The Eight Basic Principles Of Weight Training Part 2

3. GRADUALNESS…..
The demand placed on your muscles must progress gradually in both volume and intensity, (GPO) Gradual Progressive Overload. Your physical ability and level of fitness will determine your rate of increase. You have to understand that there is a law of nature that will allow you to realize your improvement in a short period of time. The only way to achieve long lasting results is to adhere to gradualness. I can not emphasize this enough. If you reach a plateau in your weight training, do NOT be alarmed. It may be an indication that you need to vary one or more of the principles.

4. PROGRESSIVENESS….
This principle is closely related to gradualness and overload when stimulating muscle to adapt to greater workloads. Over a period of time, there must be an increase in the amount of weight used. This weight increase will be greater when beginning weight training and become less when muscles become more developed.

Stay tuned in for Part three…….

TRAINING MY FAVORITE BODY PART

 

My favorite body part to train is my quads. I come from an Olympic Weightlifting background which means the main focus is training the lower body. I trained very heavy with 5, 2 and 1 rep max. It was all about power, strength, speed and lifting as much weight as possible.

 

 As a Natural Bodybuilder, it’s about size, esthetics, definition and symmetry. I get      asked all the time how much I squat or bench press and my response is always the same…I am not here to lift weights, I am here to build muscles. My training philosophy is muscles first, weights second. When I’m performing any exercise I resist against the load as much as I can on the eccentric part of the movement and control on the concentric part. I count 3 seconds on the way up and 4 seconds on the way down.

People tend to load too much weight on the bar or leg press machine with very little range of motion moving the load without any resistance. That is why they find their    legs are not growing and have knee and back injuries.

 

 I don’t have a training routine because every week I train different exercises,  variations, intensity and load. Along with my quad training, I train my gluts.

 

   Here is an example of a quad day for me:

 

          Squats    12×4 sets

          Leg Extension    15×4 sets

          Sissy squats    15×4 sets

          High step-up with load    15×4 sets

 

It’s all about training smart and focusing on your goals. As a bodybuilder, you need to connect the load you are training with to the muscle. It is about action and reaction. Lastly, vary your training. Do not do the same training all the time. Bodybuilding is a sport of evolution….change brings change.

 

OVERTRAINING

There are two types of overtraining general and local. General overtraining affects the whole body producing stagnation and decrease physical performance. When Local overtraining occurs only one specific body part or muscle group is affected. Local overtraining can be experience by most individuals in-volved in weight training and is recognizable by soreness and stiffness after performing a particular exercise.

When overtraining is not acknowledged and allowed to become serious, it can take weeks or even months for your body to recover. Overtraining must not be confused with exhaustion. Exhaustion is a reaction to the short-term imbalance between stress and how your body adapts to it. Overtraining is the result of a prolonged imbalance and is a long, slow process with many obvious characteristics. The key is recognizing the warning signs and taking steps to alleviate the problem before it gets worse.

The following characteristics can be used to identify an approaching “overstrained” condition:
1. A noticeable decrease in strength or overall performance level.

2. Overall fatigue. You don’t recover from previous workout as well as you did before. You
become susceptible to headaches, cold and fever blisters.

3. General muscle soreness. You begin to experience a slow general increase in muscle
soreness and stiffness after a hard workout.

4. You begin to sleep longer than normal and still feel tired.

5. You begin to realize a drop in body weight. This is an easy sign to spot, especially when no
effort is being made to lose weight.

6. Your resting heart rate is higher than normal. To check your resting heart rate take your
pulse everyday under the same condition. If your resting heart rate is 10 beats higher than
normal, your metabolism has not yet recovered from your previous workout. Keep in mind
that it normally takes 90 minutes to 2 hours for your pulse to return to normal, even after a
short workout.

7. The recovery time between sets and workouts is longer than normal.

8. Your body temperature is higher than normal. You begin to feel feverish. This is an
important sign that you might be reaching the point of heat exhaustion or heat stroke

9. You begin to lose your appetite. This could be one of the reasons for decrease in body
weight.

10. Your coordination becomes impaired. You have a difficult time performing exercises with
the same pace and coordination you had in previous workouts.

11. You become psychologically and emotionally drained. This includes increase nervousness,
depression, inability to relax and poor motivation.

The general cause of overtraining is weight training too hard, too soon. In other words,
exceeding your body’s ability to adapt to the new workload being imposed. Your body has a
limited capacity to adapt and when it is over-stressed you begin to experience the symptoms of
overtraining. Your body is trying to tell you to slow down and let it recover.

