or how many sets or exercises you have left. Don't pace yourself to get through the workout. That one rep is all that matters.

Many sports trainers and experts suggest athletes to live in the current moment. Because thinking beyond the current moment diverts your concentration away from the moment you are living in. For example you are benching 200lbs. If you concentrate on the muscle contraction and stretch on the top and bottom of the movement, You will really feel the muscle working and you can be sure that you have induced growth in chest, but if you concentrate on doing 10 reps with 200 lbs, then you tend to concentrate on the count and cheat yourself unknowingly from the complete stretch and contraction of the movement. So you end up with inducing lesser growth impulse on your muscle.

So as I always say, “Quality is the name of the game, not quantity”.

Try these in your next workout and you will be amazed with the results that you are going to get.

2 comments:

  1. are you saying that the time between sets need to be maintained but the exact duration of rest does not matter ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. @ Sumanth

    The point here is that your body adapts to the stress and you would recover faster between sets as you progress...

    But some bodybuilders try to take more time between sets and lift weights ... this would be absolutely not useful..

    You train for 30 mins (just consider)
    This workout you do say 15 sets of exercise this week

    Next week you train with 5 lb increase in the weights used and you train only for 12 sets..

    Is this progression?

    So stick to a protocol and try to progress all the times bro..

    I keep the target as 1 min or 1.5 min between sets.. If i recover before that time i dont waste the time and hit another set.. So the workout which i have planned for 30 mins would end in 25 mins also/... but i always see to that i dont exceed the plan and always stay on track

    cheers

    ReplyDelete

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