How to shock muscles If you experience stagnation in the bench press or even stagnation in growth muscle mass, stagnation in training, the weights on the exercise machines are not moving, then it’s time to take drastic measures and change your training. Great option- give your muscles stress, refresh your training a little, as a result of which you will be able to advance an order of magnitude further along your branch of development in bodybuilding. You may have already tried various training programs, but you can’t learn about all the tricks of bodybuilding right away. There are many additional elements in training - supersets, trisets, various negative repetition techniques, as well as stepped sets + pumping techniques. If all these methods do not help you move forward, then try the following - the more repetitions, the less you pick up the weight. This way you will completely isolate your muscles during training. How to refresh your muscles? There is one cool technique that can help you overcome muscle stagnation and improve your results. It is effective and also simple, which is very important for beginners. You just need to choose a small weight, but do a large number of repetitions, and bring them up to 20, or even up to 25. This style of training is a real challenge to your body. This is a test of both muscle endurance and your muscle strength. In addition to this, you can also try to do 10 repetitions after your strength completely fails, when your muscles burn from fatigue. Give them a full load! Repetitions. Now, as for repetitions. They shouldn't be one-offs. You need to do each repetition smoothly, slowly, so that you fully control muscle movement during the exercise. You can also try that 6-8 repetitions with the maximum weight for you is easy compared to the muscle isolation technique. This step-by-step technique, if used not very often, will help give a good refreshing effect to the whole body, as well as reduce moral stress on the body. But you don’t need to use this scheme for every workout, otherwise there is a chance of overtraining, and then just eat right and wait for the muscles to fully recover. In any case, it will take extra time from training. Total muscle isolation. If you use the high repetition technique, then it is, in principle, suitable for any muscle group. But it is best to use it on simulators. If you want to include multiple repetitions in your training, then exercise machines are the best assistant for this. Let's say if you do a large number of squats with a barbell, you will eventually run out of energy very quickly, because a large amount of muscle is involved in the work in order to regulate the balance of the body. Yes, this is exactly how the elements of muscle mass work. But if you do squats on the Hack-Smith machine, then you will get maximum effect from exercises for growing quadriceps. There, nothing except the desired muscle group works. This is the whole point of isolating muscles. Warm up. As for the warm-up, it is better to do two normal full sets after a good warm-up, but if you use the shock technique, then do one warm-up set so as not to put too much fatigue on the muscles. The workout itself should consist of 3-4 exercises, since their total number of approaches does not exceed 4. You say - not enough? Try these 4 approaches first! Even if you are not a supporter of various training experiments, it will still be useful for you to apply this training scheme to your program. After all, stimulating muscles for additional growth and development has never hurt anyone.
Despite the somewhat exotic nature of the name, it all comes down to the principle of variability, understandable to a thoughtful athlete.
When does it become necessary to use it? In the initial period of training, you make good gains, but one day you feel that you have hit a wall. You are not overtrained, your heart rate is the same, your appetite is good, your sleep is excellent. Why aren't you progressing? Most likely, because your body does not perceive new loads. Physiologically, he adapted and became unable to rebuild himself in response to stress. This happens under monotonous, monotonous, even if quite high load, which in other conditions could lead to progress.
This is why to most effectively develop muscle size or strength, your training program must be varied. These variations may consist of changing the number of repetitions per set, the number of sets, types of exercises, types of weights, duration of the exercise, tempo, and so on. All components of the exercises can be combined with each other, creating countless variations.
How effective this exercise for a certain time, depends on the exercise itself and the muscle group it is aimed at. Foreign and Soviet studies obtained identical data: a decrease in the strength of a muscle group occurred when the exercise was performed consistently for 4-6 weeks in a row. Therefore, you can leave any exercise program unchanged only in terms of the number of muscle groups worked; Every 4-6 weeks your exercise arsenal should change. If, for example, you did a bench press on horizontal bench, replace it with an incline press. If you were doing squats for your thigh muscles, replace them with bench presses. If you have done barbell curls, switch to dumbbell curls while sitting or standing. Try isolation exercises with dumbbells or pulleys. Although the kinematics of the exercises seems identical, this is not so: first of all, your nervous system, which controls muscle contractions. However, you should not strive for sudden, dramatic changes or variations; For the nervous system, a slight change is enough for it to feel new again and your muscles begin to respond by slightly increasing their functionality, primarily strength and volume. Some athletes successfully use a system of non-repetitive training, that is, at each subsequent lesson they do completely different exercises, without, however, changing the training scheme as a whole. Others even take this idea to its extreme expression, without keeping in mind what they are going to do in each subsequent lesson. This actually shocks the muscles into growing!