The Eight Principles Of Weight Training Part Three

Continuing the eight principles of weight training part three.

REPETITION–Executing repetitions with light to moderate weight is the only way to effectively learn how to properly perform an exercise and provoke certain physiological changes to take place in your body. When learning how to correctly perform an exercise, executing repetitions will allow you to develop the proper technique. When performing a specific exercise you have to connect the movement with the muscle you are training and not just go through the motion.
If you start out using weights, you will discover it’s impossible to learn correct form and technique. When your technique is faulty, you will not be training the muscle properly and this can lead to possible injury.

CONSISTENCY –If you are to realize any change in your weight and measurements, you must commit yourself to a regular weight training schedule depending on your specific goals. Your body will respond to change only when exercises are repeated on a regular basis. This is where you come face to face with your commitment to improve your health and fitness goals. If you want results, you have to be committed to your training and nutrition programs.

The Eight Basic Principles Of Weight Training

This is a four part blog I will be talking about two of the principles in this
part.

1. OVERLOAD--This principle is defined as working your muscle harder than they
have been accustomed to. To promote increase muscle growth and strength, you go
about and beyond what your body has grown accustomed to. Without overload it
will be impossible to realize any gain.

The four methods used to overload muscles are:

1. Increase the resistance.
2.Increase the number of reps.
3.Increase the rate of work.
4.Increase the amount of work in the same time period.

Each method is different depending on goals, in general increasing the
resistance will promote increased muscle mass and strength; increase the number
of reps performed will promote improved muscular endurance; increasing the rate
of work will give you more power; increasing the amount of work performed will
allow greater gains in your overall strength and endurance.

2. UNIVERSALITY --This is defined as the all-around development principle. You
must develop muscle and endurance together with all the major muscles, joints
and support structures. Universality will serve as a base for higher intensity,
specialized training and development which is essential for competitive
bodybuilding and other sports.

I will talk about the next two principles in my next blog.

Mental Preparation For Training

 
I get a lot of questions about discipline, motivation and focus. Since training for the Olympics and training solo, I developed a mental preparation for myself.

On the way to the gym I create a scenario for myself.  For instance, I’ll see myself as a gladiator heading to the coliseum to do battle. The gym is the arena and the equipments are beast I’m battling with and I need to focus and battle each one to be victorious in my battle. Discipline is very important in the gym. I make sure I eliminate any distractions. For example, I keep my mind on why I’m at the gym and  I waste no time chatting with people or getting caught up with distractions. When discipline becomes a habit it eliminates the stress on planning.

When training I motivate myself by focusing on my goals. I always have a visual image of what I want the muscle that I’m training to look like; the size, the hardness, the separation and the balance. The motivation I get is looking forward to the day I accomplish my goals. With this mind set, I’m able to push myself  harder at every training session.  A positive and discipline mind set is the blue print to every athlete’s  success.

Split Training

I realized I was not spending enough time on each muscle group. So I switched to the following training split about three years ago.This split has help maximize my training and it has given me the ultimate result I am looking for.

Here is an example of my split:

Day 1……….Back & Shoulders

Day 2………Hamstrings & Calves

Day 3……..Chest & Traps

Day 4……..Quads

Day 5……..Biceps & Triceps

I take two days off and keep the same split but I change my exercises, loads, types, and variations every week. My training philosophy is simple; I don’t sacrifice weight for form. I make sure my muscles are moving the load.

As an ex-Olympic weightlifter I lifted almost four times my body weight, This type of training is called compound training, At the time I weighed only 130 pounds, extremely strong but no muscle mass. Now as a bodybuilder I train for mass and not strength, I want to isolate every muscle with strict form as much as I can. For me, it does not matter how much weight I lift. I recognize which muscles are heavy and which muscles are light movers. This determines the load I impose on every muscle. I make sure that the muscle I am training is the only one working. There is no swinging or jerking of my body. I use my core and secondary muscle to keep the isolation to the maximum. This type of training over the years has helped me with the success I have in the sport of bodybuilding.

Nutrition plays a key role with this type of training. Eating at the right time with the right kinds of food and taking the proper supplements. As a PROLAB sponsored athlete, I take the following supplements that have helped me:

N-Large²™
Glutamine
Creatine Monohydrate
Beta Alanine Extreme®
BCAA Plus
Pure Whey
 

†These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.