Power approach. The Science of Weight Training for Muscle Hypertrophy

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Genus. 1984 Trained since 1999 Trained since 2007. CMS in powerlifting. Champion of Russia and South Russia according to AWPC. Champion Krasnodar region according to IPF. 1st category weightlifting. 2-time winner of the Krasnodar Territory championship in t/a. Author of more than 700 articles on fitness and amateur athletics. Author and co-author of 5 books.

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Date: 2011-01-16 Views: 54 653 Grade: 5.0

“A method (from ancient Greek μеθοδος - path) is a systematized set of steps, actions that must be taken to solve a certain problem or achieve a certain goal” - Wikipedia.

As you can see, in order to know what you need to do, you first need to decide the purpose of your stay in the gym. Do you want to become Mr. Olympia, or the champion of Russia in powerlifting, or just become a strong handsome guy or beautiful girl. Once you already know what you want to achieve, you need to analyze your starting point. This is your total current physical condition at the moment, presence or absence of training experience and much more. Let's say 2 people set a goal to bench press 200 kg. One has excellent genetics, health, and training experience in various types sports, and the other is oblique-lame and physical activity never did.

That is, you understand where you are and know where you want to end up. Now let's get to work! This page will outline the general basics of training methods. Strength training. To become beautiful and strong, you must adhere to the following principles.

Principles of the training process

All training, whether training for an athlete or an ordinary amateur, must obey certain principles so that the athlete can achieve maximum results in his activities. These principles are true for absolutely any sport and for any length of practice, because they reflect the very essence of physiological changes in the body under the influence of training. Here are the main ones:

The principle of continuity of the training process

Its essence is that the effect of training is an accumulative (accumulating) effect. That is, there is a result only if the athlete attends classes systematically. Here's a simple example. One of them has classes only 2 times a week, but he doesn’t miss them. Another trains 4 times a week for a month, and then doesn’t go at all for a month. At the end of 2 months, both will spend the same amount of time. But in the first option, the athlete will confidently accumulate training and increase his performance. And in the second, it will “waste” the entire effect of training in the second month and go to the beginning of the third with nothing.

The principle of unity of gradualness and extremeness in increasing loads

The essence of the principle is that the load should increase gradually in response to increasing fitness of the athlete and from time to time reach its maximum. It is the achievement of the load limit that gives the necessary impetus to the body to rise another step up in its results.

The principle of undulating load dynamics

In order for the athlete’s body to alternate between low-intensity, medium-intensity and high intensity training, gradually bringing the athlete to the peak of his capabilities. After heavy (impact) training, you need to give the body rest in the form of light and moderate training. Then the athlete will be able to recover for new records.

The principle of cyclical training process

This principle resembles the previous one, but on a more global scale. The load dynamics should fluctuate not only within training week or month, but also on the scale of a year or several years. In other words, the entire long-term training process must go through a complete cycle, reach its end and then begin another. Similar, but more high level. Let's say you came to the gym to become strong and beautiful. You begin to rapidly gain muscle mass. Then you “pump up the muscles” so that they become stronger. Then dry yourself a little to become “prettier”. Then you start all over again, but at a higher level.

Components of load intensity

Based on your body condition, we select the load. Load is a fairly broad concept and includes not only the weight on the barbell, but also a bunch of other parameters. So, what does your workload consist of?

1. Number of workouts per week.
2. Number of exercises per workout.
3. Difficulty of exercises.
4. The number of approaches per exercise and for the workout as a whole.
5. The number of lifts per approach and for the workout as a whole.
6. Rest between sets (intensity).
7. The amount of weight (weight on a barbell, dumbbell, machine, etc.).

These are all quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the load. They determine how tired your body will be after a workout and how stressful the workout will be for you. You can also calculate total tonnage (the number of kilograms lifted) per workout, week, month, and so on. The same can be done with the number of approaches and lifts. If you are a beginner and are going to train from scratch, then I would recommend this: 2 - 3 workouts per week, 5 - 8 exercises per workout, 3 sets per exercise, 10 - 15 lifts per set, rest between sets - 2 -3 minutes.

