Strength and Physique

Bodybuilding is a hobby that develops not just your body, but your mind as well. You need a focused and determined mindset in order to build the ideal physique. Hard training teaches you some very valuable lessons that you can apply to other aspects of your life:

1) Walk before you run- A lot of bodybuilding newbies take the "kitchen sink" approach to working out and incorporate every exercise and set extension technique they can think of. Plus they get so excited about every program that they read about, that they don’t stay on a program longer than a day.

You have to walk before you run. There’s no point in doing force reps, if you can’t push and pull the weight in a straight line! Seriously, don’t get super fancy with the training methods until you build a foundation of strength.

2) Focus on technique, and the goal takes care of itself- People who fail are people who focus on the goal and not the proper technique or method to achieve that goal. Ever see somebody talk to him or herself, "I can do this! I’m going to kick ass!"

Guess what? They don’t do sh!t, because they try to convince themselves that they are going to succeed. Instead of saying "I can do it," you should ask "I will do it… Now how can I make it happen?"

I’ve seen plenty of guys bang their heads, slap their faces and work themselves up into a frenzy before a max lift. What they’re trying to do is to rely on adrenaline to lift the weight. And a lot of times they lift the weight, but their form looks God awful.

If you focus on proper lifting technique, then the goal (lifting heavier weight) takes care of itself. Andrenaline is transient and doesn’t always come around when you want it to. Technique and skill, however, is something you can pull out at any time.

3) Practice often- To make sure you have proper technique ingrained into your muscle memory, you must practice and practice often. Use it or lose it, as they say. People who train with shorter durations (45 minutes) but more frequently (3-5 times per week) gain more size and strength than those who train infrequently.

4) Practice is practice. Competition is when it counts- The time to fail is during your practice sessions. Practice is PRACTICE. This is the time for you to experiment and to try new things. Larry Scott would have a regular training routine for most of the week and for one day he would have a workout where he experiment with new exercises and techniques.

When you compete, however, you should bring your A-game. Competitive lifters do not train with maximum weights all the time. Most of their training sessions involve submaximal weights done short of muscular failure. Training is really just practicing their lifts and fine tuning the techniques that allow them to lift more weight. But when it comes to competition time, that is when they perform their max lifts. Competition is when it counts.

5) Focus your efforts- Bodybuilders who choose one exercise per body part progress much faster than those who include multiple exercises per body part. It’s quite simple: your recuperative abilities are limited, so you have to focus your efforts if you want to get bigger and stronger.

6) Get the most bang for your buck- Question is: what exercises do you focus on? Choose exercises that stress as much of your musculature as possible while still targeting the area you want to target. Free weights are consistently better than machines in this regard, but bodyweight-free weight movements are best: dips, pull-ups, squats, deadlifts.

7) Variety is the spice of life- Although you should focus when you train in a single session (few exercises, proper technique), vary your training from workout to workout is what keeps your mind and muscles fresh. Rotate your exercises, varying your sets and cycle your reps from workout to workout.

8) All good things must come to an end- Although all things work to some degree, they will only work for so long. You try a technique or new program, you milk it for all it’s worth and then you move on.

9) Two steps forward, one step back- Bodybuilding is a lot like farming: there is a time to sow and a time to reap. There are periods where you must train hard, balls to the wall, and there are times where you must pull back and show some restraint in your efforts.

Progress is never linear, and people who expect linear progress get little in return. Progress is cyclical, and once you understand this, you’ll make much more progress both in the gym and in life.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 12th, 2009 at 11:13 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.