The Benefits of Building a Great Physique
When an individual takes up the form of exercise known as body-building, the main aim is to build a great physique. No matter what type of frame that person has, through hard work and discipline they can build a body of powerhouse proportions. There are natural limits of course! Not all of us can manage to match Arnold Schwarzenegger in size and muscle power. There is a great amount of potential within most people to develop incredibly strength and stamina and a physique to die for.
Through proper training and controlled, balanced food intake a person can change from weak or average frame to something quite different. Body-building is also one of those areas where much progress can be made by working alone using a good written guide and your own weights. Following any scientifically developed and tested training program, preferably with the guidance of someone with experience at your gym, a person can takes themselves from physical weakling to physical man/woman mountain! Unlike other physical activities, such as martial arts, you can move forward without following the wisdom of an old master. Of course, an experienced mentor can be invaluable and certainly guidance will help a great deal
Done properly, there are numerous benefits to improving our bodies in this way.
- You will have higher energy levels.
- Enjoy a greater development of the heart and more lung capacity which obviously has potential long term health effects.
- Improvement in our muscular strength and flexibility in our joints.
- An all round increase in physical ability and improvement in many sports.
- A powerful increase in self confidence and positive self image that comes from an improved appearance.
To begin a training program to build muscle mass and fitness you must have an understanding of how our biological system works when it comes to increasing muscle size and strength. The point of exercise to build muscle is that it makes demands on the body which at that moment it is incapable of meeting. The muscle power is not there to cope with what it is being asked to do. The body can’t use any more of its natural reserves for strength – it has run out. At this point muscles begin to grow as the body thinks “well I need more power here to do this!”
High intensity
High intensity training will boost your muscle growth and bring your forward to your goal. The body must be pushed to its limits in order to change. That doesn’t mean train, train, train. Quality is more important than quantity. Always avoid over training which will leave you feeling exhausted, listless and lacking enthusiasm for your next workout.
Rest and recuperation
Follow high intensity training with a good deal of rest and recuperation as the muscles will have used large amounts of oxygen and nutritional reserves and will need plenty of time to recover. Not giving yourself enough time will impede your progress and even make you weaker.
With a proper exercise system you will find yourself increasing in strength and in terms of your all round ability when it comes to other sporting activities. Working the body generally increases physical coordination due to a greater awareness of the body itself. With the right training, improvements in both strength and stamina can be made in quite a short space of time.
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Mich Andrews
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Categories: Featured, Training Tags: build muscle, increasing muscle size, muscle power
Using the 5×5 System to Build Muscle
The 5×5 system is one of the oldest muscle building programs in the book and has stuck around forever. 5×5 is good and 5×5 is bad; it just depends on the situation. There are a few ways that the 5×5 muscle building system is implemented.
The first way that people use the 5×5 system to build muscle is that they warm up to a weight and then stick with that weight for five sets of five. So you need to choose a weight that you can handle for that many sets. In essence, the fifth set will be the only set that is quite difficult. This is a decent method to build muscle but largely a waste of time for anyone but a beginner. There is too much volume at an intensity that is too low building muscle. For beginners and early intermediates, I think the 5×5 system is a good one. When you are neurologically inefficient, you seem to respond better to a few more repeated efforts. I still don’t know if five sets are really necessary though; 3×5 is probably better in most cases.
The next way people employ the 5×5 system in an attempt to build muscle is by starting with a heavy weight that they can barely get five reps with and then lowering the weight with each significant set. Again, I think this is too much. The only set that was worth doing was the first and maybe the second. This is not the optimal way to build muscle.
The third way I have seen this system employed to build muscle is to work up to a heavy weight that you can barely get five with and then keeping that weight for the next four sets, no matter how many reps you get. Progression is made each week by trying to get more reps in the subsequent sets. This is a favorite of one particular egomaniacal strength coach and like everything else he recommends, is total crap.
The last way that the 5×5 system is used to build muscle is by doing five increasingly heavier sets so that only your last set is tough. Basically the other sets are warm ups so you are really just warming up to a five rep max or very close to it. If this is the case, it’s really 1×5 and not 5×5. It’s a bit of a misnomer. But if I had to pick one, this would be the best method.
Working up to a five rep max and then a down set at 90% of your best is an even better option for building muscle. Or you could do a very heavy set of five but leave a little something in the tank and then go for broke on the second set. There is some evidence which shows that this second option may even be the better choice simply because the body may not function optimally during the first heavy set. This is due to the laws of homeostasis and various things of this nature. The first set causes shock and certain protective mechanisms may set it which prevents the first heavy set from actually being the best set. The job of the first heavy set may be to provide neural arousal and prepare the body to go all out on the second set. This is something that people have to play with on their own and see what approach helps them build muscle fastest.
For more information on how to build muscle fast, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/
Author Bio: Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more How to Build Muscle Fast tips, check out http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/
Categories: Training Tags: 5x5, build muscle, jason ferruggia