Next, choose exercises. There are hundreds of them! With dozens of different equipment and training equipment. When you first get into the gym, your eyes widen. But if you are a beginner and train 3 times a week, then you need to choose 20 - 25 exercises from them. This entire rich arsenal, accumulated by humanity over millennia, can be roughly classified. All these exercises can be divided:

1. By training zones (body parts).
2. According to the degree of impact on the body.
3. According to the difficulty of implementation.
4. In relation to competitive exercises.

By trained body parts. Usually there are exercises for the arms, shoulders, back, chest, abs and legs. Then we can divide by individual muscles and even bunches. For example, standing dumbbell swings to the sides are an exercise for the shoulders. deltoid muscle and trains her middle bun.

According to the degree of impact on the body (and local). For example, squats with a barbell are an exercise for the leg muscles with a huge global effect on the whole body. The leg press in the simulator is also for the leg muscles, but the overall effect on the body is much lower. And leg extension in the simulator affects the same muscles, but the effect is purely local, that is, it has almost no effect on the body as a whole.

Depending on the complexity of the exercises, they can be difficult in terms of technique and energy consumption. For example, the classic barbell snatch is a very complex coordination movement that requires enormous energy expenditure. And biceps with a barbell while standing - simple to perform and with a minimum of energy expenditure. Also, if you are involved in a certain sport, then the exercises are also divided into: competitive (CS) - which are performed in competitions, special preparatory exercises (SPU) and general preparatory exercises (GPU). SPU are exercises similar to competitive ones and aimed at improving results in them. OPU - have nothing to do with competitive exercises and are aimed at the general physical training athlete For example, for a sprinter, squats with a barbell are a SS, but for a triathlete this is already a SS.

Performing strength exercises helps strengthen muscles, increase their strength and volume, and also expend a large amount of energy, which is important for people who want to lose weight. However, strength training for weight loss is not the best best option getting rid of unnecessary pounds. Endurance training will be much more effective here. But why strength training is needed and what it can be is the topic of today’s conversation.

Strength Development

Strength training is practiced everywhere - in schools, the army, sports clubs. Methods of strength training vary from regular to heavy powerlifting classes in gym.

When a person first goes to the gym, often his main goal is to pump up volume. Such a thing as muscle strength fades into the background. As a result, many people stop training without seeing any noticeable “explosive” results.

However, it is important how much muscle fibers in the muscle they work on the result, not its thickness. Your strength primarily depends not on volume, but on the functional usefulness of your muscles. This explains the amazing phenomenon: a person with more with thin arms, than you, can bench press 100 kg, but you cannot.

Strength training is aimed at general physical fitness of a person. For beginners, push-ups, pull-ups and squats are enough. For those who want to know the true capabilities of their body, training with iron will come in handy.

Strength fitness involves many areas. All kinds of strength training are designed for different degrees physical development. Therefore, everyone can choose the most suitable strength training method for themselves. The main thing is to remember that you need to train regularly, otherwise the results will go away the same way they came.

Strength Training Options

good strength training involves versatile work on all the muscles of your body.

Home workouts

In most cases, these are exercises without weights, reminiscent of a mixture of exercises and gymnastics. This method of strength training is typical, in particular, for the military, and has been practiced for a very long time.

Strength exercises at home look similar from the outside circuit training: you do squats, push-ups, press exercises, and do other exercises. Such strength fitness develops endurance, strengthens the heart, and slightly increases strength.

Strength training without iron it is used in various types of wrestling as a warm-up or for general strengthening preparation. Often a partner acts as an additional burden.

Horizontal bar and parallel bars

The method of strength training for the armed forces of any country also involves training on the horizontal bar and uneven bars. The soldier must be able to do pull-ups and do push-ups. His body must be strong and flexible in order to effectively carry out assigned combat missions.

Look at the people who are into workout. They don’t look pumped up, but their muscles are an order of magnitude stronger than those of an ordinary person who is not familiar with the horizontal bar.

We can say that strength training on horizontal bars is almost harmless physical activity. Its harmfulness only appears at the moment when you jump from the horizontal bar to the ground - try to do it softly and on your toes, not on your heels. In the latter case, you create an artificial concussion for the entire body (from heel to head) and a traumatic load on the spine.

