Exercise Techniques For Muscle Gains

        Hi and Welcome! I have been busy for the past few days,but now I am back with a topic which concerns all those people who have been working their asses off at the gym and are still not satisfied with the results. I may have answers to your questions pals. So read on!

The Biology And Diet

        Well, we all know to grow muscles we needs proteins. In order to understand the relation between protein consumption and muscle gain, it is important to know what happens when we workout. Our muscles are made up of multiple layers of stretchable fibrous tissues which in turn are made up of amino acids (Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins). When we perform an exercise, we actually make the targeted muscle wear out. That is, muscle tissues will develop tiny tears. Our body is programmed to over-compensate while recovering from any injury and this case is no different. Not only does our body repair the damage in the muscles, but adds some more extra tissue in every repair just in case the muscle get damaged again. But our body needs the materials for the recovery process. This is where protein comes in. Our body requires protein to repair the damage in the muscle. When we consume protein, the process of digestion breaks down the protein back to amino acids which is easily absorbed by our body. The amino acids reach the damaged muscle via our blood and the muscle is repaired faster due to the extra resources available. Just think of going through the whole month with your regular pocket money versus having an extra income. So diet-wise you will have to INCREASE PROTEIN INTAKE IF YOU WANT SOME GAINS.
        However, only increase in protein does not guarantee muscle gain. For that to happen you need to workout and a heavy workout requires energy. Carbohydrates, in our diet, is the source of energy for our body. So you need to up the Carb quantity as well. Beware too much Carbs will lead to unnecessary fat gain. Although fat itself is important in the diet of a body-builder, but not as stored fat or deep-fried foods. Fish Oil is an example of good and necessary fat containing Omega3. Since you need to keep a check on your Carbs, you can include fibres in your diet. Fibres will keep you full and you will not crave for food in between meals. Last but not the least don't forget your vitamins!!!

I Get The Biology, Now Tell Me About The Techniques!!!

        Well, you will find many people spending countless hours at the gym without any actual results, The reason may be genetic, improper diet or just insufficient knowledge about what exercises to do. Some people incorporate just as many exercises they can in their routine with as many variations available in the gym. That is not how it works.

The Number Of Exercises

        I'll tell you what helped me. One important advice I got my gym trainer is that - Four Exercises per muscle group yield the best results. However,this is not a rule, its just a guideline. For me and many others, just 4 exercises suffice for biceps, triceps or chest. On legs day, I usually go nuts and I have about 6 exercises(3 for Quads, 2 for Hamstrings, and 1 for calves). Shoulders a bit tricky and to activate all heads of the triceps and the traps you will need at least 5-7 exercises, that too its like 1-2 shoulder press movement, 2-3 raises for the shoulder heads, 2 for the traps.
The Techniques For An Optimal Routine

The Technique

        I have always been fan of the Progressive Overload Technique. In this technique, one increases the resistance to the body movement, beginning with the easiest and gradually moving on to the toughest. There is 2 ways of achieving this. There's this article on bodybuilding.com which has a detailed explanation on how to.

The Sets

        Choosing the number of sets is however easy. Many so-called experienced people in the gym often say 3 sets of weight-lifting are good enough. Well, yeah if you are having severe time constraint for one day. But on other days, I'd recommend 4-5 sets. As per my understanding, your first set is always the warm-up set and the rest 3 are the actual working sets. And one extra set at the end doesn't harm at all unless you are severely fatigued or feeling nauseous or sick.

The Repetition Ranges

        The repetition ranges have a severe impact on your muscle gain and vary largely based on your goals. Typically if you are aiming for strength, you aim for 3-5 repetition ranges with very heavy weights. I have seen some guys at my gym dead-lift for 1 rep with as much as 180 kg(roughly 400 lbs). However for muscle gains, your optimal aim should be 8-15 repetition ranges. I used to stick to 8-12 repetition range for the initial 3 months. But later I let myself go loose since it wasn't working for me any more. I started training within the 10-15 repetition range and often for some exercises like the Triceps Push-Down I'd stretch to 30-40 reps.

Choosing Your Exercises

        This part of the post is specifically for those who have been in and out of the gym and have some idea about the various kind of exercises. But simply knowing what to do isn't enough. You need to know when to do. A typical routine should go like this:

1. Compound Exercises - Using Dumbbell, Barbell or Kettle bell workout, without any support at all. These typically use more than one targeted muscle group.
2. Functional Machine Exercises - Using the cross-cable machine or leg press machine or any exercise which incorporates some support. These prevent the use of supportive muscle groups which would be usually used to stabilise the weight.
3. Non-Functional Machine Exercises - Using an machine which provides a lot of support with a controlled range of motion for the exercise. These kind of exercises totally isolate the muscle group that you want to target.

        The Logic Explained : The free weight exercises like squat, bench press, etc. use the supporting muscle groups while targeting a main muscle group. For example, when you are going for your Barbell/Dumbbell Curls, you incorporate your shoulder muscles to keep the weight steady and fixed in front of you. Another example would be the Barbell Bent-Over Row which uses biceps and triceps along with targeting your main muscle group which is you Back. By the time you finish off these exercises your stabiliser muscles are worn out too. Now you need to remove these stabiliser from the scene to focus on your main muscle group. So we move onto a machine exercise which while focusing on a targeted muscle group removes strain from those extra muscles at work. For example, after your Barbell/Dumbbell Shoulder Press, you can use cables for your Lateral Raises. Now at the end you need to really focus and concentrate on your muscle group of the day. So the Logical thing is to isolate the muscle. Hence the idea to use a machine that controls the range of motion for that particular muscle for that Insane Pump you have been looking for. An ideal example would be the Lying Leg Curl which explicitly isolates the hamstring.

Thanks and Keep Visiting!