10 UNIVERSAL RULES FOR BUILDING MUSCLE!!!
by Ben Pakulski, IFBB Pro
We all know that I'm a stickler/hard ass for form. As I always do my
best to explain, YES, there is a right way to do things! That
doesn't necessarily mean the other ways are wrong....just not as
efficient and effective.
Our universal rules for muscle building:
1) A muscle is WEAKEST at its EXTREMES of the range. SO, learn to
isolate these points of the strength curve and make it stronger. As
a result you will become proportionally stronger in the mid-range
and GROWTH WILL OCCUR!
2) Always try to work a muscle through its complete Range of
Motion(ROM), although that may not be possible within ONE exercise.
It is always possible within a given workout!
3) Muscles DO NOT recognize weight!! Muscle recognize TENSION!
Increase tension, increase growth!
4) TIME under TENSION=GROWTH
5) ALWAYS INITIATE with the working muscle! (if you're training your
delts, the first movement MUST come from the delt, not somewhere
else or momentum!)
6) CONTROL through the entire range is a must. A negative(eccentric)
rep should be under such conscious control that you can change
direction at ANY point of that ROM, and start coming back
up(concentric).
7) Larger muscle require more stimulus to reach exhaustion. But also
take longer to recover between workouts.
8) KNOW which muscle are fast twitch and which are more slow
twitch!! This will ALWAYS affect how you approach training that
muscle.
9) Work a variety of rep ranges within each workout. Different rep
ranges allow you to vary your TUT(time under tension), and ensure
you're working all types of muscle fibers.
10) SQUEEZE IT LIKE IT OWES YOU MONEY!! (my personal favorite! ;))
Now, print these! Tape them to your wall, stick em to your
forehead, whatever it takes to learn them and know them!!
