In addition to increasing strength, preventing injury and improving life and sport performance, building muscle is an essential part of controlling body fat. Muscle building exercises such as weight or resistance training speed up your metabolism so that you burn calories more efficiently. So, how do you build muscle the smart way?
Muscles are composed of different types of fibers that are recruited depending on the speed and intensity of the movement. Fast and heavy workout movements, such as jumps and heavy weights recruit ‘fast-twitch’ muscle fibers, which eat sugars. It’s equally important to recruit ‘average’ and ‘slow’ fibers to build endurance, improve circulation and increase muscle fiber size.
Varying your repetition range and adjusting the weight accordingly will stimulate every type of muscle growth. Vary your workouts to include movements that involve heavier weight and fewer repetitions as well as movements with lighter weight and higher repetitions. Also, try interval workouts to recruit ‘fast-twitch’ muscles. Interval workouts include exercises that don’t count the number of reps; you simply keep going until your time is up. For example, you might set 30 second intervals in which you are doing a series of exercises such as side lunges, mountain climbers, squat jumps, then slow down with more deliberate strength motions like push-ups, deadlifts or rows.
Muscle fibers run in several directions, so it’s important to work the muscles at different angles to get full muscle contractions. Don’t rely on the same ‘tried and true’ exercises that you revisit for every workout. For example, the following exercises focus on fully recruiting the pectoral muscles (as well as muscle groups in the arms and shoulders) by working the muscles at different angles: barbell bench presses, dumbbell presses with elbows in close to body, incline bench presses, and decline pushups. That being said, allow the body to practice motions for muscular and neurological mastery. Dan John, well known strength coach, says, “if it’s important, do it everyday”. This does not mean bench every day because recovery is important. It simply means if pushing motions are deemed important to your goals, do them often!
The number of sets and repetitions for each exercise will vary depending on your goals and the weight used. One general rule of thumb is to think about the total volume you can handle in a given session and then even a given week. Top level athletes might squat for 75 reps each week. That’s 3 days of 5 sets by 5 reps. That’s alot of squatting! Think about your goals, what needs to be prioritized (done often) then fill in the set/rep scheme accordingly. Often it’s not necessary to do many sets of an exercise if the same muscle groups are being used in another exercise.
We recommend doing multi-muscle movements towards the beginning of a workout and movements that focus on a single muscle later in the workout. You could do a few sets of a squat to press movement earlier in a workout and then do less demanding and more neurologically simple excercise later in the workout.
If you have questions about resistance training, contact one of the BW-PT trainers. We are happy to answer any questions and to help you deve
In addition to increasing strength, preventing injury and improving life and sport performance, building muscle is an essential part of controlling body fat. Muscle building exercises such as weight or resistance training speed up your metabolism so that you burn calories more efficiently. So, how do you build muscle the smart way?
Muscles are composed of different types of fibers that are recruited depending on the speed and intensity of the movement. Fast and heavy workout movements, such as jumps and heavy weights recruit ‘fast-twitch’ muscle fibers, which eat sugars. It’s equally important to recruit ‘average’ and ‘slow’ fibers to build endurance, improve circulation and increase muscle fiber size.
Varying your repetition range and adjusting the weight accordingly will stimulate every type of muscle growth. Vary your workouts to include movements that involve heavier weight and fewer repetitions as well as movements with lighter weight and higher repetitions. Also, try interval workouts to recruit ‘fast-twitch’ muscles. Interval workouts include exercises that don’t count the number of reps; you simply keep going until your time is up. For example, you might set 30 second intervals in which you are doing a series of exercises such as side lunges, mountain climbers, squat jumps, then slow down with more deliberate strength motions like push-ups, deadlifts or rows.
Muscle fibers run in several directions, so it’s important to work the muscles at different angles to get full muscle contractions. Don’t rely on the same ‘tried and true’ exercises that you revisit for every workout. For example, the following exercises focus on fully recruiting the pectoral muscles (as well as muscle groups in the arms and shoulders) by working the muscles at different angles: barbell bench presses, dumbbell presses with elbows in close to body, incline bench presses, and decline pushups. That being said, allow the body to practice motions for muscular and neurological mastery. Dan John, well known strength coach, says, “if it’s important, do it everyday”. This does not mean bench every day because recovery is important. It simply means if pushing motions are deemed important to your goals, do them often!
The number of sets and repetitions for each exercise will vary depending on your goals and the weight used. One general rule of thumb is to think about the total volume you can handle in a given session and then even a given week. Top level athletes might squat for 75 reps each week. That’s 3 days of 5 sets by 5 reps. That’s alot of squatting! Think about your goals, what needs to be prioritized (done often) then fill in the set/rep scheme accordingly. Often it’s not necessary to do many sets of an exercise if the same muscle groups are being used in another exercise.
We recommend doing multi-muscle movements towards the beginning of a workout and movements that focus on a single muscle later in the workout. You could do a few sets of a squat to press movement earlier in a workout and then do less demanding and more neurologically simple excercise later in the workout.
If you have questions about resistance training, contact one of the BW-PT trainers. We are happy to answer any questions and to help you develop your training program.
A recent study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning studied 450 men and women engaging in a fitness program, for an average of 3 times per week. Participants were divided into two groups. Both groups were given the exact same 3 month program to follow. The goal was to look for both body fat reduction and strength gain. However, group 1 (control group) as given no additional help other than the program, while Group 2 was given one personal training session per week and an email every day. Do you know which group saw better results? I bet you can guess.