Beginners can be advised to do power complex on the horizontal bar and parallel bars without weight. That is, you exercise without weights, being content with your kilograms. Next, strength program can be complicated by adding various elements to it: forceful exercise, flips, etc. But all this should be mastered when your muscles can easily endure 15-20 pull-ups and the same number of push-ups.

Next, when you can complete the specified number of repetitions in your strength training, you can stop there, or you can start working with additional weight. In the latter case, it is time to go to the gym.

Powerlifting

The entire set of exercises in powerlifting is based on the chest press, squats and deadlifts, their various combinations and lead-in exercises.

In weightlifting, the snatch and push of a barbell is a mixture of a squat and a deadlift. Pulling the barbell overhead is practiced separately with the help of.

Classic triathlon is bench press, squat, deadlift. Of course, working only with these 3 exercises makes sense only for those who aim to develop their maximums in them.

From the point of view of influence on the figure, this will not bring fundamental changes (strength cannot be assessed by appearance). Therefore, if you want not only to develop strength, but also to change your proportions, it is recommended to include in the strength complex additional exercises to specific muscle groups.

When it comes to spinal health, people with back problems may want to avoid (or limit) deadlifts and squats. own weight). The squat can be replaced with a leg press. But nothing can fully replace the deadlift. Instead, it is better to do hyperextension.

Heavy workouts should be planned so that one muscle group is stressed once a week. There is no point in training more often. Instead of a second hard workout in one week, you can do a light workout to pump up the target muscle group with blood.

The morning period is not the best best time for lifting weights, it is better to train in the afternoon and evening. Strength training in the morning will not be as effective as at a later time, since the body is still sleeping. Exceptions to the rule are people who are nocturnal. For them, morning is like evening for others.

After a powerful strength training It makes sense to pedal an exercise bike or work on an elliptical.

Circuit training, crossfit

CrossFit develops endurance and strength at the same time. This is a strength workout for all muscle groups. Sometimes all these groups work on the same day, which is not always correct or safe.

Some of the exercises can be done at home, as has already been said. A more serious CrossFit strength training program can only be implemented in a gym.

Important points

No matter how you train, before you start training, pay attention to a number of recommendations:

1. A set of strength exercises in the gym is always performed after a good warm-up. Loading cold muscles is not only ineffective, but also extremely unsafe, especially if you are working with weights. You can also get injured on the horizontal bar or uneven bars. By the way, despite its apparent simplicity, strength exercises It should also be done at home after active warming up.
2. Review your diet. For heavy physical training you will need in large quantities proteins and carbohydrates.
3. Provide your body with rest between workouts for at least 2 days. That is, if you trained today, next workout in the same forceful style should be the day after tomorrow. Muscles need time to recover.
4. Listen to your body. Sharp pain during exercise indicates an injury. You shouldn't continue lifting weights through this pain until you figure out its source.
5. Power training program must be compiled by a qualified specialist. Otherwise, you risk losing time or health.

Since a diploma or certificate does not always indicate the proper level of practical skills and knowledge of its owner, you can collect feedback on the work of a particular trainer.

It’s good if a person has a medical or biomedical education, and has more than one year of training in the gym. Then he will be able, at a minimum, not to harm, and ideally to help, by developing a safe and effective strength complex.

Injury Prevention

Now let’s talk about what the consequences of inept strength training can be. Of course, it is difficult to harm yourself by exercising at home without weights. But those who work with hardware, and everyone else, should pay attention to some important points:

1. Know your diagnoses. Some of them can really be ignored, but others in certain conditions pose a threat to life. Before active strength training You should consult your GP.
2. You should not exercise on a full stomach.
3. Make sure that the room maintains a normal microclimate. There should be no drafts or stuffiness, the temperature should be comfortable.
4. In the gym, until you have mastered the technique of basic exercises and given yourself the necessary stretches, you do not need to lift heavy weights.

There are many strength training methods. Experiment, choose what suits you and gives results in your particular case. And, of course, remember that you only have one health, and you train to strengthen it, not destroy it.