One of the characteristic aspects of the principle of variability is the use of multidirectional training of muscle groups. For example, you could do three leg exercises in the same session: hack machine squats, regular squats, then front squats. They all work the quadriceps in their own way, preventing them from getting used to monotonous loads and forcing the development of powerful adaptive processes, and therefore growth. In the next lesson, you change the order of these exercises or introduce new ones, and so on.
From workout to workout, you can change the pace of the exercises; Let's say, at first stick to a moderate, measured pace, in rhythm with the breathing; in the next workout, work in an explosive manner during the overcoming phases of movements in each of the basic exercises, but lower the shells slowly, under control. Next lesson- at a deliberately slow pace, say, five seconds to overcome, five seconds to lower the weights. You can also vary the total duration of the session by changing the duration of pauses between approaches and between exercises.
We’ll end our conversation today with the following conclusion: constantly change your training program, don’t let your muscles adapt to the load, and they will respond to you with stable and high-quality growth!
Andrey Shilov, coach
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Presses often “freeze at a dead point”, in other words, we are swinging, but there’s no point! Stagnation in bench presses is characterized by one pattern, which turns out to be an unpleasant surprise for many beginning “jocks”: since it is impossible to switch from one weight to another - a more serious one - there is practically no weight gain either. Moreover, since everything in nature is interconnected, due to zero mass growth, the force also “freezes at zero.” In general, some kind of vicious circle!
Yes, but there is still a way out of it. Once you realize that your progress curve has reached a plateau, you need to act quickly and decisively. How? Give the babies a good beating! Use a powerful, brutal attack to rouse them from their sleep, giving no mercy!
Where to start, you ask? From five revolutionary training techniques, which we will tell you about today, or rather, those who invented them - five professionals of the highest caliber - will tell you about them.
Technique No. 1: Rest-pause
When professional Nasser El Sonbati feels that his breasts have fallen asleep, he goes... to rest. However, if you think that Nasser is relaxing, lying down with glasses of lemonade near his pool, then you are sorely mistaken.
In fact, we are talking about the “rest-pause” method, explains Nasser.
- Let's say I do bench presses at incline bench. First, I perform eight to ten repetitions, achieve failure and return the bar to the racks. I wait six to ten seconds, take the bar down again and do a few more reps. And again a pause, several repetitions (as far as strength is enough), but this is the last time.
Believe me, “rest - pause” is very effective technique, - Nasser convinces.
By the end of the set, my chest felt like it was on fire. I use this method for different purposes. At the stage of pre-competition preparation, in combination with a “hard” diet, it gives a very good “separation” pectoral muscles. In the off-season, I use it every two workouts to the third. But here the task is completely different - mass growth.
“Rest - pause” is not a technique for beginners. But even experienced athletes need outside help.
Don’t forget that “rest-pause” is based on constant “failures,” Nasser reminds, “which means the barbell can collapse on your chest at any moment. Someone has to back you up, right?
Technique #2: Trisets
When pro Anthony Melvin sets out to pump up his pecs, he does it with trisets.
“The “three-set press complex,” as I call it, “hits” the pectoral muscles amazingly,” says Melvin. “How to do it, you ask?” The science is simple: I start with incline barbell presses, then lie down and press dumbbells, and finally move on to the Smith machine for head down presses. And so - five times in a row. The number of repetitions in each exercise is 8-12, until complete failure.
When doing incline bench presses, Melvin uses the “pyramid” method, i.e., the weight increases evenly in each subsequent set. In the final, he “catch up” with the total weight of the weight to 200 kg. In the Smith machine, the principle is the same: the number of 20-kilogram pancakes by the end of the exercise increases to four (for one arm).
Please note that by the fifth or even fourth “circle” fatigue increases terribly, says Melvin, so you have to “back off” a little. On incline presses I get down to 180kg; in the simulator - up to three pancakes.
