Too often we see 2 bros working out discussing their perception of how to gain muscle and it goes 1 of 2 ways:
1. “It doesn’t matter about weight man, it matters about slow-light reps consecutively with internal cueing throughout (mind-muscle concentration)”.
2. “Just lift heavy shit and if you do that every week you will get stronger… Which duhh means more muscle”.
Both of the above play a pivotal role to recruiting enough muscle fibres to induce gains and hypertrophy… and honestly I have more of a problem with point 1 then point 2… This isn’t to say either of them are wrong... in point 1 internal cueing is effective and in point 2 volume will grow muscle... but.....
Too many times we see people in the gym doing ridiculously slow tempos for EVERY exercise. Instead I would rather give my clients tempos here and there to get the most out of some movements, not all.
This is how I would explain how a client should train:
“I would like you to train as heavy and as hard as possible for your compound movements, let’s say an RPE of 8-9. Focus on just the lift it’s self when attacking things like squats/deadlifts etc. as the weight and the volume increase is priority. Then for isolation exercises shift your focus marginally to internal cueing to help stimulate ‘specific’ muscle groups.’
The main pathway to growing quality tissue will come from progressive overload and recruiting as much muscle fibres as possible throughout your workout. If you’re lifting as heavy as possible you should achieve this but a little bit of muscle mind connection won’t hurt and may be beneficial on isolation exercises.
So in short… Lift heavy but be aware of what you’re going after. Don’t try and make love with the muscle because you will most likely look like an idiot and be lifting half of what you should be.
However, in saying all of this each individual will have certain exercises and numbers that they need to hit depending on their goals. For personalised programs click here.
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