We all know that the basis of mass-building training is high-intensity strength training with weights. However, the concept of “intensity” itself is perceived differently by many athletes. For some, intensity is the critical working weight, while for others it is the maximum number of repetitions with the current weight. Which one is right? Numerous sports science studies have found the exact answer.

Let's start with the fact that for the body, in general, it doesn't matter what working weight you use and how many repetitions you perform with it. The key factor here is the nature of the load and its duration. Research shows that training to failure significantly increases the amount of mechanical and metabolic stress, which in turn stimulates muscle growth. While the use of a constant load in exercises without the onset of muscle failure significantly limits the magnitude of these stresses and, accordingly, reduces the effectiveness of training in terms of mass gain.

In our article today, we will look at the main types of weight training and their effect on stimulating muscle growth.

Table– Types of weight training.

Maximum Effort Training (ME)

This load is typical in power types sports where you need to show maximum muscle effort in a short period of time. For example, powerlifting. Such workouts are performed with maximum or submaximal working weight. According to research, this load helps to increase muscle coordination and maximum activation of muscle fibers. These workouts are the most effective for developing strength, but in terms of gaining muscle mass have a moderate effect.

Dynamic force training (DE)

This load involves using a non-maximum working weight, an increased number of repetitions (compared to MU) and performing movements at the highest available speed. DU is essentially a combination of classic strength and low-rep training.

According to research, such a load stimulates the contractile elements of the muscles and the tension of the connective tissues. Dynamic effort training is great for speed and power training. muscle contraction, however, does not cause strong mechanical and metabolic stress, which makes it not the most effective load for muscle growth. Remote control training can be effective in those sports where the basis is speed and power of muscle effort. For example, weightlifting, boxing (accentuated punch training).

Repetitive Effort Training (RET)

This load involves using a non-maximum working weight, an increased number of repetitions, and working until muscle failure occurs. According to research, failure repetitions significantly stimulate the onset of mechanical and anabolic stress, promote the reduction of type II anaerobic fibers and trigger the process of anaerobic glycolysis. This load also leads to the accumulation of lactic acid (lactate) and hydrogen ions, which directly indicates an increase in the level of growth hormone and IGF-1 in the blood.

It is the failure repetitions that are important here, since they are the ones that have a sufficient stimulating effect on the muscles. If muscle failure does not occur, metabolic and mechanical stress levels will be significantly lower than with failure reps, which will negatively impact muscle growth activation.

Repetitive effort training (RET) is considered best load for muscle growth, since it has the following advantages:

• Significantly greater effect on muscle metabolism compared to MU and DU;
• Greater activation of motor units;
• Significantly lower risk of injury compared to manual and remote control (due to the use of less working weight and lower speed of movements).

Correct conclusions

Thus, according to latest research, optimal power load for muscle hypertrophy is training repeated efforts, that is, using a rep range of 8-12, working weight in the amount of 70-80% of the repetition maximum and failure repetitions. This load has a more pronounced stimulating effect on the process of muscle growth due to an increase in the level of muscle stress and an increased effect on muscle metabolism.

Success in strength training largely depends on what exercises you do and whether you perform them correctly. All exercises are divided into two large groups: basic and isolating. Basic ones are those in which large muscle groups are involved. Their implementation requires great physical tension of the whole body. That's why basic exercises form the basis of the fundamentals of strength training and are the main component of all programs.

Unlike basic exercises, isolation exercises act primarily on one muscle and are auxiliary to basic exercises, providing a good workout for a specific muscle (for example, biceps). A typical mistake of many beginning fitnessists is ignoring basic exercises and concentrating on isolating exercises. Although for beginners, basic exercises should form the basis of the program, as they develop the muscles of the whole body.

Basic exercises are considered to be the bench press (dumbbells), squats with a barbell and deadlift. This classic triple can be supplemented with a variety of heavy rows, presses, pull-ups and push-ups. All other exercises are considered isolating. And the optimal strength training would be a combination of base and isolating training, with an emphasis on the base.