Perhaps someone will question the appropriateness of such monstrous intensity trisets, especially those performed five times in a row in one workout! But Melvin has a concrete argument in defense of his method - the mass of his pecs. If we delve deeper into the theory, the triset method allows you to “pump” the entire pectoral muscle at once. Well traditional approach involves sequentially transferring the load from one area of the pectoral muscle to another. Melvin considers all this unnatural and a dead end, they say, this does not happen in life. If a muscle works, then all at once. The complex itself is cleverly designed. The hard one comes first incline press, designed for the most “difficult” upper chest bundles. Then follows horizontal press, but with dumbbells. They “dance” in their hands, and this means a special “neuromuscular” stimulation of the pectorals. To the fullest - the training part. Somehow, fatigue is growing. Let's listen to Melvin's arguments:
A huge advantage of the simulator is that the weight on it is already stable by definition, it will never “lead” to the side - like dumbbells or a barbell. By itself, it does not provide high-quality “pumping”, and I don’t work on it with maximum weights. But for a targeted load on the lower chest area - that’s it. Plus, the machine gives you a good stretch.
Technique #3: Push-ups
“Fitness Olympia” Monica Brant is convinced that the best “female” technique for “pumping up” the chest is push-ups.
Immediately after doing incline or straight bench presses (or after any other exercise for the chest), you need to do a set of push-ups on the floor - until complete “failure,” advises Monica. “Fatigue after push-ups should be absolute! When you reach “failure”, switch to a lighter version - in the position of support on your knees. And squeeze out a few more push-ups.
Usually they put it as the last number, but Monica is convinced of the correctness of her technique: push-ups should be supplemented with absolutely all sets of chest exercises, starting from the very first.
The version of push-ups that Monica herself prefers differs from the classic one in the direction of complexity. Firstly, she places her feet on the bench. Secondly, he places two large dumbbells “on his butt” in front of the bench and rests his hands on them.
What do dumbbells have to do with it, another inexperienced reader may ask? Monica quite rightly believes that such a “tricky” emphasis gives the strongest “stretch” of the pectoral muscles at the bottom of the push-ups. However, instead of dumbbells, you can use special high supports for push-ups, which are widely sold in sports stores.
Technique #4: One more time
“I start my chest training like everyone else with a warm-up,” says amateur Mike Dragna, “then there are five different exercises of two sets, for a total of -10. The exercises are: barbell and dumbbell presses on an incline bench, fly-ups...
In general, nothing fundamentally new. Another thing is that in each exercise I do two to three forced repetitions with the help of a partner.
The most important thing, Mike believes, is to achieve true muscle “failure.” That “rejection” that comes at the end of the set is often “fake.” It is more likely to be caused by psychological fatigue than muscle fatigue. Next, you need to “finish off” the muscle to “correct” failure through forced repetitions. It is extremely important to find a skillful partner who will be able to share the load with you without “taking away” a single “extra” kilogram from you.
I use a relatively heavy weight, says Mike, and it lasts me a maximum of six to eight repetitions. Then the partner comes into play. Forced repetitions begin and pain appears. Forced repetitions are a blast! They greatly stimulate the growth of the “mass”. At least for me.
Technique #5: 100 reps per set.
A typical set is 8-12 reps, right? Sometimes, albeit rarely, their number is increased to fifteen. But in principle, even twenty-five repetitions in a set are not outside the scope of normal training practice. What if you multiply twenty-five by four? Then we will get a super-effective marathon set for mercilessly “bombing” the pectoral muscles!
In fact, the idea of “marathon sets” of up to hundreds of repetitions is not new. Moreover, it was never considered particularly promising in methodological terms. Why? Because repeated exhausting movements, moreover, repeated week after week, can give anything but muscle growth.
And yet, a hundred repetitions per set is a brilliant idea for those who want to give their muscles a good shake-up! However, remember that the “strength marathon” is an analogue of shock therapy, so often resorting to its help is contraindicated. How to do it? Nothing could be easier!
Firstly, the best equipment for a marathon is a simulator (impeccable technique for performing the exercise is guaranteed).
Secondly, best exercise for a marathon - presses or flyes (by the way, both are best done in a “seated” version).
Now about the execution order. It is extremely simple: you sit on the machine and do one hundred repetitions - without rest or even pauses. The weight is light, at least lighter than the warm-up weight. The first twenty repetitions are a piece of cake, by the thirtieth lactic acid will begin to accumulate in the muscles, and before that light weight It will immediately become cast-iron-heavy! At fiftieth, you will regret that you allowed yourself to be drawn into this adventure, and at seventy-fifth, your muscles will begin to scream in pain! And finally, here it is - the last, hundredth repetition! You can leave the hall. Or you can start all over again.
