Superset training is scientifically proven to build muscle and strength while helping you get your workouts finished faster. It's one of the best techniques for time efficiency without compromising effectiveness. In fact, superset training raises your [...]
Arnold Schwarzenegger was famous for training twice a day on a system known as a double split routine and he went on to become one of the most muscular men of all time. Could splitting your workouts in two and doing half in the AM and half in the PM increase your muscle growth too, or is this technique only for the pros with superior genetics and unlimited time? Read on to see the pros and cons - you may be surprised at the answer!
There is no single best muscle building workout for everyone. Each person has different goals, time availability, experience level and personal preferences. All these factors play into your decision about which routine is best for you. However... what if... gun to the head, I was forced to pick the muscle building program I thought was the best, based on more than 40 years of lifting, including for bodybuilding competition training? Read this post to see my #1 choice...
One of the biggest debates in bodybuilding in the past decade has been about whether a higher or lower training frequency is better. Early studies that compared training only once a week to twice a week seemed to suggest twice a week builds more muscle and that's what most trainers heavily promoted. But more recent studies that were better designed have increased our understanding of this subject.
How often should you train each muscle per week? Over the last decade, a number of studies suggested that hitting each muscle twice a week is ideal and that a low frequency like working each muscle only once a week is not optimal. Recently a group of researchers carefully designed a study to help us answer this question that is still fiercely debated to this day...
For the last decade or so, one of the most researched and talked about subjects in resistance training has been volume. Specifically, how much volume optimizes muscle growth? We know that initially, when you add training volume, you gain more muscle, but then the amount of gains tapers off. But ultimately, if volume exceeds a certain level, gains flatten out and reverse direction, which indicates the point of overtraining and under-recovery. The million dollar questions are, "how much volume is enough" and could counting sets be the best way to track it?
Normally, the smallest weight plates you see are 2.5 pounds. This means that when you put one on each side of a barbell, you are increasing the weight 5 pounds at a time. Dumbbells also usually go up in 5-pound increments. Fractional plates are weights that go up in smaller increments, most often 1.25 pounds, and even smaller plates are available. These fractional plates allow you to increase weights a little at a time, which helps you avoid plateaus and keep making muscle and strength gains continuously for years...
What is the best time of day to work out? I wouldn’t blame you if you were confused about this because everyone seems to have an opinion: Conventional wisdom says train in the morning to start your day right. But some coaches argue that it's better to train later in the day due to circadian rhythms. New research has shed some light on the "best time to train," including the best time to lift if you want to gain muscle...
More people, especially as they get older, are finding that 5 or 6 days a week of lifting feels excessive, leading to so much fatigue and soreness, it's no longer fun. Sometimes they just give up. Others simply don't have time to train almost daily. If they are all or none thinkers, they might figure, "If I can't follow the ideal schedule to maximize results, why bother at all?" They don't realize how many time efficient training methods are out there. Training only 3 days a week is one of them. They also don't realize you can make excellent gains with only 3 workouts a week. And there are more options for 3 day schedules than you might imagine...
It's possible that everything you thought you knew about how much weight you should lift and how many reps you should do to build muscle might be wrong. But if it is, it's nothing to be upset about. For many people, the recent discovery that you can build as much muscle lifting light weights for high reps as you can lifting moderate weights or heavy weights is great news. Read on to learn why and how you can gain muscle with light weights.