Polite refusal

Another fundamental principle of strength training is “muscle failure.” Without achieving muscle failure, the training will not be effective and will not give the results we are looking for. Muscle failure is a condition in which not a single repetition, nor half a repetition, can be completed independently. A tired muscle refuses to obey you. It is to achieve this state that bodybuilders use partner assistance (for example, with bench presses). Muscle failure is considered the founders of bodybuilding " trigger"for muscle growth.

Sets and reps

In strength training, there are concepts of “sets” and “repetitions”. A set is an approach to the projectile. For example, you took dumbbells and bent your elbows 15 times into your biceps. This means that you did one set (set) of 15 repetitions. One approach (set) is not enough to work the muscle, so, as a rule, 3-4 approaches of 10-15 repetitions are done. The inscription 4*15 means 4 sets of 15 repetitions each. A combination of elaboration of various muscle groups in one workout is called a split. Split example: Monday: back - rear delta- biceps thigh - shin; Wednesday: chest - anterior delta - biceps; Friday: quadriceps - average delta- triceps; etc. Many people prefer to train one muscle group in one day, adding only exercises for the abs, shins and lower back (hyperextension). But for beginners, split is the most correct solution.

Cheat, but without cheating

In general, you should strive to do exercises in strength training purely without deception (we deceive ourselves), but there is a situation when some conscious “rounding of the corners” helps. For example, you are already tired, but the target muscle group, in your opinion, has not yet received the necessary stimulation. In this case, you can use a slight “cheat” by throwing the projectile upward (passing the weak point in the concentric phase) not entirely cleanly and, thus, excluding the most weak muscles. In strength training this is called "cheating" from the English. cheat - “fraud, deception.” So, cheating is used exclusively in the last few repetitions and, precisely, with the aim of achieving muscle failure. In all other cases, cheating is harmful and traumatic. It is especially not recommended to cheat for those who have not yet learned how to do the exercises correctly, otherwise they will never learn it and will continue to cheat all their lives.

Add some pepper

If suddenly one fine day you want to increase the intensity of your training or get tired of the routine, then there is a whole “menu” at your service that will diversify your training life and give a new impetus to your training process.

Reducing rest time between sets. If your rest time between sets was 1.5-2 minutes, try first reducing it to 1 minute, and then to 45 seconds. Naturally, the weight of the burden should be reduced somewhat. Reducing the rest time between sets will reduce the outflow of blood from the trained muscle, which is very good.

In addition to simply reducing the rest time between sets of the same exercise, you can combine two or more exercises in a series, doing these exercises with little or no rest between them.

Combining two exercises for opposite muscle groups (for example, biceps and triceps) is called superset. When three exercises are combined (in the vast majority of cases - for one muscle group), it turns out triset. There is also giant set, in this case, 4-5 exercises are combined for one muscle group. All exercises in a superset - triset - giant set are performed with virtually no rest between them; between the sets themselves the pause increases slightly, most often it is about 2 minutes.

The purpose of combining several exercises is not only to reduce rest, but also to allow a deeper impact on the target muscle group.

Losing weight

Drop set- This is a set with weight loss. You start a set with a certain weight of weight - be it free weight or weights in a machine, bring the set to “failure”, then reduce the weight of the weight by an average of 25% and again, do the set to “failure”. This is a classic drop set. If you go further and reduce the weight by 20-25%, you will get triple drop set. There are even more sophisticated methods, but let’s leave them to the professionals - let them suffer, and that’s enough for us.

Dumbbells or exercise machines?

Another important question, to which an answer must be given. What is preferable: exercise machines or free weights (dumbbells and barbells)? When practicing with free weights In addition to the target muscle groups, the so-called stabilizer muscles are used, which “rest” in the simulators. At the same time, exercise machines are exceptionally good for isolated exercises, as well as when “topping up” after the basic ones. In addition, the simulators are injury-proof, which makes them indispensable for solo training without an instructor or partner. In summary, we can say that for the “base” free weights will be more suitable, and for isolation – both free weights and machines.

Other questions regarding strength training, as well as figure correction techniques (reducing the waist and hips, tightening the butt, enlarging the breasts, getting rid of fat), training schemes for increasing or losing weight will be described in detail on other pages of the magazine website

And. Dobrynin

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