Here’s What you need to Understand –
Never cheat with form and technique. Go for a full range of motion in every exercise. Break those rules only when you have become an elite athlete.
The only way to kick start your lean muscle journey is by – Training beyond the pain barrier.
Include Olympic lifts in your workout to gain explosive power, flexibility and coordination.
For getting lean muscle, cardio is a necessary evil. Should you do it on an empty stomach or after a meal? Find it out and other lean muscle tips in the article.
Related article: 5 things every young athlete should do build muscle mass
YOU CANNOT BUILD LEAN MUSCLE UNTIL YOU MASTER THE BASICS
Form and technique are two things that separate a beginner from an advanced bodybuilder. Beginners usually adopt training routines straight from advanced weightlifters and thus don’t give enough importance to basics. Rather, they put in all of their effort in lifting heavy weights without looking whether the desired muscle is targeted or not.
The only way by which you can ensure that you have a long and profound transformation journey is by learning the fundamentals of each and every exercise without giving too much importance to weights in early stages. Start with mastering bodyweight exercises, in next stage work your way up to the free weights and finally towards other strongman exercises.
Don’t add any extra weight to the barbell until you are done with mastering the technique. And once you find the perfect form, keep your muscles loading with more and more weight.
LEAN MUSCLE TIPS from ARNOLD
“In the beginning, every bodybuilder should stick pretty much to the basics. The trick is to master the correct training techniques, get used to how working out this way feels, and then you can begin to rely on “feel” or “instinct” to guide you. This is the true art of bodybuilding.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger, The new encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding.
Also read – A sneak peek into Arnold’s Diet
THESE WEIDER TRAINING PRINCIPLES WILL HELP YOU TRAIN HARD AND ACHIEVE LEAN MUSCLE GOALS
Heed my advice and befriend failure to stimulate maximum lean muscle growth. Once you are in the gym, there’s no way you are going back without challenging your muscles, be it with heavy weights or more reps, just do it.
FIVE WEIDER PRINCIPLES TO TRAIN BEYOND FAILURE:
1) WEIDER CHEATING PRINCIPLE
According to this principle, once you reach failure when you cannot do any more strict reps, instead of using the perfect form, use the momentum of the body to complete next few reps. Take barbell curls for instance, instead of keeping an upright and rigid torso, you can use the momentum of the body to hit few more curls. However, you should know that these cheat reps are nothing but simply a method to extend a set to failure and should not replace proper form.
2) WEIDER PARTIAL REPS PRINCIPLE
Another way to work the muscles beyond failure is by Partial Reps Principle. Once you have reached failure, let’s say at 8 reps in barbell curls; curl the weight up as far as you can by keeping the form strict. Perhaps you will see that you can go only halfway. But that’s not important. What’s important is that you are taxing on your muscles and working them beyond failure
3)WEIDER REST-PAUSE PRINCIPLE
In this context, Rest-Pause means that once you have surpassed strict rep range, you can rest briefly for 10-20 seconds before you hit another couple of reps. The major advantage of this technique is that it allows a person to work beyond failure while still lifting the maximum weight with good form.
4)WEIDER DESCENDING SETS PRINCIPLE
The Weider Descending Sets Principle is nothing but a simple technique to quickly drop down the weights after completion of initial full reps. Going back to barbell curls, when curling 80 pounds for 8 full reps to failure, drop down the weights quickly to 60 pounds and hit 4 for additional reps. Again after you cannot do more reps, drop down the weights to 40 pounds and do few extra reps.
5) WEIDER FORCED REPS PRINCIPLE
For implementing this technique, you need at least one spotter or a partner. A spotter will step in and provide you with only minimal assistance after you are done with doing reps on your own. However, keep in mind one thing that your spotter should not do more work than you in any rep. Forced reps are best suitable for bench presses, curls, and other machine exercises. Don’t include force reps in squats and deadlifts.
Related article: Professional lean muscle tips for every beginner to follow
INCLUDE OLYMPIC LIFTS IN YOUR ROUTINE TO INCREASE FLEXIBILITY PLUS LEAN MUSCLE GROWTH
Olympic lifts are certainly difficult and frustrating at times. They even take a lot of time to learn. But believe me, if you can master various Olympic lifts like the snatch, clean and press and clean and split, then many of the fundamental exercises will be easy for you.
Olympic lifts will benefit you with explosive power and strength, better coordination between different muscle groups and flexibility. And like I said in the previous article – A muscle that is able to stretch properly looks leaner than an overused muscle that looks bulky or cramped up. You can find Olympic lifts workout routine right here – Build Lean Muscle in 13 weeks
WHAT WILL PROMOTE FAT LOSS AND STIMULATE LEAN MUSCLE GAINS – CARDIO ON EMPTY STOMACH OR CARDIO AFTER MEAL?
“Should I do Cardio right after waking up or should I eat my breakfast first and then hop on to treadmill?”
This is indeed one of the most common asked question in fitness industry whether or not to do cardio on an empty stomach and its effects on fat loss and lean muscle growth. Here’s what you need to understand –
- Carbohydrate is stored in the body in the form of Glycogen and is used up as fuel during the workout. Some people believe that – after night’s fast, as glycogen stores are pretty low in the morning, their body will burn much fat during training.
- However, your body can store glycogen only for 10-15 hours until it starts eating your hard earned muscle for fuel.
- Now let’s assume that you had your last meal at 8 in the evening and you woke up around 7 next morning. At this moment, your glycogen stores will be very low. And now instead of feeding your muscles with a solid meal, if you look to train with HIIT session or some sprints, then you are not only losing muscles but also robbing yourself of better fat loss results which you might get in a fed state.
- So what should you eat before doing cardio? Well, a simple rule of thumb is to eat around 1/4th of carb and 1/8th of protein per pound of your bodyweight prior to cardio session.