If you are studying in gym, then you have probably already heard that muscles need to be surprised from time to time with an unusual load for them. Muscle shocking is a method of resistance training that involves regularly changing your training program to avoid plateauing. Stagnation or plateau is a period when your muscles are used to doing the same work and stop responding to training.
Although muscle shocking has become a craze among professional fitness trainers and bodybuilders, the concept is by no means new. This is a long-known principle that can be applied to any activity aimed at promoting health and achieving good physical shape.
The human body is very cleverly designed and is able to adapt to the load placed on it. When your body adapts to a stimulus, you stop noticing results, be it increased muscle size, weight loss, strength or speed.
It is especially important to avoid plateauing if you are trying to gain muscle mass. This is why muscle shocking is a particularly popular method for people who lift weights.
Let's take a look various ways, with which you can shock your muscles and encourage them to grow in every workout.
Muscle shock options
Number of approaches. Varying the number of sets of a particular exercise helps vary the degree of muscle fatigue in a workout. Reducing the number of sets by 1-2 in each subsequent exercise helps you provide your muscles with active recreation or execute more exercise per training session while maintaining the total number of sets. And incorporating additional sets into an exercise helps improve muscle endurance and strength.Number of repetitions
You can achieve similar effects by changing the number of repetitions in the approach. Higher reps with lower weights help improve endurance and burn more calories, while heavy weight and low reps have an effect on strength gains.Duration of rest
In this case, we mean rest between approaches or exercises. A longer rest allows you to invest as much as possible into the next set or exercise, while a shorter rest increases the intensity of the training and allows you to work hard in less time.Sequence of exercises
It's easy to get used to doing the same workout routine, but one of the simplest and most basic ways to shock your muscles is to change the sequence of exercises. Try starting the workout from the end or simply switching the exercises, you will immediately notice the difference and a completely different effect from your training.Selection of exercises
It is very important that you do not perform the same exercises every workout. You should have at least two training program options with different exercises. Alternate them regularly.Greetings, friends! In this article I would like to talk about what muscle growth is, how to make muscles grow and give some effective tips. Many people know what a “plateau” is, but do you know how to deal with it?
If you turn not to bodybuilders, but to scientists who are trying to look deep into the processes occurring in our muscles, then opinions differ about the reasons for muscle growth. When committing physical work mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) accumulates in the muscles - a growth factor that triggers protein synthesis in the muscles.
At the same time, the number of hydrogen ions (a product of the breakdown of lactic acid) increases. This component is necessary to activate protein synthesis. However, its excess leads to acidification muscle fibers and destruction of muscle cells.
So, some scientists argue that you need to give your muscles stress while trying to destroy them as little as possible. That is, accumulate a sufficient number of hydrogen ions, but not excess. In this case, there will be enough growth factors for the muscles to grow.
Another camp of scientists argues that the more destruction there is in muscle tissue, the better. Arguing this is that only when muscle fibers are destroyed during training, the body will launch adaptation mechanisms, release the necessary hormones and growth factors, which will trigger the synthesis of new protein structures and compensate for muscle tissue with a reserve.
But theory is theory, but what does the practice and experience of bodybuilders say?
Muscle growth practice
Bodybuilding originated at the beginning of the 20th century. Since then, a huge amount of knowledge has been accumulated through observations and direct experiments on one's body.
It is clear that the athletes themselves and the people who trained them made a huge contribution to the knowledge base. Many training methods have undergone changes or been rejected altogether. As a result of almost 100 years of evolution, we have received the keys to effective muscle growth. Undoubtedly, development will continue and there are still many blind holes, but the knowledge that the world of bodybuilding already possesses cannot be overestimated.
So, the basic principle states that in order to grow muscles, you need to create unusual conditions for the body. In our case, with the help of training. That is, we come to the gym and begin to load the muscles various exercises, this is stress for the body and it begins to think what to do, how to adapt to this stress. And he finds the solution in increasing muscle mass.
But if in subsequent training sessions we give him exactly the same load, he will already be ready for this and there will be no growth. You will hit a plateau. This is why it is necessary to constantly “surprise” your muscles. How to do this?
By increasing working weight
You are unlikely to be able to increase the weight of the equipment at every workout, but you should try to do this once every 2-3 weeks. It is necessary to increase the weight by a small amount. For example, if you do a bench press, then an increase of 2-3 kg per barbell will be sufficient.
