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Weight training involves the use of equipment that enables variable resistance.
This resistance can come in the form of "free weights" like barbells and
dumbbells, machines that use cables or pulleys to help you lift the weight and
bodyweight exercises like pull-ups or dips.
Free Weights vs. Machines vs. Bodyweight Exercises
For maximum muscle gain, the focus of your workouts should consist of free
weight exercises. Not machines or bodyweight exercises. This is not to say that
you should not use machines or bodyweight exercises, but they should not be the
focus of your training. To get an effective, muscle blasting workout, you must
stimulate the most muscle fibers as possible, and machines do not do this.
The main reason for this is a lack of stabilizer and synergist muscle
development. Stabilizer and synergist muscles are supporting muscles that
assist the main muscle in performing a complex lift. The more stabilizers and
synergists worked, the more muscle fibers stimulated. Multi-jointed free weight
exercises like the bench press, require many stabilizer and synergistic muscle
assistance to complete the lift. On the other hand doing a bench press using a
machine will need almost no stabilizer assistance.
Since machines are locked into a specific range of motion and help to support
the weight along that path, they fail to stimulate the muscles that surround
the area you are working (stabilizers). This is a mistake. If your stabilizer
muscles are weak, then the major muscle group will never grow!
Free weight exercises like the dumbbell press or squat, for example, put a very
large amount of stress on supporting muscle groups. That's why you will get
fatigued faster and not be able to lift as much weight as you did on the
machine. But you will gain more muscle, become stronger very quickly and have a
true gauge of your strength.
If you use machines in your program, they should be used to work isolated areas
and only after all multi-jointed exercises have been completed.
Beginners should begin with a limited combination of machine exercises,
bodyweight exercises and mult-jointed free weight exercises. Before increasing
the weight levels, they should work on becoming familiar with the proper form
and execution of each. Soon, bodyweight exercises will become insufficient to
stimulate growth and they will need to focus on more free weight exercises.
Multi-Jointed Exercises
The exercises that work the large muscle groups are called compound (or
multi-joint) movements that involve the simultaneous stimuation of many muscle
groups. These compound exercises should be the foundation of any weight
training program because they stimulate the most amount of muscle in the least
amount of time.
Here are the basic movements:
* Bench Presses (works the chest, shoulders, tricep)
* Overhead Presses (shoulders, tricep)
* Pull-ups/Barbell Rows (back, bicep)
* Squats (legs, lower back)
* Deadlifts (legs, back, shoulders)
* Bar Dips (shoulders, chest, arms)
I cannot overemphasize the importance of these exercises. Do not start an
advanced weight training program without them!
They will overload your entire skeletal and muscular system like no machine
could ever do, giving you and effective workout in a very short period of time.
If you can only do a few exercises, then do these. They have been proven (and
not just by me) to encourage muscle and strength gain unlike any other
exercises.
Lift Heavy Weight
To build mass, you must weight train with heavy weights. By heavy, I mean a
weight that is challenging for you -- not me, or anyone else. To consider a
weight heavy, you should only be able to do a maximum of 8-12 reps before your
muscles temporarily fail. A weight is considered "light" if you can do more
than 15 reps before muscle fatigue sets in.
Heavy weights stimulate more muscle fibers than lighter weights. It's that
simple. More muscle stimulation means more muscle growth.
Don't Overtrain
Heavy weight training puts a huge strain on your body, so adequate rest and
recuperation after your workouts is essential. If you are prone to train too
often, several things happen:
You don't give your muscles enough time to recuperate between workouts. If your
muscles have not repaired themselves, you will not be at maximum strength for
your next workout. Rest is essential. Other than eating, this should be your
main focus.
You are setting yourself up for burnout or an injury. I know you are motivated
and excited about working out, but don't be careless. You must pace yourself,
you want to be able to keep this up for a long time, not burnout before you
reach your goals. I only weight train 3 times per week, that's all. Anymore
than that and I would not give my body enough time to repair and build new
muscle.
Contrary to popular belief, you do not grow while working out, you only grow
when you are resting.
Below is an example mass workout. I did 4 heavy sets for 4-8 reps each.
Wednesday (legs, abs)
* Heavy Squats, leg extension superset
* Seated Calve Raises, 4 strips sets
* Crunches (4 sets of 20)
-------
Friday (chest, shoulder, triceps, abs)
* Flat bench press, incline dumbbell flyes superset
* Shoulder press, side raises superset
* Tricep pushdowns
* Reverse incline leg raises (3 sets of 20)
------
Sunday (back, biceps, abs)
* Wide grip pull-ups, latbar pulldown superset
* EZ bar bicep curl, incline dumbbell curls superset
* Crunches (4 sets of 20)
Nothing fancy, but effective.
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