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You can continue practicing the basics of exercise over and over again, but don’t expect your psyche and strength to move closer to your goal. Advanced training requires a conscious decision to increase your training effort. Therefore you should change the approach to your training.
Here are three most important tips you need to learn – and start practicing – as an advanced athlete who wants to overcome more weight.
Tip 1: Add volume, reduce number of reps
Many beginner programs focus on continuous repetition of basic exercises. After some time, your body gets used to the exercises and adapts to them, initially through motor learning, when you improve your coordination, and later thanks to the growth of muscles and strength. However, if you want to see a progress on your body, you should focus on appropriate exercises for each muscle group.
As a beginner, you have completed a few chest exercises. However, as an advanced athlete, you need to raise the bar a little higher, and one way to do this is to add extra exercises that involve muscles from different angles. If the bench press focused on the center of the pectoral muscles is part of your workout, then we recommend adding pressures on the positively inclined bench for better exercise of the upper pectoral muscles. Added variations allows you to fully work with your muscles, enabling you to develop better.
Adding multi-workout sets increases your volume of muscles (a factor that is directly related to the muscle growth), but also prolongs your workout. If you double the number of exercises you have done, you will also double your gym time. We must not forget that extra exercise leads to muscle ache, so it will take you a little longer to recover.
Solution? Add volume, reduce reps. Instead of training your entire body three times a week, try dividing your workouts into upper and lower body workouts, or by muscle groups themselves. You can even divide workouts into muscles that „push“ (shoulders, chest and triceps), and muscles that „pull“ (back and biceps) and the legs themselves.
This way you can exercise every part of your body twice a week or every fourth day, giving you plenty of room to exercise each muscle group – without extending your workout – although you may need to take time to visit the gym more often.
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2. Learn different variations of your favorite exercises
beginners practice basic movements that build muscles and strength. As you improve, you learn to use a variety of devices and machines that will allow you to build more muscle. You may have learned a bicep lifts when standing with an EZ stick, or even a bicep lifts with a large barbell. A slight change (over-under, under-under) and a place (inside or outside the shoulders) can affect your muscles and their growth.
Like many exercises, lifts can also be performed with single handed dumbbells that provide greater freedom around the shoulder joint. The pulley allows you to change the tension angle on the muscle, depending on where it is set. You can perform this exercise in posture or sitting position with a dumbbell in one hand instead of both.
Some types of lifts can also be performed on machines. This is were the movement path is controlled. Since some machines have their own advantages, you can use more than one machine.
Since each type of device has its own unique advantages and disadvantages, you should find a way to include all your available equipment in your training. Learning how to do exercises in several ways allows for better overall muscle development. Surely you’ll appreciate it if you come to a crowded gym and can’t get to the device because it’s always busy. Try one of the alternatives and you will never have to wait again.
Lesson 3: Always accept new challenges
Do you remember all those hard exercises and weights that you quickly overcame as a beginner? As you may have noticed, the more you train, the weights in size and strength are increasingly difficult to handle. Don’t worry, everything goes according to plan – the plan of nature. The harder you workout in the gym, the muscles become bigger and stronger, and the challenges you gave yourselves become easily overcome. In the future, muscle fiber growth will help you overcome the challenge faster.
However, if you want to continue to increase muscle mass and strength, you must continue with the principles of progressive overload. The point of progressive overload is never to get comfortable with your workout.
If you no longer see your progress, it may be time to change your training. Start by changing the order of the exercises. You can also manipulate with volume, loads, rest periods, intensity techniques or even adjust training sessions. As a rule, changing your workout every six weeks can help maintain muscle growth, strength and endurance. It will also help you maintain a fresh attitude towards exercising and interesting training.
We hope that through this article you will be able to make progress in your sports performance and enjoy your success to the full. If you liked the article, support it with a share so other athletes can learn how to stay in shape.