By increasing the number of repetitions
If you cannot increase the weight of the projectile, then it will come to the rescue. Together with the first method, this can work like this: you have mastered some weight in the bench press, that is, you have performed it for 12 repetitions. Now you need to increase the weight by 2-3 kg. You do this, but you can no longer complete 12 repetitions, and only manage 8. Accordingly, on next training session There is no talk of any increase in weight, but in order to shock the muscles you should try to perform.
By increasing the number of exercises or approaches
As you grow, your muscles become more capable of handling stress. Therefore, the previous number of approaches in the exercise may no longer be enough to give the necessary stress to your muscles. If you don't want to add an extra set, then add one more exercise. Perhaps it will allow you to put an unexpected load on your muscles.
Increase your approach time
This is one way to increase the intensity of your workout. This technique can be implemented by increasing the negative and positive phases of the movement during the exercise. In other words, do the exercise slowly and try to feel the contraction. target muscle. Spend at least 2 seconds on the negative and positive phases.
Work not only on strength, but also on endurance
Bodybuilders know that muscle volume depends not only on the degree of development of fast muscle fibers (type 2a and 2b), but also on the development of slow muscle fibers (type 1). To develop exactly the first type of fibers, you need to work in a multi-repetition mode. The most popular of these modes is pumping.
Its essence is that, using light weights and large number repetitions to acidify the muscle fibers as much as possible. That is, provide them with growth factors.
Use periodization
The training load cannot always increase linearly. Sooner or later there comes a time when your muscles hit a plateau. To overcome it, by 20 percent. After that, increase the weight by 5% every week and after 4 weeks you will reach your previous working weights. And in another week you will be able to overcome them!
All of the above methods are related exclusively to the training process. They can be used by both men and girls, but with some reservations.
Girls, you must take into account the presence of menstrual cycles, since your performance depends on it. In short, your readiness to move mountains is observed in the postmenstrual and postovulatory phases.
Since in the muscles of the weaker sex the number of slow muscle fibers is greater than in men, then you, women, need to pay more attention to high-repetition training (8-15 repetitions).
Nutrition for growth
Both men and women should take into account that no matter how you “surprise” the muscles, without proper nutrition they won't grow. After all, in this case they will have nowhere to take building material- protein. And for high-intensity training, energy is needed - carbohydrates.
Therefore, the result of your training directly depends on what you eat. And we smoothly move on to nutritional advice.
Follow these steps and growth will follow.
- The calorie content of your diet should be excess, but only by 700-900 kcal for men and 200-400 kcal for women. Women need to know that when you have a calorie surplus, you store fat faster, so your calorie surplus should be negligible.
- Consume only high-quality and healthy food. For protein, give preference to lean meats, as well as milk and eggs. Try to consume slow carbohydrates (cereals, vegetables and unsweetened fruits). First-class sources of fats are: red fish, seafood, nuts, avocados, various oils (sunflower, olive, flaxseed)
- As a rule, after 40 years, the production of testosterone (the main male hormone) decreases, and its amount directly affects muscle growth. Therefore, at this age you need to increase the amount of foods that increase testosterone levels in your diet. These can be lean meats, seafood, greens, vegetables (possibly spicy) and nuts
In addition to such important components as nutrition and training, muscle growth can be promoted. But their choice must be approached with full responsibility. Despite the fact that they do not have serious side effects You need to take them wisely and it is best to consult your doctor before using them.
These drugs include:
- Vitamins and vitamin-like substances (vitamin-mineral complexes, B vitamins)
- Anabolizers (glutamic acid, methionine, potassium orotate, )
- Enzymes (festal, karsil)
- Energy drugs (inosine, lipoic acid, )
- Performance enhancing agents (ginseng root, eleutherococcus)
- Drugs affecting the central nervous system(nootropil, aminalon)
- Drugs affecting blood properties and blood flow (trental, complamin)
Please pay close attention to the following instructions. These medications should be taken only after consultation with a doctor (preferably a sports doctor) and under his supervision. Also, beginners, that is, people whose training experience does not exceed 2 years, do not need to take these funds!
The most important thing
In the end, I would like to say that everything must be done wisely. This is the only way you can achieve good results and at the same time without harm to health. I can only give you general recommendations, armed with which you can build your own training process and get the best result.
And with this I say goodbye to you. Subscribe to the blog and share information with friends on social networks. See you soon!
