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- Aug 3, 2010
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The Goldilocks's zone. Not too hot, not too cold...just right! This can be applied to the weights you use to train with.
Ronnie Coleman once said that the way to build muscle fast is to get a pump with heavy weights. That might sound simplistic, but it tells you a lot about weight selection in training.
Bottom line? You need to use weights that are heavy enough for you, but that will still cause the muscle tension required to create a pump. There are two ways lifters mess this up:
Problem 1:
This won't give you a solid pump. There's a point where if you add more weight you can still do the work, but you won't actually feel the target muscles doing the work. The tension gets shifted and spread out to other muscles.
Lifting maximal or near maximal weights that don't create a pump and during which you don't feel the target muscle being loaded can be used as a way to increase strength and muscle hardness. But it can't be your main approach to training when your primary goal is building muscle.
Problem 2:
This won't lead to maximal growth if used as the main training method. Using a very light weight can allow you to do the reps with constant tension: going slow and flexing the muscle hard. You can also do high reps, drop sets, and supersets and get a huge pump. But the weight isn't heavy enough to create maximal tension.
Using light weights to get a skin-splitting pump can assist in stimulating muscle growth by increasing nutrient uptake by the muscles and by the activation of mTor. But it can't be your main way of training when trying to build maximum muscle.
Try to find someone who built an impressive amount of muscle by only doing light pump work. They exist, but they're often older and have a history of training heavy early on. When you already have a lot of muscle, you don't need as much heavy lifting to continue improving. But don't look at what the big guys are doing now, look at what they've been doing all their lives to get where they are.
Challenge yourself without losing the feeling of a crisp muscle contraction. This is the key to building size. To challenge yourself, do anywhere between 4 and 8 tough reps per set, with a focus on 6-8. This will be heavy enough to load the muscles properly, but not so heavy that tension shifts away from the target muscle. It'll also give you enough mechanical work to create the fiber fatigue that leads to growth.
GD
Ronnie Coleman once said that the way to build muscle fast is to get a pump with heavy weights. That might sound simplistic, but it tells you a lot about weight selection in training.
Bottom line? You need to use weights that are heavy enough for you, but that will still cause the muscle tension required to create a pump. There are two ways lifters mess this up:
Problem 1:
This won't give you a solid pump. There's a point where if you add more weight you can still do the work, but you won't actually feel the target muscles doing the work. The tension gets shifted and spread out to other muscles.
Lifting maximal or near maximal weights that don't create a pump and during which you don't feel the target muscle being loaded can be used as a way to increase strength and muscle hardness. But it can't be your main approach to training when your primary goal is building muscle.
Problem 2:
This won't lead to maximal growth if used as the main training method. Using a very light weight can allow you to do the reps with constant tension: going slow and flexing the muscle hard. You can also do high reps, drop sets, and supersets and get a huge pump. But the weight isn't heavy enough to create maximal tension.
Using light weights to get a skin-splitting pump can assist in stimulating muscle growth by increasing nutrient uptake by the muscles and by the activation of mTor. But it can't be your main way of training when trying to build maximum muscle.
Try to find someone who built an impressive amount of muscle by only doing light pump work. They exist, but they're often older and have a history of training heavy early on. When you already have a lot of muscle, you don't need as much heavy lifting to continue improving. But don't look at what the big guys are doing now, look at what they've been doing all their lives to get where they are.
Challenge yourself without losing the feeling of a crisp muscle contraction. This is the key to building size. To challenge yourself, do anywhere between 4 and 8 tough reps per set, with a focus on 6-8. This will be heavy enough to load the muscles properly, but not so heavy that tension shifts away from the target muscle. It'll also give you enough mechanical work to create the fiber fatigue that leads to growth.
GD
