If you’re exercising not only to shed some fat and keep in shape but also to get muscle gains, it’s very important to train effectively. If you’re going to sweat your behind off you better do it right and do it smart. In this article I’ll offer you some techniques on how to squeeze every single exercise to its potential and more in order to double your gains.
Always Use the Perfect Form
First things first, and I probably shouldn’t even tell you this, but I’ll remind you anyway – always go for the perfect form. Cheating will not increase your gains so you should not do it (with some very rare exceptions). Ideally, you should always control your form and strive for perfection. It will only help you in the long run.
Control Your Tempo
You have to know how to control the tempo of each exercise. Normally we use the 4-1-2 rule which says that you spend 4 seconds to relax the muscles, 1 second pause and 2 seconds to contract the muscles. So if you do bicep curls, spend 2 seconds to curl the arms, pause for a second and then extend twice as slow. You don’t have to count the seconds but remember this – extend twice as slow as you contract and pause in between.
Say No to Momentum
Momentum is not your friend when it comes to effective training. Sure, it feels good to bounce off that extra bench press rep or a pull up, but it does no service to you. Better do less reps but correctly – less is more in this case, and you save your joints too. That’s why we pause before reversing the movement in each rep.
Superset
Supersets are great because they hit your muscles really hard by limiting the rest time between exercises. You’re doing circuits of exercises anyway, so pair them up into supersets and do two exercises in a row without a break. Make sure you work the same muscle groups during each exercise as otherwise it will lose the meaning.
Go Beyond Failure
Going to the failure (ex. drop sets) is a valid technique that helps you really break the muscles. But don’t stop there, go beyond the failure. Do your max, and add 50% of max reps on top for the next set. Once you fail to do the reps in the correct form, stop in the extended position for a few seconds and move on. It’s really hard, you have to get used to it, but it gives you gains.
Employ these techniques in your training and you will double (or perhaps more) your gains, I guarantee.
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